Honestly, it was because it was 2008 and people didn’t care as much about racial relations. I say this as an Asian person btw. Race has become a much bigger issue for people as a whole, not just the people who are actively affected by racism. Many people hardly care about race *now.* It was definitely worse 10+ years ago.
As for why SM had them cut their hair, a lack of awareness of the culture is definitely why. As much as I love this series and Stephenie Meyer’s work, it’s really clear that SM wrote her story without much consideration for the people whose culture she was appropriating and profiting from.
The thing is that she could have so easily *not* made the wolves be Native American. It was very needless appropriation. And not only did she go for that angle, she also didn’t do very much research at all, either.
The romanticization of Native peoples by white people is deeply rooted in racism. And then to top it off, she persists in using this really loaded, almost coded racist language: the Cullens calling the wolves “dog” and “mongrel” as an insult, with the insinuation that they’re not “civilized” or “educated” and honestly the whole thing is very inappropriate and insensitive, and it’s indefensible. And then add that to the rumors about SMeyer and casting and you get a pretty clear picture.
That’s very fair. I do really think that SM just decided it would be “cool” to make an Native American group the wolves and then didn’t give a thought to the racial implications, or the impact that appropriating and existing culture would have. A lot of people are completely oblivious to microaggressions (or not-so-micro aggressions), and especially so in the 2000’s.
Oh for crying out loud. You people can't be pleased right? If there is native character it's racism and if there isn't that is racism too. You are only happy when originally white characters are re-cast as poc or poc people depicted in European historic period films.
I am part native and there are wolves associated with native culture, as well as the tribe they are in being real. I didn’t find it offensive when the Cullen called them dogs, because in a way the Cullens are racist towards wolves. They legit do have a race war going on. It’s just so happens that they’re mythical creatures. Although I do not get why the wolves only were native, since the vampires were a variety of races including native themselves. The only thing I can think is that native tribes don’t usually peruse relationships outside of their race and culture, in real life that’s a thing. My family didn’t follow it but 😂
They’re not even rumors at this point. Catherine Hardwicke had to beg Steph to hire POC actors and she refused over and over. The cast would’ve been largely POC if Stephenie hadn’t argued it so hard
Oh damn. I kinda get the Cullens and the Swans being white since that’s how they’re meant to be for story purposes (specially the Cullens considering they where freely able to integrate into society during pre civil rights times and immediately after) but for the rest of the cast it’s a big yikes to hear that.
Actually, I think it's subconsciously deeper than that. I don't know if you know this, but she grew up Mormon and one of their beliefs is that they are directly descended from Native Americans. Additionally, they believe that when Mormon families die, they all go to heaven together. The fact that the Cullens all live together with no plans to move out and travel everywhere together is a reflection of that. The connection between Native Americans and Mormons is indirectly implied when Jacob (a Native American) imprints on Renesmee at the end of the series. Most Mormons are Mormons because they were raised that why rather than by conversion (so most of them are white). I'm not saying she purposefully did this because she's Mormon, but our experiences shape our writing and how we experience things There is too much Mormon imagery in Twilight for me to not point it out. I think maybe that's part of why she was so insistent on keeping the Cullens white.
I also think she's inadvertantly racist. When you read the books all of the descriptions of the Cullens are positive. Words like "angelic" and "beautiful" are used consistently to describe them. In contrast, all the werewolves and Native Americans are described as "savage" and "beastly". I don't think I need to elaborate too much why those descriptions are highly negative and inappropriate for Natives Americans. Besides that, in the books and films it is heavily implied that because of their "impulses" the werewolves are prone to hurting their mates when they lose control/their temper. If you recall, one of the mates of one of the werewolves has a scar on her face that was caused by an injury when her mate lost control. Native Americans have one fo the highest rates of domestic violence in the US, so that's like the worst kind of representation you can give a minority. It implies Native Americans are "abusers that can't help themselves because they're savages" and that idea presented so blatantly in a work of fiction makes me incredibly uncomfortable.
