Based on its weekend box office take, looks like I may be the only person who has yet to see Battle Royale Hunger Games or read any of the books so I can’t comment on the “authenticity” of the casting. But others don’t seem to have that problem as you can see (WARNING: minor spoilers ahead especially for those of you who thought the cast of the movie was White):
It seems some “fans” of the book were upset that Black actors were cast in the roles of Thresh, Cinna and, especially, the “adorable” Rue. BTW, this is Amandla Stenbery who plays Rue in the film and she looks pretty damn adorable to me:
But, according to this tweeter, she lacks the “innocent” quality that naturally comes with blondness:
Well, a tumble site called Hungergamestweets, which exists to “expose the Hunger Games fans on Twitter who dare to call themselves fans yet don’t know a damn thing about the books”, has collected a number of these “racist” tweets (some of which I’ve posted below). And as it turns out, the characters that are Black in the film are actually fairly accurate when it comes to syncing up with the book’s vision. Here’s a description of Rue from the novel:
…And most hauntingly, a twelve-year-old girl from District 11. She has dark brown skin and eyes, but other than that’s she’s very like Prim in size and demeanor…
And Thresh:
The boy tribute from District 11, Thresh, has the same dark skin as Rue, but the resemblance stops there. He’s one of the giants, probably six and half feet tall and built like an ox.
Still, that’s not enough to convince some “fans” that “dark skin” equals Black ‘cause obviously dark-skin usually means…uh, white skin, right?:
Damn, who did you expect–Dakota Fanning? Oh, I guess so:
Check out some of the other tweets below and as for the very blond Jennifer Lawrence playing the “black-haired” and “olive-skinned” Katniss and the mostly absent Asian population in this post-apocalyptic future? Uh, well…uh…anyone know a tumblr page you can direct us to?
Damn, even our Asiatic brothas aren’t immune:
I was going to boycott Hunger Games – because it makes me sick that Battle Royale was so blantantly ripped off – but this black girl may change my mind.
Did the tweeters above read the cliff’s notes or read stormfront’s rewrite? Damn, show me an intolerant fool and I’ll show you the dirt floor under his feet!
Isn’t it amazing that the book this movie is based on clearly stole from Battle Royale yet left out Asians and other minorities? Good job keeping films white! I wonder how many stupid asians with too much money went to see this film or are planning to purchase it on dvd/blu ray. Only Asian robots would buy this crap, asian humans can think.
Just wanna point out, if you didn’t know, Kimiko Gelman who plays Venia in the movie is Asian.
P.am. –
I’m asian so I should boycott the movie? I know Battle royale and so what? It’s a different movie from Japan. Just because Asians are depicted in the movie, doesn’t make it bad or good and it certainly doesn’t mean, I or you should boycott a movie. How stupid can you be?
And I went to to see the movie and it was well worth it. BTW, Rue is black? LOL WHO THE FUCK CARES.
.. and people like the tweeters are the reason why Hollywood is going down the toilet.
people, don’t be ignorant. if you read the book, you would know RUE IS SUPPOSED TO BE BLACK, dang. smh. author clearly described her with brown skin, big brown eyes, curly hair. go back and pay attention when you read, you’re making fools of yourselves. -____-
so where the militant AZNs at when they casted Akira?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-44B6HhPKw
The asian thing is irrelevant. As a person who respects and enjoys an original idea, I hate seeing shit so blatantly ripped off – then enjoy massive success like this – and the source not acknowledged. I’m not saying the movie or book isn’t good – If I wrote a story about sorcery school, people would think I was ripping off Harry Potter and they’d be right – Hunger Games like Battle Royale is about a TV a show where teens duel each other to death. That’s the appeal. That’s the original idea that excites you to go watch it. Suzanne Collins is fucking thief.
After watching the film, I felt this was closer to the Running Man than it was Battle Royale – Hunger Games doesn’t come close to making a statement on society that Battle Royale does. Also, Hunger Games was written for teens – I don’t give its fan base much credit to anything they say.
Before a person starts making racist that should make sure that they use the current words.
