If you did not know who Jake Gyllenhaal was then you probably don't know who any of these younger actors are. From left to right you have Noah Ringer, Dev Patel, Nicola Peltz, & Jackson Rathbone.
Aside from Patel (who has a very notable filmography) the majority of the actors seen in this picture will be receiving their first major theatrical roles in a major film. This film is Avatar: The Last Airbender (not to be confused with James Cameroon's Avatar which has no familiar connections with this film except the name). Avatar is based off the highly successful cartoon show from Nickelodeon of the same name.
The Prince of Persia series and Avatar: The Last Airbender are awesome. These are two movies that should overlap the boundaries of epic. This is especially so for fans who knew about both of these franchises before their theatrical beginnings.
This is where you could ask where I'm going with this post.
Take a little bit more time to look at both of the pictures. Now, let me explain a few things. The Prince of Persia game is based around Persian mytho (take out the time read it here). In a similar fashion, Avatar is a combination of Chinese, Indian, and Japanese culture along with heavy influences from Hinduism and Buddhism. You can read it here. Each of these two franchises pull from a very diverse, and rich culture of foreign influence. I also believe each team did a superb job with integrating an innovative idea with ethnic mytho & culture (when I say this I'm talking about the game & the cartoon show-Really, take out the time to read up on each of them).
Due to each franchise's heavy background in foreign influence the original characters were (of course) the ethnicity of their franchise's background.
The Prince from Prince of Persia was Persian. The characters from Avatar were varying Asian ethnicities. This would leave you to believe the actors cast in the prospective roles of each character would be of the specific ethnicity, but not in Hollywood. The five people pictured above only one is white (hopefully Dev's last name was enough indication). It was speculated that during the casting of Avatar caucasian actors were specifically requested over others.
You might want to say, "Well they did cast Dev right?" I would agree until I found out the role was given to Jesse McCartney first.
Unfortunately, Hollywood seldom opens up its doors to minorities when it pertains to leading roles. Even worse, in an instance where the major roles could've (and should've) been given to capable actors of the ethnicity in the franchise universe, instead the major roles became white-washed.
Now, in the case of Jake Gyllenhaal the argument can be said the studio was looking for the best possible ticket turnout. JG will bring in the ladies so I can at least begrudgingly agree with this decision.
As for Avatar, none of the leading roles have any previous impressive filmography (save-and ironically-Dev Patel). M. Night Shyamalan had no reason whatsoever to disregard actors of foreign descent for the roles. It's unfortunate when the roles you'd expect to recieve (when you are barred from so many other roles because of your ethnicity) are even questionable at best. I can only begin to imagine the tremendous amounts of untapped talent across the industry that is never fully utilized since race is still a vengeful barrier.
I cannot confidently list names of minority lead actors or actresses who Hollywood is willing to give prominent roles. I could name a few African-American actors & actresses but I don't want to seem bias. I just cannot honestly think of any prominent lead actors & actresses outside of the usual ethnic ideals. This might be of my own ignorance. Hollywood is still in a statis period of acceptance of actors outside of the traditional venues.
This is a problem. This can be fixed, but not without honest passion for equality within the industry.