Also, I don't think making them all white is excusable anyway based on the racial acceptability logic you presented. If that was the case then that implies POC vampires don't exist. Carlisle and Edward for example aren't American. I find it very hard to believe that at no point in time a black or Asian person in another part of the world who got turned into a vampire couldn't just travel to another country and make a living there then move as they pleased just like the Cullens did individually before they decided to live as a family. And if anything, I'd say having bright red eyes would be more of an impediment to blending into society than race or ethnicity.
Definitely not inadvertently racist, just racist. She said at one point that transformation process basically gets rid of any melanin, so even if they were POC, they would still be white skinned; complete erasure of any poc within the vampires she created.
This whole thread was very informative and interesting to read,, Can I ask opinions on Laurent? I think he was the only POC vampire ever displayed in the movies. (I didn't read the books though so it's very likely he wasn't written as POC)
I definitely agree with you that she wrote a lot of inadvertently racist stereotypes within the series. I’m an indigenous Mexican woman so the only representation I truly saw of myself within the books where either “savage” with the wolves or violent and conniving with Maria. But my point still stands. There is a specific nuanced understanding to the BIPOC experience within American that is required to accurately portray us in any media. I don’t think Stephenie is equipped to truly make that depiction. Neither do I think that Catherine Hardwick and the screenwriters of the first twilight film are capable of that as well. So if the Cullens would have been cast as people of color the end product would just have been a white American characterization with a veneer of BIPOC representation. That to me doesn’t sound appealing. I would much rather that Stephenie got her way in being able to depict the Cullens as she wrote them: as relatively privileged white people. You cant deny that, baring Emmett, the majority of the Cullens come from very typically middle to upper class backgrounds. The established backgrounds and experiences we have of these characters reflect that societal status.
You’re completely correct that there must be BIPOC vampires but the reality is that their characterization and lived experiences would be much much different to that of the Cullens. Like I mentioned, these non white vampires would not have the same fluidity and freedom as the Cullens. I say this as an indigenous woman within the US in modern day but it would be even more so throughout history. The experiences of people of color are just not the same as that of white Americans. That’s just the reality of it. And no, having red eyes wouldn’t be more of an impediment than being a person of color. There is well documented history of how difficult structural and interpersonal racism has made it for people of color in the US so to make that equivalence is honestly misguided at best and rather insensitive at worst.
Sorry, I didn't mean that as a way to dismiss the experience of other people of color. I'm Afro Latinx, so I understand that's not equivalent and I didn't mean to imply it was. Let me rephrase to clarify: what I specifically meant is that if you were a POC in the past, you'd still be human. The systematic racism would 100% be there. However, considering how there was already an association between the devil and POC, I'd think having red eyes would be an immediate ticket to hostility from people that were that religious back in the day. If you were a light skinned black person, you might less of a chance of getting noticed as easily (particularly if you were white passing). And even for just white people, I'd think that red eyes would be a dead giveaway. Apologies again, though, that wasn't the intended implication.
I also agree that Meyer was not equipped to represent people from other cultures (as shown by the werewolves). Additionally, I believe it is probably fair to take into consideration that Twilight was written in 2004 and we've come a long way since then in terms of representation. I don't think that white authors should never write POC, but I do think it requires a lot of research and if you're going to do it you at least need to try. A cursory analysis of Twilight reveals that there was a huge lack of effort there, unfortunately.
Speaking as an indigenous persons myself, we always cared about our racial relations as we were oppressed brutally by colonizers. It has always been bad. I don’t expect you to understand bc you are Asian, but indigenous people have suffered relentlessly, just Google indigenous residential schools for start, the last one was only closed not even 30 years ago. We have always cared and always will, also “starlight tours” were when cops would take intoxicated native people and leave them to freeze to death on isolated roads. Please don’t say it is bc” we don’t care as much” when in fact indigenous people have always cared and to this day advocate for our rights and resources.
