Following the online open casting call that began August 5, 2010, the Asian American community and their representatives (Media Action Network for Asian Americans and other Asian American advocacy groups) contacted the Runaways production office, Marvel Studios’ corporate communications, and Walt Disney Studios executives in the Multicultural Initiatives division. They expressed their deep concerns and encouraged the production to change the casting breakdown to be more inclusive to Asian American actors, and stressed that the best person to portray an Asian American character would be an Asian American actor. The original version of the casting notice did not specify the ethnicity of the character "Nico".
The Walt Disney Company, which is owner and parent company of Marvel Studios has a strong commitment to the hiring of diverse talent in it's film and television entities. "The Walt Disney Company thinks about diversity in the broadest terms and seeks to build a workforce that blends people from all ages, experiences, backgrounds, ethnic groups, and lifestyles." Therefore is comes as no suprise that Marvel Studios has responded in a timely and appropriate matter to the concerns of the Asian American community.
The following is an official statement from Marvel Studios received Thursday, August 25, 2010 regarding the casting of an Asian American actress to portray the character Nico Minoru:
“To address your concern over casting for the role of Nico, as we do with all of our films, we intend to stay true to the legacy and story of the comic when casting these parts. Thus, our goal is to cast an Asian American actress as depicted in the comic series and the casting notice will be adjusted accordingly.”
“We thank you again for your correspondence and the opportunity to clarify our process.”
Marvel Studios
On the public open casting call website for Runaways, the breakdown revised on August 25th now reads:
Girl 1: Uniquely beautiful, nurturing but guarded
Female, Asian-American, must play 16-18
Must be at least 16 by January 2011
Details on how to submit for a role in 'Runaways' can be found on the following blog post:
Marvel Studios Runaways Open Casting Call
The submission deadline for audition tapes has also been pushed back to September 15, 2010 to allow Asian American actors time to prepare their monologues.
Comments
"If the character is an Asian in the comic then you cast an Asian if not then you DON''T."
The racebending protest for The Last Airbender was founded in part because cartoon characters were "ethnic...Asian" were played mostly by whites; the only Asians in the film are either villains or nameless extras. In other words, they violated your rule: they cast non-Asians to play Asians.
thanks for the Auditon information
can i get audition information please?
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