Tilda, The Ancient One
Wednesday, May 27, 2015 at 10:22PM Tilda Swinton has said that had she not met the avant-garde filmmaker Derek Jarman in the 1980s she might never have become an actress. He was unorthodox enough to understand her unusual path...
my first Tilda viewing: Edward II (1991). jaw dropped. never came back up.
He opened the door with a video camera on me. He never turned it off throughout our meeting. It set the tone of our relationship somewhat. Never-ending footage. No frills. A kind of self-conscious über-candour. And something almost gladiatorial – daring – in the level of scrutiny inflicted and invited, like a game of dare between siblings."
-Tilda speaking to Time Out
Happily he 'got' her at that fateful audition for Caravaggio (1986) and knew what to do with her, shaping her into a formidable cinematic muse in the 7 films they made together. The muse far outlived the artist and is still inspiring other filmmakers today.
In her subsequent acting career, now entering its 30th year, she has played just about everything: frightening politicans, amoral lawyers, alcoholic kidnappers, self-replicating biogeneticists, immigrant trophy wives, a woman who becomes a man and then a woman again, soccer moms, wicked witches, intimidating officials, unloved royals, well-read vampires, and so on and so on and so on. There is, quite possibly, no end to her range despite what you'd might imagine was a narrow one given how inimitable and iconoclastic she is as a celebrity.
She's no stranger to ANCIENT ONE characters
So it's perfectly sensible if amusing to hear that she's in talks to take the role of "The Ancient One" in Marvel's Doctor Strange. It's true the Ancient One from the comics is usually a 500 year old man, Tibetan monk and Sorcerer Supreme but, to repeat, Tilda can do anything. She's only 54 years old but this will hardly be her first ancient character. Hell, she played TWO ancient ones last year: an immortal centuries-old vampire, and a dying octogenarian heiress. And let's not forget that her big post-Jarman breakthrough was the starring role as the 400 year old Orlando that turned into quite an arthouse hit in the summer of 1993.
"The Ancient One" isn't so much a stretch as a leaning in; she's already so flexible.
But About Racially Diverse Casting...
There will surely be a bit of push-back about choosing a white actor to play a traditionally Asian role -- if not as much as usual since Marvel gets much more public flak for its treatment of women than its racial parity issues. Casting Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury all those year ago -- a rare case of choosing a black actor for a traditionally white character -- surely paid off and gave them more of a leash than they probably deserved in dragging their feet towards more diversity in their cinematic universe. But I have a perfect solution for them since casting Tilda as the Ancient One is such a masterstroke and too perfect to pass up.
Iron Fist is a white man in the comics. Never should've been. It's so Tarzan / Colonialism Fantasy in originHow about casting an Asian man as Iron Fist in the upcoming Netflix series?
Consider it a trade-off AND an upgrade. And a way to save your asses so that you don't have two new stories simultaneously about the old hoary Tarzan-like dominion over other cultures wherein a white men from America or London or Europe (wherever) travels to the "exotic foreign lands" and gets all their superpowers from foreign mythologies and cultures and becomes basically the king of them and the best there is at what they do. It's so inherently racist if you think about it. Iron Fist was created in the 1970s when martial arts heroes were suddenly popular thanks to Bruce Lee and yet Hollywood didn't seem to realize "hey, if people like Bruce Lee, they'll be okay with Asian leads!" and so we got David Carradine, white man, in Kung Fu. Why not cast an Asian man and do it right for a change?
People might initially say "oh an Asian who knows martial arts? how racist/stereotypical !!!" but people will always complain about something and it would be truly awesome and radical (unfortunately) to have an Asian man headlining a dramatic American television series. From my understanding it has never happened. The only cases of an Asian man leading a cast are in sitcoms and there, as far as I can tell, it's only happened twice in the entire history of American television: The first time was in 1976 when Pat Morita (8 years before his Oscar nomination) starred in the quickly cancelled Mr T and Tina and it's happening again right now in 2015 with Randall Park in Fresh Off the Boat.
Reader Comments (21)
Isn't Tilda in talks to play Death in the Doctor Strange movie?
24 years before his Oscar nomination? I thought Pat Morita was nominated for The Karate Kid in 1984/5.
Anyway, an Asian lead would be awesome in a Marvel movie (or any movie, for that matter).
Asians are really invisible in American media. They also happen to be the least vocal about the lack of representation.
The Ancient One would be cool, but really, they should just cast her as Death so that Thanos has a good enough reason to want to destroy everything. He just wants to woo Tilda Swinton.
Asian men and women have plenty of representation outside of Hollywood, with powerhouse movie industries in India, China (both Hong Kong and continental), Korea and Japan, to name only a few. I would guess that it might be a reason why these minorities feel less of a need for representation in America.
Also, none of those countries gives a flying f*ck about representing white, black or any other racial minorities in their outputs, so maybe they think it is fair game for a mostly white industry from a mostly white country to cast mostly white actors.
Not every culture has an obsession with identity politics and racial sensitivities. Which is why you have people throwing fits about the Oscars being #whysowhite and you never hear similar complaints about the Cesar, or the Goyas, or the Golden Horse awards. It is not an issue until someone decides to make it an issue and finds enough of an audience to make a living out of making it an issue.
I'm sure Tilda will bring something special to the character, and, in the end, as Art does not need to bend to identity politics, that is all that matters.