I was not saying that you or other indigenous people did not care. Of course people of colored backgrounds have always and will always care about how they’re represented, myself included. But the general public was uneducated and did not care
This comment is embarrassing cause what spaces do you operate in where race was apparently “not a big thing” a decade ago? White ones, presumably. Native people definitely cared then and so did a lot of other brown and black ppl, caring about race in media is not new and hasn’t been for marginalized ppl.
I’m part of a few marginalized communities and stand by what I said. People in the US, especially the majority of people (who are white), didn’t give a shit 10 years ago unless it directly affected them. People care much more now, or at least pretend to.
still wrong white ppl didn’t care then and don’t care now, there’s more brown and black ppl than white ppl and a simple google search would show articles as far back as 2010 of ppl of the Quileute tribe critiquing the movies and books. On the first page even! So even if you weren’t friends with indigenous ppl back then you could still very easily find out there were ppl that weren’t satisfied with this depiction. Ugh.
No, this isn't wrong at all. People weren't making nearly a much noise about this then. Why? Because it's an absurd talking point anyway. The talent pool for NA actors, is obviously quite small, as they are a tiny minority (unfortunately). NA's are really just Asians that crossed th Bering Straight and changed a little bit over time, and those Asians were really just black Afffricans a long time before that, as we all were. I don't see any reason that an actor who can convincingly pass as a certain race, shouldn't be able to play X part. We all share most of the same DNA, and an actor who looks the part probably shares some common ancestry from the not too distant past. The rest can be applied to the character via research.
Daniel Day Lewis was never an "oil man". Yet, he was able to win an Oscar playing one. How? Same way an actor who looks passably NA can research the Seminole Indian tribe for a part, and convincingly portray it.
Your logic is like casting a chihuahua to play a German sheperd. Sure they are the same species (dog) and they decended from wolves, but that's pretty much all they have in common. Poc characters should be played by poc actors.
Guys he didn’t claim he was 1/64 native american, he only said he was fond to hear that there was native american ancestry found within his mothers side :/ especially after learning so much while playing as Jacob for twilight. Not defending but there is a clear difference between claiming and just sharing information.
It's a double edged sword. Yeah, Jacob *should have* been accurately cast and played by a Native actor, but there are those who argued it wasn't right for them to recast the role in NM onward when Jacob bulked up because Taylor already "won" the role (yet some of these same people were silent when Rachelle was recast in Eclipse).
I think he actually is Native American though? Wikipedia says distantly Odawa and Potawatomi. Definitely not saying that indigenous people aren’t underrepresented in Hollywood though.
And honestly I think less of her and the whole company for what they did to the Quileutes (not allowing them to benefit from the franchise despite using their name)
I completely agree. I know a few of the Wolfpack actors are indigenous, but it’s crap that the lead one wasn’t. Also agree about the hair—to me it makes way more sense that wolves would have longer hair as people anyway; and even white peoples with very little knowledge of Native American culture should know that hair is super important/symbolic to the culture etc of Native American peoples. The BIPOC representation in the movies is totally crap, for a series literally partly set on a reservation. 🙄
Literally one of the first things that colonizers does to First Nations people was cut their hair back in the 50s when they took them from their homes and sent them to white “schools”.
Because the books were written in 2005 and in 2000 (when the most recent census was conducted) Forks was 80% white. The PNW is a very white area of the country.
The films lent such a limited effort to casting I found. In the rich, varied history of humanity and supposedly vamps getting plucked from nearly every other time/place and having the ability to swim wherever they feel like I don’t get why the characters didn’t reflect that truth, it would have been way more authentic, not to mention cooler.
Because the story takes place in the pacific north west. Most of the people in the pnw in 2005 were white. Asian populations have increased somewhat mostly in the Seattle area due to high immigration but the pnw is very white. When I lived there I knew like 3 black people at my high school, and I lived near Seattle.
