Ridley Scott in racial controversy

Director again accused of ‘white-washing’ Asian-American roles

Though Ridley Scott's recent direction The Martian is doing good at the box office, the director has landed himself in a controversy. He has been accused of ‘whitewashing’ the Asian-American characters from his movie.

Andy Weir’s original 2014 novel featured two characters described as Asian-Indian and Korean-American in the book, but watchdog group The Media Action Network for Asian Americans believes that wrong actors were cast.

Notably, the Asian-Indian character of NASA’s director of Mars missions, Dr Venkat Kapoor, is played by British black actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, while the Korean-American character of Mindy Part was given to white blonde actress Mackenzie Davis.

It’s not the first time Scott has come under fire for “whitewashing” characters after his 2014 biblical epic,Exodus: Gods and Kings, was criticised for using white actors Christian Bale and Joel Edgerton as Egyptian princes Moses and Ramses.

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