Malinda Lo
Blog
Mar 22, 2011
My thoughts on the casting of Jennifer Lawrence in “The Hunger Games”
I seem to get sucked into fascinating Twitter discussions while I’m eating breakfast all the time! Just today we were discussing the lack of gay girls in YA, which is something I’ve been thinking about for awhile, along with the assumption that it’s harder to publish a YA novel with a gay girl main character.
But! Last week I got sucked into an even more exciting and heated discussion centering on the casting of Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss in the upcoming Hunger Games movie, and whether or not Katniss is white, and whether or not Suzanne Collins should have been more clear about it.
The discussion on Twitter veered all over the place, ending up in a debate about how exactly to be clear about race in speculative fiction novels that are not set on this here Earth right now. It was way too unwieldy of a topic to discuss on Twitter, I think, so I’m going to blog about my thoughts here. (And a disclaimer: THESE ARE MY OPINIONS. Sure, I think my opinions are right, but that doesn’t mean you have to.)
Let me set things up.
As you may have heard, Jennifer Lawrence, recently in the critically acclaimed Winter’s Bone, was cast as our heroine Katniss Everdeen in the film version of Suzanne Collins’ awesome Hunger Games. I haven’t seen Lawrence in Winter’s Bone, and I am a big fan of The Hunger Games (all three books!). A lot of fan reaction to the casting was negative, because Jennifer doesn’t look like Katniss, and she’s a few years older. These things don’t bother me — Hollywood rarely casts teens to play teens, and besides, she can change her hair color. But one objection did make me pause: Many readers believed that this was a case of whitewashing, because either (1) they believe Katniss is a person of color, and Jennifer Lawrence is white; or (2) the Hollywood casting calls requested a Caucasian actress, thereby eliminating people of color from contention.
Jennifer Lawrence
Number 2 would be excused, to some degree, if Katniss herself were white, and I realized while reading these objections that I didn’t actually know if this was true. I didn’t remember anything in the books identifying her as one race or another. On many blog posts, including this one at Jezebel, Katniss’s “olive skin” is parsed in some detail, and it is suggested that she is biracial at least.
But then a couple of people on Twitter reminded me that Katniss’s sister, Prim, is fair-haired and blue-eyed, which pretty much sealed the deal for me. I think Katniss is white.
So: Why the confusion? Is it because Suzanne Collins wasn’t clear enough about Katniss’s racial background? Or have a lot of readers simply been misinterpreting her?
That may have been the case, because race is in many ways tangled up with class in The Hunger Games, and unfortunately there is a tendency among many people in the United States (and the predominantly white West) to associate poverty and oppression with being nonwhite. This may seem to be a clear parallel, but it is not. It provides a limiting perception (at best!) of both poverty and race.
If you’ve grown up in the West, where people of color have routinely been associated with the lower classes, it’s hard to avoid this assumption. You’ve probably been surrounded by popular culture in which most people of color are impoverished, live in the inner city, are essentially different from you, etc. This is why TV shows like The Cosby Show were so incredible in their time; they worked to explode that myth.
Anyway, I’m veering off-track here, but the point is: I understand why it would be assumed that Katniss is not white. She is darker than some of the wealthier characters; she is poor; she is oppressed.
But I think, considering the fact that her sister is white and Suzanne Collins approved the casting of Jennifer Lawrence, that whitewashing is not an issue here. I’ve only heard good things about Lawrence’s skill as an actress, and I’m kind of heartened by the fact that they cast such a critically acclaimed actress in the role. It gives me hope that the filmmakers are taking the book seriously and will attempt to do it justice.
A bigger question is: How clear does a writer have to be about the racial background of her characters? And that’s a question I will leave for another day, but if you have any opinions on it, opine away! (Just keep the discussion civil. I don’t tolerate author-bashing or racism.)
Edited 3/24/11: I’m closing comments now because I think we’ve talked this up enough, and I’m starting to get trolls. Thanks for the discussion!
Actually, that’s my point. They did call for Caucasian actors only for this role. But that’s ok because clearly the role was meant to be for a Caucasian – see my point about Collins glowing approval versus Airbender’s creators absolute silence on casting. Let’s get up in arms over true issues of whitewashing – which this has never been clearly the case here. And now is definitely a dead issue on.
My point is that we make this argument when it is the right issue for it – not throw the race card every single time. It eventually hurts our credibility. That’s why I keep saying, we must pick our battles. Let’s not become noise. Let’s not become the boy who cried wolf.