Sense is incorrect. As in, your common sense flew out the damn window when you made that comment, and now you officially are on the top of the black people’s ”f*** you up list”.
The corrent word is Since. As in, since when did you think that you could get away with that racist stuff when racial tension is at its highest.
Anyways, Not interested in hunger games but am definitely going to watch battle royale!
Because racists can’t read or spell very well.Smh.
Btw don’t watch Battle Royale, READ it!
It’s 2012, there are no original ideas anymore. Go write a book or a movie or a tv show and try and make it 100% original. You can’t do it. There are only so many plots out there, you are going to “rip off” something
http://www.everythingisaremix.info/watch-the-series/
Anyways, these people CLEARLY didn’t read the book. Cinna doesn’t make me think Black when I’m reading it but Rue and Thresh were definitely Black in the book.
I’m sad that someone would say “her death isn’t as sad now that I know she’s Black”. Yikes!
I was going to stay away from the movies since I was sure they’d cast Rue wrong. As far as anyone who read the books should be concerned, they nailed it.
Now I don’t wanna see it, because it was disturbing enough to read about a little black child get killed.
And she wasn’t even carrying any Skittles.
naa
Didn’t the author of the book (escapes my mind, lol) say she loosely based the districts/etc. off of the American South during slavery? I’d have to look it up, but I’ve heard plenty of avid Hunger Games fans say this is to be true. So, if that were the case, yes, she would be black. Also, even if its not, if you think dark skin, as an American, you think of African-American people, usually, right? I do (might be biased since I am one), but still…
Tyler, people like you are fucking idiots. You can rationlalize the “original thing” all you want. Go write a movie about a guy that dresses up like bat – a guy who got bit by a spider then has spider powers – blue people who live on another planet – and tell everyone “there’s no such thing as an original idea”, fucking moron. If you had an original idea, it would probably die of loneliness.
Some of those racists who complain sound as dumb as they are ignorant–guess they didn’t read the book. They certainly can’t spell, maybe they can’t read. To them say “Pull your panties out of the wad and bend over, bitches.” Muahahahahaha!
Asian actors were very vocal about the “whitewashing” of Akira. Non-white actors are very vocal about the lack of representation in movies and TV. Fact, Hollywood is mainly white. Lots of super talented funny gorgeous non-white actors who will never get a chance at the kind of careers Josh and Jennifer are going to have.
The fact there are people who think it all should be white just goes to show how backwards they are. Black, Hispanic, Asian populations are growing and growing but you would never know that if you just look at the bull shit Hollywood makes.
So prejudice “fans” are upset about Hunger Games because they are selectively illiterate (*reads “dark skin”, interprets “pale skin”) . At least that is what I got out of those twits. I read the book, didn’t see the movie but like mentioned above Rue and Thresh are definitely Black. Also, when Katniss is prepping Rue’s dead body with flowers before she is carried away, it is mentioned that her hair is thick. Straight hair isn’t usually thick. Also, that actress playing Rue is ADORABLE and has such an innocent face and eyes. Get it together people. Now that I think about , the book could have used more diversity. Also Battle Royale > Hunger Games.
Battle royale is a completely different book – have you actually read both of them? It is very violent, with very little backstory, and the majority of it is about the fighting, not resistance which is the whole point of the hunger games. So it has a battle to the death, many books share things like that, there are very few original stories out there these days.
As for the rest of this, those people on twitter are morons, who clearly didn’t read the book. No one should care what they think.
[...] 1. Why Racists are Upset with the ‘Hunger Games’ Casting [...]
I’ll not lie, I’m absolutly disgut by the tweet of theses… People??? Whatever, they don’t deserve me to write more than this about them.
Anyway! About the fact Cinna & Rue are black on the movie, I don’t care, they can be purple, red, green, I was not at all waiting a white blond girl for Rue regarding the description of the book. BUT the fact Lenny Kravitz appears as Cinna MADE MY DAY!!!! XD I love hime, he’s handsome and cool and I thought he was definitivly perfect as Cinna! And I was as this happy when I saw Rue because I saw this little girl, Amandla Stenberg, on the movie ‘Colombiana’ and she was amazing!!! Seriously I was facinated how this little girl was good as the little ‘Cataleya’ and I wished to see her soon again in a good movie *tadam*! So, yes, you can imagine how much I was happy to see them. ^_^
And about Thresh, sorry I did not finished the book before watch the movie and I was on the part before his description. X) But now I read his descrption and it fits really well with the caracter.
