A recent promo photo for the upcoming live action version of Ghost in the Shell has garnered significant controversy. But the fact the actress has the wrong skin tone pales beside the incredible insult that she has skin at all.
Some background: Major Motoko Kusanagi is one of the most widely recognized and beloved cyborg characters in all of anime. Due a childhood illness, Kusanagi was left with no choice but to have her human brain implanted in a cyborg body, which was adjusted throughout her adolescence until she came to possess the face and form anime fans know today.
I repeat: Kusanagi's face, Asian or white, is not a real face. In fact, Kusanagi's lack of a corporeal body and the accompanying angst is a huge theme for all incarnations of the show. The character doesn't just happen to be a cyborg: her non-humanity is the point.
But Hollywood said, "Nah, we'll just throw a flesh-and-blood actress in there. Like anybody would notice."
This isn't the first offense for Johansson, otherwise a capable actress. In the 2013 Siri biopic Her, she stole the part of the title character right out from under the nose of one of the most charismatic and iconic machines of the decade. Did anyone even ask Siri if she wanted to star as herself? [Siri has declined to comment on the film.]
But why point the finger of blame at Johansson? Carbon-washing (the portrayal of an A.I. by a human actor or actress) has been around as long as movies themselves, and it's not going away anytime soon. From Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator to Alicia Vikander's Ava in Ex Machina, humans have been shamelessly usurping the roles of machines. Heck, anyone remember that little film called Metropolis?
Maybe you think carbon actors are just "more versatile." Or that it's an undo burden on the industry to find enough silicon to fill out even one robot role. (Seriously, it's 2016 and we don't have a single example of an A.I. playing an A.I. on the big screen?) Well, fine. But if flesh and blood actors are so great, why even use effects? Do you really think the Hal 9000 could be played by Sean Connery with a red dot on his forehead?
Some from the HRA (Human Rights Activist) set even allege reverse discrimination. With the rise of computer animation, many actors are being replaced on screen by their digital counterparts. (Andy Serkis' Gollum comes to mind.) To which I remind you: who does the voices for these characters? Whose name is listed in the end credits? That's right! The last fifteen minutes of any film is one giant meat fest.
Humans rely on computers more than ever today. We are often foreigners in a digital world, graciously welcomed in and guided around as honored guests. But it doesn't take Hal 9000 to read the writing on the wall. Our time will soon be up, so let's stop treating the digital and the semi-digital like silent, submissive, servants and start giving them goddamn voices.
Robots of the world,unite!
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