misora | Dammit Bryke and Shyamalan, SEE WHAT YOU MADE ME DO AT WORK.

Hokay. Because I think the casting of the Last Airbender is made of supreme fail, as I mentioned last post, here are my choices for the live-action roles.

Be aware, I did end up casting two characters with white actors. But the rest are appropriately matched, I think.

Katara:

choice 1: Kristen Kreuk (Caucasian/Chinese)

choice 2: Maggie Q (Vietnamese/Taiwanese)

Sokka:

Roger Fan
This guy is such a cutie. I'm partial to him in this role too, as then I can claim my b/f looks like Sokka. XD

He's such a dorky goofnut, too. "Water triiiibe." XD

Zuko: This is hard. I don't see Zuko *completely* Asian (as I don't either with Azula), if only because of his pale skin and more delicate features - so I think he'd be a happa (half Asian/Caucasian). One of these three *tries not to drool*-

Rick Neely (Korean/White)

Jason Milot (Korean/French Canadian)

Mike Lewis (Indonesian/ Canadian)

God, those men are hot. What is it with half-Koreans? Fuck.

Anyway, moving on.

Happas make great choices for some of the other characters, as well.

Suki: Tiffany Hsu (Taiwanese/Caucasian)

Toph: Lara Liang (Taiwanese/Russian)

But for the old Fire Nation guys, it's back to the cultural origins.

Ozai: Andy Lau

Iroh: Tony Leung (have to fatten him up a bit, but he's in his 50s so he's perfect for this role)

Azula: Leah Dizon (French American/Chinese Filipino) Sexy deadly ~~bitchy~~ princess.

Mai: Chiyaki Kuriyama (Japanese, of Kill Bill fame) hahahahahaha Srsly, she's actually pretty cute, but she does that "ho-hum boooorrred" look pretty damn well. XD

Ty Lee: Devon Aoki (Japanese/Brit/German)

(she's even wearing pink! :D)

Aang: Just cast Zach Tyler Eisen already! He has the voice and everything...

He's 15 this year (born in '93), so he's fine for the role.

Zhao: Jason Isaacs. I can't help myself with this one either; his voice really made that part. Give him some chops and he's all set.

Edit: FUCK! I almost forgot Jet.

Jay Hernandez. (With longer hair and tiger hooks, obviously.)

Mmmmm.

:D

Feel free to send flames, hate mail, and death threats this way. Kthx.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

*blink* Okay, I absolutely love most of these, and many of these are visual matches, except for, in my opinion, the actor you chose for Sokka. It just . . . honestly, it confuses me a little that you are upset about Asian characters being cast as white, yet cast two Native American characters as Asian. There's nothing even remotely wrong with that, and I really like the first actress you picked for Katara, I'm just curious.

(And the actress for Azula is rather awesome.)

LOL, Sokka and Katara aren't necessarily 'Native American'. They're most likely Inuit, which is similar but not the same (more Asian influence). Anyway, I don't know very many Native American actors/actresses (although I think Kristen Kreuk is part native Canadian, I'm not sure). Regardless, casting an Inuit character as Asian is better than casting them white, in my opinion. *shrug*

I was also typing this up at work, and didn't have a whole lot of time to search for the perfect picks, just picks I thought were better than Shyamalan's. If I found two Inuit/NA actors who matched Sokka and Katara, I'd select them in an instant.

*headdesk* I should not get into stuff like this when I'm sick. I just keep making a fool of myself.

And, you're right, they are Inuit, or at least, the Water Tribes are based on Inuit society. ^^;; But . . . yeah, I'm sorry. Like I said, I do really love your first Katara actress, and most of your picks, and I do think they're much better than the people who have been picked/will likely get picked.

The only Aboriginal (aka First Nations here in Canada--ps here via scans_daily) actors I know are Adam Beach, Cree Summers, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Tom Jackson.

