You can claim to have loved the character as a child.
You can claim to be "part Cherokee".
You can spin and flip the character's role in the story however you want but in the end it is wrong for a white man to dress up and portray an American Indian.
No matter what.
There are plenty of
American Indian actors that would do just fine in this role.
Perhaps they just thought better of it?
I don't believe that though since actors seem to be pretty vain and wouldn't turn down an opportunity to be in a potential summer blockbuster.
This is just another example of how low the American Indian is on anyone's radar.
Was anyone in charge of this worried about offending them?
If they were, then this movie wouldn't be going forward with a white man playing a red man.
Right?
And anyone that has any second thoughts about supporting such a move doesn't need to worry because of two special words "part Cherokee". See? It's fine, because
Johnny Depp claims to be part Cherokee,
oh how convenient!
Because of some undocumented claim to a Heritage that he can only name as "Native American" he gets a free pass to paint his face and play Indian? Oh, and he's going to show Hollywood a thing or two about how to properly portray an Indian while he's at it?
Oh Thanks Johnny!!
Give me a fucking break!
How would
this scenario go over?:
Johnny Depp rewrites the character of Tonto for the upcoming Lone Ranger movie as an escaped slave from the South and will play the role in blackface but it's okay because the actor recently discovered that he has a bit of African blood coursing through his handsome veins.
I just don't see the difference, and yet I can't imagine that it would go over very well.