That’s all.
Maybe not, but I do think she is being unfairly condescending and trivializing our concerns by referring to us as getting our panties in a twist (a very dismissive phrase), and saying that we must enjoy getting angry. Yeah, I just love the smell of racefail in the morning!
Er, yes, that’s what I meant.
That I’m kind of stunned that white fans are fighting for it. That’s the part that I find heartening. Obviously poc and lgbt folks have been fighting for their own representation for a long time.
But I’m saying that it’s ineffective as support because that they called for only Caucasians for the role is my point, too, which is quite different from yours. And I disagree with your use of the word “clearly”.
Ello,
The problem with the whole “save your anger for a true wrong, pick your battles, wait for a more convenient season” argument is that it’s very old, and it’s never been very effective. What has been effective is calling out problems whenever they’re spotted, and either having a conversation about them, or taking positive action to change them. Especially when those “minor issues” are part of a larger pattern of systematic segregation.
Because that is what we’re talking about, here. Even if Collins is OK with Katniss’ actress being white, the fact remains that this is yet another case in which a role that could have been available to everyone was instead restricted to white people. And this has happened again, and again, and again, and again. There’s more at stake here than just representation. Think about how this kind of systematic exclusion from opportunities affects the ability of people of color in the entertainment business to earn as much as their white counterparts. Think about how that impacts their power, their ability to get projects that realistically feature all races greenlighted. Think about how this same pattern of discrimination gets applied to women, to LGBTQ people, to all sorts of “minorities”. And think about how often you’ve heard this pattern’s wrongs used to justify more wrongs of a similar nature. “Women don’t watch action films so we won’t put women in important roles because women don’t watch action films.” “But it’s true that gay men are effeminate, that’s why we’ll only make effeminate roles available to gay men!” And in this case, “Sure, the character could be any race but we’ll restrict it to white actors because the character could be any race.” This is how bigotry perpetuates itself — not so much through blatant hatred as through the sheer unwillingness to actually change.
So to put it bluntly, by dismissing other people’s concerns with this casting because you don’t see anything wrong with it, you’re helping to maintain the same status quo that you’ve already agreed is a problem.
If you don’t want to see the system change, fine. But please stop insisting that the people who do want change, and are willing to protest (or write, or argue on a blog, or Tweet, or whatever, as long as it’s a positive action) to make it happen, should wait for a better time.
Ok, I’m getting confused here, and I think objecting to the use of the word “clearly” proves that nothing here is clear. Ello has made her point. Some people have disagreed with her. Let’s move on.
Oh, gotcha; sorry for misunderstanding.
To me, the issue was never whether or not Katniss is white. That far in the future, the concept of “whiteness” will either be gone or changed. I was simply nursing the hope that an actress of color would be able to snag the role, because there’s no solid reason to believe Katniss is Caucasian, and thus no reason to limit the casting call.
I don’t think it’s as egregious as Airbender, and I don’t plan to boycott the movie. I’m sure Jennifer Lawrence will do a great job, though she’s certainly not the only person who could have handled the role. I’m just hurt on behalf of the other talented young actresses who weren’t considered because of pointless, racist reasons.
I think this has been one of the most reasonable debates I’ve seen about this issue. I wanted to thank you for bringing up several points – first, the one about city-people linking poverty with minority groups, and how that would impact their view on the book. The same with someone saying they consider agriculture = hispanic migrant workers. I associate agriculture with white folk with country accents, but I grew up in the Bible belt.
The Melungeon slant is certainly interesting, but even Wikipedia states “most modern-day descendants of Appalachian families traditionally regarded as Melungeon are generally European American in appearance” – so I wouldn’t expect them to start to appear less European American in the distant future.
I apologize for getting my hackles up. Given her comments about people getting their panties in a twist, having fun with these kinds of arguments, there being no legitimacy to this discussion, that people going out of their way to argue for even the possibility of Katniss being mixed, and that it’s laughable that someone might read something other into the text than what she did… It seemed very dismissive, when people on both sides have been making well-reasoned, intelligent contributions to back up their points.
So even if she’s not saying everyone must agree with her, I did read the comment as putting down everyone who doesn’t, which is a sentiment that’d been refreshingly absent from most of the conversation up until then.
Anyway, it’s your blog and you set the tone — I just wanted to explain my reaction. I apologize if I was out of line anywhere, or if I read anything into Diana’s comment that wasn’t there.
