Natalie Portman has responded to the 'whitewashing' allegations being levelled against her forthcoming film, Annihilation.
The film is an adaption of the first of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy and in the books Portman's character is described as having "Asian heritage".
This detail about her ancestry doesn't come until the second novel in the series so if you've ever tried to get away with doing your homework without reading the book, you'll sympathise with the plight that writer and director Alex Garland (The Beach, Ex Machina, 28 Days Later) finds himself in. Although, when adapting a novel trilogy into a multimillion pound Hollywood movie, you should probably read the lot.
Portman told Yahoo that she was not aware of the character's race in the novels and agreed that, "We need more representation of Asians on film, of Hispanics on film, of blacks on film, and women and particularly women of colour, Native Americans."
Although there are some women of colour in the cast including Michelle Rodriguez and Tessa Thompson, there is further outrage that white actress Jennifer Jason Leigh plays Dr Ventress, a government psychologist Dr Ventress who is half-Native American and half-white.
Discussing Alex Garland, Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA) board member Alieesa Badreshia told The Hollywood Reporter: "He exploits the story but fails to take advantage of the true identities of each character. Hollywood rarely writes prominent parts for Asian-American and American Indian characters, and those roles could've bolstered the careers of women from those communities."
Garland has apologised for missing the character's races saying: "This is an awkward problem for me, because I think whitewashing is a serious and real issue, and I fully support the groups drawing attention to it."
"But the characters in the novel I read and adapted were not given names or ethnicities. I cast the film reacting only to the actors I met in the casting process, or actors I had worked with before. There was no studio pressure to cast white. The casting choices were entirely mine."
He added: "As a middle-aged white man, I can believe I might at times be guilty of unconscious racism, in the way that potentially we all are. But there was nothing cynical or conspiratorial about the way I cast this movie."
Whether the row will harm the film's Box Office success in the US remains to be seen, over in the UK a cinematic release was dropped in December and the film will go straight to Netflix.
