Posted by BeautyandtheEast on 05-27-2010 | Comments | Share | Filed under: Entertainment, Film/TV
Dean Obeidallah (comedian) writes in the Huffington Post today:
I know there are a lot of important issues to discuss this week - like BP’s oil spill, Europe’s financial meltdown and of course the opening of “Sex and the City 2”- but stop the presses because apparently we have all missed one big thing: The Prince of Persia was a white guy!
At least that is what the new movie “Prince of Persia” opening this weekend would have us believe. And who is playing the title role - an actor whose very name conjures up the Middle East: Jake Gyllenhaal- who would’ve thought that the guy from “Bubble Boy” - who is of Swedish heritage - could be the Prince of Persia. Was Owen Wilson busy? Why not just get Will Ferrell - who in all honestly would’ve been great and I would’ve been at the midnight screening of the film if he was the star of it!
The way the producers were able to justify a white guy playing the Prince of Persia was by the story line that “yes, we know he is white, but he was adopted by the benevolent Persian King” - so apparently in ancient Persia they had their own version of Angelina Jolie but who instead of adopting poor African children, would adopt poor white kids. (Can anyone tell me how a poor white kid traveled to and found ancient Persia? Did they even have Google maps then?)
And get this - apparently in ancient Persia they all spoke English with an English accent! I wonder when the Persians began speaking Farsi?! And not only did they speak with an English accent, apparently from the trailer, Jake Gyllenhaal’s English accent is an almost cockney Eliza Doolittle “My Fair Lady” type accent. Spoiler alert: I haven’t seen the movie but wouldn’t it be cool if they gave Jake an “Eliza Doolittle” type makeover so by the end he really speaks Farsi and learns actual Persian culture.
Maybe Hollywood will make up for casting a white guy as the Prince of Persia by casting as the star in the upcoming “Captain America” movie a guy with a name like Waleed Zuaiter, or Omar Metwally or even Dean Obeidallah (okay, that’s me but I think you get the point.)
On some level I’m thankful that we have evolved from the days of those crappy Chuck Norris type films filled with us only depicted as terrorists - played typically by Hispanic, Indian and Italian guys. But it’s not all great - the new “Sex and the City 2” movie depicts every Arab women covered in a burka and that is just ignorant crap - I have performed stand up comedy across the region and all the women are NOT covered -in fact most are not! (In fairness, I didn’t see “Sex and the City 2” yet but will be soon with my girlfriend in exchange for her having to see “Avatar “- which I argued really wasn’t a “guy “film but more a family picture but alas I lost that argument so off I go to the girliest movie since “He Is Just Not That Into You.”)
I have a dream - actually I have many dreams but the one that is relevant to this article is my dream that there will be a day when Hollywood makes a movie about the Middle East and actually casts Middle Eastern people in the starring roles. There are some great Middle Eastern actors out there who would bring a realism and depth to these characters that a non-Middle Eastern actor could never do. If not, get ready for “Prince of Persia 2” starring Tony Danza and “The Jonas Brothers.”
Tags: prince of persia, jake gyllenhaal, hollywood stereotypes
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