So, the new trailer to 21 has been released – a movie based on the non-fiction book Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich involving a group of MIT students that, well, brought down the houses of Las Vegas casinos. It’s a Hollywood movie, starring Kevin Spacey and Laurence Fishburne.
It’s a true-story-turned-Hollywood movie in every fashion – promising MIT students, desperate to raise tuition money! Dramatic kidnappings! Kevin Spacey slowly turning evil! Oh, and one other little thing: the mostly Asian American MIT Blackjack team had been replaced with white actors.
According to this article from MIT’s newspaper, The Tech:
During the talk, Mezrich mentioned the stereotypical Hollywood casting process — though most of the actual blackjack team was composed of Asian males, a studio executive involved in the casting process said that most of the film’s actors would be white, with perhaps an Asian female. Even as Asian actors are entering more mainstream films, such as “Better Luck Tomorrow” and the upcoming “Memoirs of a Geisha,” these stereotypes still exist, Mezrich said.
Okay, white actors and also the previously blogged about Aaron Yoo. But even then, Aaron Yoo is super attractive. If people that attractive were really on the MIT Blackjack team, well, they wouldn’t be at MIT, they’d all be actor-models. Replacing Asians with white people also prevents the explanation of why the MIT Blackjack team was consciously non-white, according to this article in Wired:
The MIT team thrived by choosing BPs [Big Players] who fit the casino mold of the young, foolish, and wealthy. Primarily nonwhite, either Asian or Middle Eastern, these were the kids the casinos were accustomed to seeing bet a thousand bucks a hand. Like many on the team, Kevin Lewis was part Asian, and could pass as the child of a rich Chinese or Japanese executive. “When you’re recruiting, you don’t recruit white kids. They look conspicuous. Asian kids, Greek kids, dark skin fits in better with lots of money in the casinos. White 20-year-olds with $2 million bankrolls stand out,” explains Andrew Tay, one of Lewis’ teammates. “A geeky Asian kid with $100,000 in his wallet didn’t raise any eyebrows.”
Fine, it’s a Hollywood movie; it’s perfectly okay to make little changes for more people to run to the movie theater, if only to suspend disbelief for a little bit. Maybe adding Aaron Yoo was a specific nod and wink to people who know the background story to acknowledge that yes, the real-life Blackjack team was more diverse than in the movie. But still. [sigh]
I hope the MIT Blackjack team have cameos in the movie. Hopefully that aren’t working as extras in a scene involving the casino’s Chinese buffet.
(Huge props, including the Wired Link: kevnull)
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18 Comments to “21: Based On Real Life (without all those Asian kids)”
Ernie wrote:
OK, OK. I just saw the trailer a second time and it said “INSPIRED BY a true story” instead of “BASED on a true story,” thus allowing a lot more, uhm, “creative interpretation.” But still, my point stands.
Posted on 30-Nov-07 at 9:37 pm | Permalink
jozjozjoz wrote:
8Asians… INSPIRED by _______… ???
Posted on 01-Dec-07 at 12:49 am | Permalink
Obi wrote:
Isn’t that the case.
The same case with U-571. The Americans supposedly captured the Enigma decoder during World War 2.
Hollywood rewriting events.
Posted on 01-Dec-07 at 6:33 am | Permalink
Jesse! wrote:
Ernie, don’t wuss out on this one. Don’t give in to fucking BS caveats of “based on” version “is”. FUCK HOLLYWOOD. I mean that is just FUCKED UP. The racial money shot is here:
During the talk, Mezrich mentioned the stereotypical Hollywood casting process — though most of the actual blackjack team was composed of Asian males, a studio executive involved in the casting process said that most of the film’s actors would be white, with perhaps an Asian female.
Yes, cuz we’ve never seen white guys and Asian women before, so cutting edge.
In words of AngryAsianMan,
That’s racist!
Posted on 01-Dec-07 at 12:20 pm | Permalink
John wrote:
I’m with Jesse on this one!
Posted on 01-Dec-07 at 12:32 pm | Permalink
Marge wrote:
Whitey’s bringin’ us down, man!
Posted on 01-Dec-07 at 12:46 pm | Permalink
Hollywood Keeps the Status Quo « Racism Alive And Well wrote:
[...] 1, 2007 Ernie, from 8Asians.com, brought up the movie adaptation to the non-fiction book, Bring Down the House which is about how a bunch of MIT students figured [...]
Posted on 01-Dec-07 at 8:03 pm | Permalink
Obi wrote:
The film industry doesn’t seem to have changed; since they cast David Carradine in Kung Fu.
If they were thinking of box office receipts, there are enough Asians who would make it a success.
Posted on 02-Dec-07 at 2:29 am | Permalink
chenb•log » The Data Has Spoken wrote:
[...] any other race. So to summarize, Asian men <3 white women, while white women respect their math skillz, from a [...]
