A Thought About The Ancient One and Idris Elba by Gary Hainsworth

This whole thing has gotten out of hand. Sorry to inform you of the bad news: but if you're complaining about the casting of someone in a movie because they are white when they are traditionally another race, or you suppose they should, and for no other reason, you are a racist. In addition to being a racist, you are also a hypocrite if you do not criticize when minorities get parts that traditionally have been played by another race. Period. End of story. Bye-bye.

If you were offended by Rooney Mara playing Tiger Lily but would not have been offended if the same production had decided instead to have Captain Hook played by an actor like Samuel L. Jackson instead, you are a racist. Although, why such a casting decision has never been made before will remain a question that haunts me.

Personally, I don't care if Tilda Swinton is playing the Ancient One, normally an Asiatic male. She's a fantastic actress whose androgynous qualities remind me of a young David Bowie. Of course, this fact has no relevance to my argument at all, perchance could be accused of being entirely irrelevant. However, what is relevant is that this type of complaint is completely biased and cherry-picked. In the same movie, no one complained that Chiwetel Ejiofor is playing Baron Mordo (a Caucasian-ish character). Personally, I don't care. He is a fantastic actor who I've admired since Serenity (2005). If I could turn his voice into butter my bagels would always be delicious.

In the recent Jungle Book adaptation, which is fantastic by-the-way, no one complained that Idris Elba voiced an Indian tiger or that Lupita Nyong'o voiced an Indian wolf. Not that I care. I could listen to them talk for hours. In fact, I looked at Audible to see if such a thing were possible: being able to listen to them for hours. No such luck. Lupita has a Charlie Rose interview and Idris Elba is in the audio version of "Vanity Fair: March 2014: The 20th Annual Hollywood Issue". Please, for the world's sake read a book for Audible or a company like it so we can basque in their speaking voices for several hours without quit. It could be a cookbook for all I care.

I'm confident that Idris Elba has the ability to make a phone book sound compelling or Lupita the ability to make it sound profound, sage-like advice excerpted from an Upanishad. Or the musical Hamilton casting a black actor to play Aaron Burr who was most definitely white and not the same hue as Mos Def. And do I care? Not really because I'm not a baby. Instead, if I want to get my fill of Idris Elba's voice, I will have to binge-watch The Wire up to Season 3 or all four seasons of Luther, which I was playing to do anyway. Speaking of which.