Oh! And btw, the part when Rue died, I cry sooo much! I think if it was an other actress I didn’t. She’s amazing and I’m sure she’ll be an amazing actress… And theses people who hate will stay stupid and ignorant the rest of their lifes if they don’t open their minds to become more human.
SO! Great movie! Perfect cast (Lenny!!!<3 XD) and go eat WHITE bananas for these kind of people!
Not that I care one twit about Rue and Thresh being black, and I absolutely LOVED that Lenny Kravitz was cast as Cinna, and he did an awesome job, and I loved both the people who played Rue and Thresh, but if you read the books, you’ll find that District 11 is most likely Mexico (as the Panem is in North America, and when the tributes tour the districts in book two they have to go really far south to get to district 11, plus their agriculture), so MOST LIKELY when the book describes them as having “dark skin” it was meant to brown, not black, and to be most accurate the actors should have been Latin. Many of you even pointed out yourselves that the author describes her as having BROWN skin, not BLACK skin, which, I remember learning waaaay back in kindergarten are actually two very different colors. How you skip from her saying brown skin to meaning black skin is the same thing as all the people who skipped from her saying brown skin to meaning white skin, so you aren’t any better than any of these tweeters.
Like I said, I loved the casting and I have no problem with it. I was a little weirded out that Rue and Thresh were black instead of Hispanic, since that was what they were in the book, but these actors did a great job portraying the personalities of the characters, and that’s really more important. But before all of you start bitching about how “obvious” it is that they were black in the books, get your facts straight, because each and everyone of you made the exact same mistakes these people did in mixing up your facts, and those tweets could easily be any one of you.
This has nothing at all to do with the Hunger Games. I’ve neither seen the movie, nor read the book(s?). Just making a general houskeeping point.
@ Mimi
Jesus Christ. Black people are not LITERALLY black.
Mimi, have you ever in your life met a person–black, white, or otherwise–who had actual black skin? Because I’m “black”, and I certainly haven’t.
People of African descent come in a spectrum of colors–from the palest of pale (think model Shaun Ross, or White House advisor Valerie Jarrett) to the deepest brown (think models Alek Wek and Tyson Beckford). Yet even those with extremely dark skin could not, with any accuracy, be described as being literally black.
“Brown” is a perfectly appropriate descriptor to use when referencing the vast majority of folks of African descent. Brown could describe the skin color of anyone from Zoe Saldana (yes, she’s Afro-Latina), to Tyra Banks, to Oprah Winfrey, to Desmond Tutu.
if people read that part it say’s Rue has dark brown skin if you actually look Amandla has BROWN skin not Black skin colour i reckon they were good choices for Rue, Tresh and Cinna those tweets make me pissed off that they could say that who care’s what race someone is were all the same.
First of all i DONT like the comments that half of yall put on this website i dont care if your racist or not there was a day i almost died an i didnt an wen i got back to school people i didnt know said that they were sad an missed me and i was only 11 and I hate that just because you read the book an it said “dark” and they made her black in the movie. y’all can DIE okay cause I am black now what Feel guilty cause we are al the same on the inside so does it really matter whats on the inside. Thanks and Die slowly and painfully. And rot in ….
Sincerly the little black peaceful little girl,
Jasmine Rene’ Dixon
and most of the characters on the movie were white so why in the world were u complaininng and i am not racist im making a point and isnt there a word for people like all you ….. i think it is rude or maybe dumb or it might even be Idiotic ignorant baboons, and the world was created by god an god doesnt like ugly so stop hating and most people tan so if u wanna tan all your doing is getting DARKER, SO REALLY IF YOU DONT LIKE BLACK PEOPLE SO MUCH, STOP TANNING