Fury over Black Hermione Granger

[Morlock]

Trying to think of the last time a black character got made into a non-black character for the movie. Or the last time the usual suspects whined about the lack of hispanic or asian characters in movies, for that matter. America's around 20% hispanic now and movies are pretty much devoid of hispanic characters. Blacks get like double the representation their share of the population would justify, so basically the jobs that "should" be going to hispanics go to blacks instead. Then there's the predominance of black male roles over black female roles, like the media thinks black women should be in the kitchen, or something.

 

[MechaPilot]

If the best actor is a Japanese man who speaks no English, then let him get the role Hermione. A movie about a Wizard trio set in modern Japan sounds appealing. If a movie like this comes to a nearby cinema - or to the internet - I want to see it.

But these Japanese characters have little to do with the story about Harry Potter.

Acting is an exercise in communication: communicating the thoughts, feelings, and personalities of the characters to the audience. A language barrier interferes with that communication, and that would make the actor you described clearly not the "best" actor to appear in a play that will run in the predominantly English-speaking U.K.

That said, I have no problem with a Japanese, male, or Japanese male Hermione. It's a different interpretation of the character since Hermione is clearly said to be female in the source material, but nothing about her character requires her to be female or non-Japanese. It does beg the question of whether you would then make Ron homosexual or bisexual by retaining his attraction to that version of Hermione, but then nothing about Ron inherently requires him to be heterosexual.

Also, Mahou Sensi Negima is basically a Japanese version of Harry Potter. I'd recommend the manga, though one of the two animes actually holds fairly true to the story right up until the manga steers toward the school festival arc.

 

[Morlock]

Me, I reserve my whining for the almost total lack of diversity in Japan and China, and the concomitant lack of white/black/anything but yellow roles in Japanese and Chinese cinema. The lack of Arab representation in Israel's gov't, media, etc., to say nothing of Israel's immigration policies. Then there's the dearth of jobs for whites in sub-Saharan Africa, the problems Protestants have getting gigs in Latin America, etc.

America's pretty much the last country on Earth I'd criticize on this front, with Britain not far behind.

 

[Maxperson]

Acting is an exercise in communication: communicating the thoughts, feelings, and personalities of the characters to the audience. A language barrier interferes with that communication, and that would make the actor you described clearly not the "best" actor to appear in a play that will run in the predominantly English-speaking U.K.

That said, I have no problem with a Japanese, male, or Japanese male Hermione. It's a different interpretation of the character since Hermione is clearly said to be female in the source material, but nothing about her character requires her to be female or non-Japanese. It does beg the question of whether you would then make Ron homosexual or bisexual by retaining his attraction to that version of Hermione, but then nothing about Ron inherently requires him to be heterosexual.

Also, Mahou Sensi Negima is basically a Japanese version of Harry Potter. I'd recommend the manga, though one of the two animes actually holds fairly true to the story right up until the manga steers toward the school festival arc.

Making these sorts of changes alters the story considerably. The story is about X students doing Y, where X includes everything about them including race and gender. Story is more than just the plot line. Having read the stories, I can say that the story had no male japanese Hermione, no gay Ron and no straight Dumbledore. If you change anything about those characters, the story itself has changed.

 

[Yaarel]

Acting is an exercise in communication: communicating the thoughts, feelings, and personalities of the characters to the audience. A language barrier interferes with that communication, and that would make the actor you described clearly not the "best" actor to appear in a play that will run in the predominantly English-speaking U.K.

That said, I have no problem with a Japanese, male, or Japanese male Hermione. It's a different interpretation of the character since Hermione is clearly said to be female in the source material, but nothing about her character requires her to be female or non-Japanese. It does beg the question of whether you would then make Ron homosexual or bisexual by retaining his attraction to that version of Hermione, but then nothing about Ron inherently requires him to be heterosexual.

Also, Mahou Sensi Negima is basically a Japanese version of Harry Potter. I'd recommend the manga, though one of the two animes actually holds fairly true to the story right up until the manga steers toward the school festival arc.

But that is my point, switching the ethnicity of a character is, as you say, ‘a different interpretation of the character’. It is no longer the original character.

You can have a Shakespeare play, called ‘Romeo and Julio’, set in Miami, about two young men in love. It will probably be a great play. But it will have little to do with the original characters.

If Hermione gets reinterpreted as a black character, then this character is no longer part of the Harry Potter story.

 

[MechaPilot]

Trying to think of the last time a black character got made into a non-black character for the movie. Or the last time the usual suspects whined about the lack of hispanic or asian characters in movies, for that matter. America's around 20% hispanic now and movies are pretty much devoid of hispanic characters. Blacks get like double the representation their share of the population would justify, so basically the jobs that "should" be going to hispanics go to blacks instead. Then there's the predominance of black male roles over black female roles, like the media thinks black women should be in the kitchen, or something.

While I agree with you about a lack of hispanic roles, it is an interesting cultural note to realize that many hispanics identify themselves as white according to the U.S. census.

 

[billd91]

Also, the eight films mean precisely jack squat. The films are NOT the source material, the books ARE; the films are merely adaptations that provably differ from the books, cutting scenes here and there, and outright changing things as well.

Outright change - including Hermione's looks. Emma Watson doesn't have buck teeth, nor does she actually have a big, unruly mane of hair. As far as I'm concerned, casting a black woman as Hermione is just as insignificant to the role as casting a non-bucktoothed girl with manageable hair.

Edit: Come to think of it, since both of those factors (her teeth and hair) came up repeatedly in the books, I'd say that her skin color is an even less significant change.

 

[Ryujin]

The lack of Arab representation in Israel's gov't, media, etc.,...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Arab_members_of_the_Knesset

 

[MechaPilot]

But that is my point, switching the ethnicity of a character is, as you say, ‘a different interpretation of the character’.

It can only be a "switching" of ethnicity if the ethnicity is described in the source material. Word of God on the issue is that Hermione's race is not defined in the source material, therefore there is no switching out, only a filling in of the blanks.

 

[MechaPilot]

Making these sorts of changes alters the story considerably. The story is about X students doing Y, where X includes everything about them including race and gender. Story is more than just the plot line. Having read the stories, I can say that the story had no male japanese Hermione, no gay Ron and no straight Dumbledore. If you change anything about those characters, the story itself has changed.

I've read the stories too. By your own definition, the films are not a faithful to the story and should not be held up as such.