Carmen -- this is true but also not every country is as diverse as America is. There's reason to be sensitive here since the movies often don't reflect the populace all that well.
Paco -- love ur reasoning. Sound.
Mareko -- my apologies. brain tumor for breakfast i musta had.
Hey, Carmem,
Hollywood make movies for the entire world. The movies actuallly don't pay themselvs anymore without the foreign box office.
So, besides the fact the USA is as diverse as Nathaniel pointed, if you make a product that is consumed by all the countrys in the world, representation is everything"
Maybe you don't think about that becouse you're a white male from a first world country (guessing)... But that's how i think being a black woman from Brazil.
One more Asian lead in a sitcom: John Cho in Selfie. I remember a bunch of articles playing up how radical it was to have an Asian male lead romantically linked to a white female lead, but that was cancelled to quickly to really let it play out
Art does not need to bend to identity politics, that is all that matters.
You consume the identity of the artist creating the art. Hollywood at default mode is a patriarchal white supremacy. And if you happen to be white? Please be white by America's standard and not from the foreign country that declares you white. Is English your first language?
I don't like much the way the article describes why it's okay for Tilda to portray an ethnic character. It seems to imply that because Marvel allowed an actor of color to portray a character that's originally white, they're entitled to even out the balance by doing the opposite: it doesn't work that way. I'm not saying that was the intention, but it felt that way. I don't think you'd be too happy if they were to give a role to a male actor in an action movie that was originally written for Michelle Pfeiffer just because Angelina Jolie portrayed agent Salt a few years ago.
Least heard does not mean least vocal. There's a reason why there's alliances of minorities in USA. And just because you have representation in another part of the world where you're not living doesn't mean you have to shut up about it (white actors even land main roles in Asian movies). That would also imply that black actors shouldn't say a thing about anything because they have an entire industry for themselves in Africa (which is not even true).
People might initially say "oh an Asian who knows martial arts? how racist/stereotypical !!!" but people will always complain about something and it would be truly awesome and radical (unfortunately) to have an Asian man headlining a dramatic American television series.
We've not reached a point of enough visibility (of any ethnicity) in culturally diverse countries to get to a place of no complain. When there's enough representation of it, it wouldn't seem stereotypical.
And relating to this site, mostly actress centric: Ava Duvernay recently asked people on Twitter to "name three films you like with black, brown, native or Asian women leads". That list hasn't reached 100 movies.
Me34 -- did she mean American movies? If she meant global cinema than her American followers need to see more international movies.
@ Nat - sorry if I came across as sensitive. I am not even passionate about this subject. If anything, American identity politics bores me more than other reaction.
@3rtful - I've been on this site long enough to know better than to take you seriously. I still read some of your posts, and I like the ones in which you diss Meryl Streep and gush over Glenn Close. They often make me laugh. That being said, I will never engage you in a discussion, so just being fair and letting you know not to bother.
@Sonia - Yes, I am male. No, I am not white. No I am not originally from a first world country, nor do I live in one. You didn't assume any more but my favorite color is fluorescent beige, I'm already in the music business and I am here to get my GED. Also, though it is true that Hollywood movies now make roughly 60% of their profit internationally, most of them still make profit domestically, so it is a stretch to say they need the foreign to pay for themselves.
Precious 4evah...
Here are my initial 25 (feature films, no TV) for Ms. DuVernay with black female leads: Monster's Ball, Set It Off, What's Love Got to Do With It, Foxy Brown, Jackie Brown, Coffy, Mona Lisa, Diva, Nothing But a Man, Georgia Georgia, Claudine, Sounder, Lady Sings the Blues, Belle, Beyond the Lights, Precious, Strange Days, Middle of Nowhere, Eve's Bayou, She's Gotta Have It, Passion Fish, Love & Basketball, Sparkle, Something New, The River Niger... I'm pretty sure I could come up with 25 more with "brown, native or Asian" female leads.
Paul Outlaw,
Oh wow 25 that's a lot. How many can you name with White Female Leads.
Oh and Paul Outlaw, I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic with the Precious4eva, but you seriously need the check your privilege at the door.
Someone on Twitter said that maybe the reason they're doing this is to erase any sign of Tibetan origin just to not lose any of that precious Chinese money. Which makes business sense I guess.
Melissa, who are you and what are you on about? 1) That "fluorscent beige" quote above is from Precious (one of my favorite films of that year), hence "Precious 4evah" and 2) that's 25 off the top of my head that I like—it might take me longer to come up with 25 with white female leads, unless I restrict myself to pre-1955 films.
Find my privilege and I'll be happy to check it, but only only after I get to enjoy it for a few hours.
...did she mean American movies? If she meant global cinema than her American followers need to see more international movies.
Americans do not care about global anything unless it effects them directly. And movies are disposable entertainments for most American movie watchers.
Hunger Games, Fault in Our Stars, Suffragette, Carol, Spy, Trainwreck, Brooklyn, Insurgent, Pitch Perfect, Under the Skin, Diary of a Teenage Girl, Obvious Child, miracle mop movie, blue Jasmine, Wild, Still Alice, Miss Julie, August OC,age of Adaline, Cinderella, It Follows, Fifty Shades of grey, The Duff, Big Eyes...
Seriously...White women have it so bad.
"A kind of self-conscious über-candour." She said that in conversation?
No wonder I'm so crazy about Tilda!