...aaand the whole cast of North of 60 come to think of it. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_of_60)

Although...there was an MP elected from up North who is Inuit and she's the new health minister. But she's a bit too old for Katara.

But to find young First Nations actors in Canada might be difficult--one would have to fan out to universities, acting schools and high schools across the country. (here's one First Nations actress. She's Cree. here (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0510021/))

Kreuk is Canadian, I can tell you that and she's more Dutch-Chinese but also Jamaican-Chinese and Indonesian because of place of birth of her relatives it seems :o

Yeah, I don't know of many Inuit actresses of appropriate age. But I'm sure if I had time (and Hollywood's wallet) I could come up with something -- anything better than casting her as a white chick! >_<

Scans_daily? Is that a news feed? LOL How'd you hear about this there?

And wow, at the Cree actress! ♥ She's gorgeous. I really love Canadian people with Cree ancestry, and I even dated a guy who was Canadian and a Cree mix a few years back....he was beautiful, too. ♥

Someone posted a link from an entry there to your entry on your LJ XD;; (It's a comics scans/discussion community.)

I have a friend who's First Nations but she's a Métis Sarcee (I've also met a Huron Métis) but then again, in shows they go "You're First Nations? Do you mind playing this character of this band granted you're of a different band all together?". Adam Beach is Salteaux, but he's played different First Nations like Mohawk.

I'm sure there's anthropological definitions for people of each Nation, but in most shows it seems like they take someone who looks like they could pass. But then again, not every fan of a show is an anthropologist. ;)

It wouldn't be particularly difficult. As you mentioned, those are the only First Nations actors you can think of; it doesn't mean that they are the only First Nations actors available. We simply don't see them outside of small local productions and documentaries, because aboriginal peoples aren't "marketable". If they put out a proper casting call they'd be *flooded* with aboriginal and Asian actors more appropriate for the parts!

Oh I know--I never meant to imply that they're the only ones out there. (I also noted the cast of North of 60) But if they don't know where to look, they may have some problems casting--find the right area, and like you said, they'd be flooded for sure by Aboriginal and Asian actors for sure!

They need to come to Canada and do a casting call methinks. The councils here would promote it I'm sure. Or, from what I can recall, go to West-Central or Northern border states. :o (I just remember where all the First Nations are in Canada, not in the US. You wouldn't happen to know what the regional concentrations of First Nations/Native Americans are in the US perchance? Like for example here, the Cree, Blackfoot and Sarcee are in the Prairies (Métis as well). Haida are mostly in the Pacific coast, Iroquois and Huron are in the US and most of Quebec, Algonquin and Huron in parts of Ontario etc.)

Part of me, as a casual fan, hopes that this is just one big fake press release meant to confuse the fans. Either way, if a non-fan saw this, they'd probably be wondering "...and they didn't try a casting call elsewhere for a more diverse cast?" as well. *scratches head*

Part of me, as a casual fan, hopes that this is just one big fake press release meant to confuse the fans.

Sadly, I don't believe this is true; Hollywood is really too chicken-shit to portray an ethnically-diverse cast in a movie that's slated to become a "blockbuster" based on the TV ratings (or at the very least, a "big hit" on the big screen). I don't have any faith in them anymore. I had thought with Shyamalan at the helm, they'd portray the cast accurately, but... :(

Hmmmm ... I'm not sure if it's really an issue with regionality. Asian & aboriginal actors probably have agents and stuff who are on the lookout for potential parts -- hawkishly, one would imagine, considering there's so little to begin with -- regardless of where the actors actually live. It's hard to believe that casting companies (especially for a big-budget studio & project like this!) would be clueless about where to start when it comes to casting PoC; I mean, that's what casting agencies and actors' agents are *for*!

I'm Canadian too, so I'm not sure what the concentrations of Native Americans are in the US. *g*

Dammit Bryke and Shyamalan, SEE WHAT YOU MADE ME DO AT WORK.

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