Live Action Aladdin Movie Innacurate Casting
I’ve been meaning to do this post for a while, but I just procrastinated and I regret that now. But I have to at least try.
Let me start off by stating the facts explicitly. Naomi Scott is not Arab or Middle Eastern. She has Indian roots - I believe her dad is Indian and her mom is white. Currently, she is the person who was cast as Jasmine, the lead female in Disney’s new live action of the movie Aladdin. Disney’s original Aladdin had a clearly Arabian setting, although in the original story Aladdin is not Arab (but rather Chinese, I am still shocked at this, apparently people just chose the Middle East as the setting for a lot of the interpretations of the story). Proof of the clearly Arabian setting: the song Arabian nights, the Middle Eastern style marketplace, the Middle Eastern style architecture of the palace, the Middle Eastern style clothing/dress, etc.
After doing some research after still being mad at the casting choice, I found out that apparently, they had asked for only Indians and Middle Eastern people to audition. First off, this is insulting to both cultures. It’s implying that the cultures are interchangeable, and they really aren’t. Indian culture is vastly different than Middle Eastern culture (although I can’t really speak for Indian culture, I had a few good friends who were Indian and from what I’ve heard from them and know in general it’s pretty different than Arabic culture). Although many Middle Eastern countries are mostly Muslim and Arab, and India does have a bigger percentage of the Muslims in the Middle East, that does not equate to interchangeable cultures. Second off, it’s just as bad as white-washing. They cast someone half-Indian to play a character that’s clearly intended to be Middle Eastern. They knew that it was a Middle Eastern setting and yet they chose to cast someone who wasn’t Middle Eastern as the main female lead. That’s basically like telling us Middle Eastern people upfront that we’re not good enough/important enough to be represented properly. From what I’ve seen at this point, there is some Middle Eastern cast, and I’m ok with Will Smith because he’s playing the part of the genie who is mythical in the firstplace and isn’t necessarily Middle Eastern and will probably be CGI somehow anyways. Upon researching for this post, I found out that there are several other non-Middle Eastern actors and actresses. I had read that they had been trying to get good and accurate representation for this movie, but how can they claim that when they literally asked for Indian actors? I honestly doubt there is a serious lack of Middle Eastern actors, and even if there was some here, it would’ve been well worth the effort to go find some (also it’s Disney and I doubt they have a shortage of resources at their disposal) and it seems like this was a conscious choice of casting. This is doing the same thing as whitewashing - it is representing someone who was clearly meant to be of a specific ethnicity with someone who isn’t that ethnicity.
To be blunt, Middle Eastern representation in the film is pretty weak and usually bad at this point in time. And by bad I don’t mean that the few Middle Eastern actors that do get roles are bad, I mean that usually Middle Eastern characters, especially Arabs, are terrorists or are people in some violent organizations or whatever. Although high percentages of Middle Easterns are Muslims (not the other way around though, Muslims aren’t majority Middle Eastern), that’s not a good excuse to make all Middle Eastern characters terrorists. Usually a lot of hate that Muslims get carries over to Middle Eastern people and obviously this affects representation in film. It’s not even acceptable that honestly the miniscule number of characters in film that are Muslim are also usually terrorists/violent, but that’s a whole other problem. As a mass consumer of film, it really hurts that there isn’t a lot of representation of my ethnicity and when there is it’s usually negative. I never see myself or my people on screen. Yes, I know there is Middle Eastern film but I shouldn’t have to rely on that (plus I’m not comprehensively fluent in Arabic to understand it fully). Not only is the lack of good Middle Eastern representation in film just disheartening, but it’s also not helping with our image in the media. It’s undeniable that Middle Easterns have a bad image in the media because of the political turmoil and the terrorists that are Muslim in name only. Middle Eastern people and Muslims desperately need positive and quality representation in film. A lot of people only hear and see that Muslims (and thus ignorance leads to this carrying out to Middle Eastern people) are terrorists and should be feared. There’s also a lot of dislike of the religion itself and many people just see it as oppressive, especially with Muslim women and the hijab (though that in particular is a rant for another time). That’s not just a terrible image to have, but it puts all of us at risk. Having positive and quality Middle Eastern and Muslim characters can not only show that we’re good and normal people but the better image would also make people discriminate against us less and commit less hate crimes against us. Not everyone will be able to make Middle Eastern or Muslim friends, but most people will have access to film and will recognize and love good characters.
When I first heard that Disney was making a live-action adaptation of their Aladdin, I was excited but worried. And it turns out I was right to be worried. Disney has a HUGE reach worldwide. With this movie, they could’ve made a phenomenal impact on Middle Eastern representation. If they had an accurately Middle Eastern cast, then they could’ve kickstarted not only better Middle Eastern representation in the media but also the casting of more Middle Eastern actors. Although they had said that they were going to give us proper representation, they have a significant amount of people who aren’t Middle Eastern. When I first saw some of the Middle Eastern cast, especially Mena Massoud (who is fully Egyptian) as Aladdin, I was excited because I thought Disney was gonna pull their marvelous enhancement to their original animated stories like they did with the jungle book and beauty and the beast and also give us the good representation we deserve. I loved Aladdin as a kid and I still love the original now. Although I had some small problems with it, the movie as a whole was acceptable as a classic and it was an amazing movie. And Jasmine was a pretty, strong, smart Arab female and that was inspiring to me and it still is inspiring. I mean the line “I am not a prize to be won”? That line is pure feminism and empowerment. Sometimes for fun, I would imagine her as a hijabi and that was and still is one of my favorite fantasies for representation. But then I found out that they cast Naomi Scott as Jasmine and that she had no Middle Eastern roots whatsoever. I felt crushed, I still feel crushed. An accurate cast for her would’ve been so inspiring, not just to me, but also the little girls. They could’ve had a strong Middle Eastern princess but now little girls just won’t get that inspiration and role model but rather someone from a different ethnicity. You think it’s nice to tell them “oh, you could’ve had a strong female princess who’s like you but instead we’re picking someone else”? I’m an adult and I don’t like hearing that. Worst of all, a lot of them might not even find out and they just won’t have the princess they deserved.
Honestly, this casting choice is an insult to us and us Middle Easterns need and deserve accurate representation. Disney could’ve given us a much-needed breakthrough in representation, but they decided not to. Please help me boost this because we deserve to be heard. The movie Aladdin is supposed to be a movie to represent us and I don’t think Naomi Scott (or the other actors excluding will smith that should be Middle Eastern) should represent us.