This is close to my feelings on the matter, as well. I actually hold decent hopes for the movie, and look forward to seeing it. It did temper my optimism, though; I just wish they’d been less close-minded about all of this. I now worry the maybe-sorta whitewashing will extend to the other districts — District 11 will be black, okay, but what about all the others? I fear we’re going to see a very, very white movie with just Rue and Thresh thrown in as an afterthought, and we all know the size of their roles. That doesn’t seem like a vision of a future America, to me.
Hopefully this discussion will at least inspire them to cast some actors of color for the kids from the other districts.
Oh, that’s a good point that hadn’t occurred to me yet.
Why wouldn’t you say that your biracial character is half black? For the record when I read dark skin, I see someone who is at least partly black in my head.
It’s like when some people were surprised to see Nudge from maximum ride portrayed as black in the graphic novel. Hello people, read what the author is saying!
“Look at how some authors feel the need to describe their non-white characters – “the black girl”, “an Asian boy.” You rarely see it the other way around; authors don’t typically say, “the white boy”, at least with nowhere near the same degree of frequency.”
I think if anything this whole casting thing proves just why an author WOULD say any of those things. If you say your character is Asian, or black, or green with purple stars all over, then it is out there and if it isn’t portrayed that way then you have a concrete argument. I think it’s good for people to say that because then it does become a norm and people won’t be so surprised to find out a character was intended to be a different race.
As a super pale, super blond white person, I had this discussion with a black friend when I was writing one of my main character as black, asking her how do you mention it? How often does it have to be reiterated? What is offensive? (She for one hates comparison of skin color to something like, say, chocolate) I think white authors steer away from race because they don’t want to offend anyone and saying something vague like “The guy was cute, with Asian features” lends diversity to the work without risking too much offense.
I think it’s good for people to say that because then it does become a norm
Right, but do you also advocate for writers mentioning that a character is white as well? I guess I’m not sure what you’re arguing – hey, it’s only 10:46 here and I don’t fully wake up until noon
. Do you only want authors to say so when a character ISN’T white, or do you want it to be more of an equal-opportunity descriptionfest? If it’s the latter, I don’t have a problem with that, but if it’s the former – that’s part of the problem I’m talking about.
Well it was even earlier when I wrote that so who knows…lol
I guess I was trying to say yes it sucks that people assume characters are white, but if I read a book where most of the characters are another race I am going to assume everyone is that race too unless the author tells me different. In “The other Wes Moore” the main characters are black and when someone isn’t black the author clearly states that.
Right or wrong people are going to see a character how they see them based on descriptions given. I guess I am saying in a world where white is assumed(wrong as that may be) an author has to say what a character is and after enough time of authors making a point to say it, then if a katniss-like issue arises again and the author says “no she is mixed race I didn’t think I needed to say that” people will accept it more readily.
I am not arguing against your problem at all, just trying to explain why authors do feel the need to race-name their characters because without doing it people see white. As I said in a different post I will race-name some characters in my books because I feel like specifically saying these people are this, this, and this race it builds a world where you can see many races exist and if ever made into a movie, casting should be done from the full spectrum.
Better, or no?
This is a response to your later comment – the reply button seems to keep disappearing if you get too far into a thread. Anyway, in that case, I see what you’re saying – if most of the characters are A, then it makes sense to point out when a character is B. However, I am talking of stories where… well, let me just give an example without naming names. There was one story that had a scene in an NYC nightclub. The author would describe certain people (pretty much extras in the background), and I noticed that she kept pointing out when someone was Asian or Black, but never white, e.g. “Main Character bumped into an Asian girl.” That sort of thing. It bothered me. NYC is a very diverse city, no matter what Friends would have us believe. So why make sure to point out when a character was non-white, but not the reverse?
I can see that sort of thing being annoying, personally if I was writing a scene like that I wouldn’t feel the need to call to attention anyone’s race, because as you say, NYC is divers, it shouldn’t need to be made clear. I guess I was thinking if you are working in alternate or future realities then you should give an idea of what the racial structure looks like there. One could argue that people should know that a future world will be racially mixed based on our mixed world now, but it is good to remind people.
Pointing it out in a complete fantasy world is more important I think because most of those worlds read as totally white bread because few people bother to specify anything different.
Here’s a nice summary article from Racebending.com that hits on many of the points we’ve discussed here – thought some folks on this discussion might be interested. Thanks for the thoughtful comments, all.
http://www.racebending.com/v4/featured/jennifer-lawrence-cast-as-katniss-in-the-hunger-games/