Posted on 15-Dec-07 at 11:58 pm | Permalink
Akira + Leonardo DiCaprio = ? « CHOPSTIX wrote:
[...] new movie about the MIT students playing blackjack in Las Vegas. Yeah, that team in real life? Mostly Asian Americans. The movie? A bunch of white people, with maybe one token Asian nerd. Good going, folks. Give all [...]
Posted on 21-Feb-08 at 11:36 am | Permalink
Sophia wrote:
As an Asian-am that graduated from MIT, I can say there are lots of hot asian-ams that could’ve been cast for this…
Kevin Spacey, why didn’t you do it right?
white male casting dude, why didn’t you do it right?
we should protest or slightly protest…
Sophia
Posted on 09-Mar-08 at 10:54 pm | Permalink
Sophia wrote:
and it would have been a chance to give a bunch of Asian-ams a chance at the screen!
Posted on 09-Mar-08 at 10:58 pm | Permalink
Sophia wrote:
here’s the MIT story on it
http://www-tech.mit.edu/V127/N21/blackjack.html
Jefferey K. Ma ’94, one of the actual members of the famous MIT Blackjack Team and the protagonist model in Mezrich’s book, visited the set both in Boston and Las Vegas. In fact, the crew decided to have him star as a blackjack dealer in Las Vegas in the film. “It is pretty ironic that he is playing this extra role,” according to Cid Swank, the spokesperson for the movie. “People who recognize him will notice this when they see him in the movie.”
Posted on 09-Mar-08 at 11:18 pm | Permalink
Krantzstone wrote:
It would be nice to see more actors of Asian descent to star in movies, TV shows, etc. coming out of Hollywood.
I remember growing up experiencing a mass media world largely devoid of actors of Asian descent. I think it’s important for people of all ethnicities to be able to grow up seeing themselves (or people who look like them) reflected in the media, not just as stereotypes but as real people.
This news is very disappointing, if for no other reason that it goes contrary to the facts as they actually occurred, but also because I’d like to see some portrayals of Asians in media apart from nerds or martial artists. Although I guess if you go to MIT you’re technically a nerd.
Posted on 17-Mar-08 at 4:21 pm | Permalink
8Asians.com » The [MIT] Tech: Movie ‘21′ Discriminatory Casting Unjustified: An Asian American/Asian Canadian Blog wrote:
[...] 8Asians has written about ‘21,” the movie adaptation of the book, “Bringing Down the House,” which chronicles the real life story of the primarily Asian-American male MIT Blackjack Team, and the controversy. Well, in Tuesday’s MIT student newspaper, The Tech, Alvin Lin (MIT 2004) had his editorial opinion piece published “‘21′ Discriminatory Casting Unjustified:” “… according to the non-fiction book, the team’s Asian ethnicities were central to the plot and their ability to gamble huge amounts of money without notice. Here is an excerpt from the book: “The MIT team thrived by choosing [Big Players] who fit the casino mold of the young, foolish, and wealthy. Primarily nonwhite, either Asian or Middle Eastern, these were the kids the casinos were accustomed to seeing bet a thousand bucks a hand… For those who have seen the film, the end result was a production that whitewashed most of the real life characters, with Aaron Yoo playing a kleptomaniac as a token Asian secondary character. Think of other examples of films inspired from true stories. Would you feel okay about ‘Coach Carter’ or ‘Pursuit of Happiness’, starring Al Pacino? How about ‘Passion of the Christ’ starring an East Asian, or a blond, blue-eyed actor? I think when entertainment is supposed to be based on real life, that there is an obligation to stay true to the situation’s demographics and the real life protagonists. For example, a movie about the NBA with no Black actors, or a hospital show with no Asian American male doctors in it, would seem unrealistic. There is also precedent to this argument. For example, decades ago Broadway initially used White actresses to play the Asian female protagonist in ‘Miss Saigon,’ until they were eventually forced by the Actor’s Equity Union to use Asian actresses.” [...]
Posted on 01-Apr-08 at 11:23 pm | Permalink
Raj wrote:
Pollsters tell Hollywood execs that racist white Americans wont like too many non-white faces in a movie. The same pollsters tell me that Barrack Obama has a good chance of becoming President of a majority racist white America. Something is wrong with this picture. If A is preferred to B and B to C, A would be preferred to C. Either the white American public is racist which means they wont want to watch an all Asian cast which means Obama has no chance of winning..or the public is not racist. Which one is it? I am pretty confused.
Posted on 03-Apr-08 at 11:57 am | Permalink
Farhad wrote:
When it comes to making fun of asians it is somehow very easy for hollywood to find asians actors.
When it is to find for a positive roles it is somehow hard for them to find asian actors.
If their casting depends on viewers then it means the people are racist. People love to watch asians getting their asses kicked and mocked. People hate watching movies where asian guy kicks ass and kisses a white woman. They love watching white man being the leader in all scenes.
Posted on 10-Oct-08 at 2:22 pm | Permalink
kev/null - Kamekame-huh? wrote:
[...] I vented about that so much that my friend Ernie wrote about it on his group blog, 8 Asians. [...]
Posted on 26-Jan-09 at 7:13 am | Permalink
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