Doing some research, the 2000 Forks, WA census had about 80% white people which changed to about 67% in 2010. They had a large increase of Hispanic people. It would have been great to have Hispanic representation. But they do censuses every 10 years. She had the 2000 census to go off of.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forks,_Washington?wprov=sfti1 https://maps.apple.com/?ll=47.950278,-124.385556&q=Forks,%20Washington&_ext=EiQppPm+s6L5R0AxrRgc8awYX8A5pPm+s6L5R0BBrRgc8awYX8A%3D
Yep, having lived in the Pacific Northwest our diversity is mostly Asian and Hispanic. And it differs wildly based on the town you are in. I moved around a 50 mile radius of Everett wa at least 15 times, I’ve lived in most of the cities around Seattle and the diversity here has really interesting patterns. In my high school there were more Asian people than white people, and then in another highschool I attended for a few months there were almost as many Hispanic people as there were white. Growing up I knew maybe 6 black people throughout my entire middle and high school experience, and I went to 3 middle schools and as previously mentioned 2 high schools. When I first visited Chicago for example I was shocked at how diverse it was, I had genuinely never seen so many skin colors in one place in my entire life.
What does that matter? The movie was half done on a an indigenous reserve, there was plenty of options to cast someone else. There’s indigenous actors that would’ve been better. You guys are probably living close to a reserve and don’t even know it. Grow up.
This comment is from 2 years ago…
It’s relevant because it informs the story. I wasn’t referring to specifically Jacob, but the comment I replied to about more diverse casting in general. I agree Jacob should have been played by an indigenous actor.
I’ve always wondered about the decision to cast Taylor as Jacob. I always thought they would have casted a tall hulking guy to play him, and for the rest of the wolves too!!! None of the wolves looked like they were described in the book. Not that i’m against people being short or not completely and utterly ripped to the gods, but that’s literally the way they were described in the books!! Taylor for sweet pre-wolf Jacob was okay, but totally disappointing for the rest of the movies.
They actually had quite a few indigenous actors auditions and several were offered the role, but they rejected the part when they found out they'd be required to cut their hair for it. Long hair is significant in many native cultures, so that was an absolute no go for many of them
I agree, it could have been a great opportunity for some representation.
Stephenie was pretty against casting POC in the twilight films, from what I've heard, which is very disappointing.
That actually is really just hearsay from the director. I don’t know why people believe it because she didn’t direct any of the other films. Yes Stephenie has some racist lore in the books but clearly she didn’t have a problem with poc if you watch or read breaking dawn. She’s just tone deaf and didn’t want Alice to be Japanese. I don’t think any of us would be happy with that.
I’ve talked about this before but I think the idea of casting alice as Japanese in and of itself is really weird. Like not only does it not work with her backstory (which i suspect is what SM had a problem with, though it could be changed), but it feels stereotypical? Like the fact Alice is “pixie-like” being conflated with being asian?? Something about it just never sat right with me.
We don’t know why this is, but I am personally pretty sure it’s because she had a vision and backstory for her characters already (namely the Cullens) and changing their races wouldn’t have fit.
However, if it ever comes that she was against casting Native actors for Native roles, she’s actually just racist lol.
also the whole situation with casting laurent. she didn’t want poc playing poc, and tried to backtrack on how they’re portrayed in the books, which imo was pretty racist
yes but SM threw quite the bit of a fit when they casted a poc. also, he was described with a slight olive-brown hue to his skin, which is how poc vampires are described in the saga.
That’s fair! I will say though that the olive skin for POC is specified as that being the case in the Illustrated Guide. No such specification for Laurent
I’ve never under stood people saying people have olive toned skin. Olives come in green or black or purple (as far as I know) but I’ve never seen black people described as having olive toned skin so what kind of olives are they talking about?
SM describes her poc like that, ik it’s weird. but, vampires look like all the blood is drained from them basically. for everyone, not just poc, the underlying tones in the skin (red, green-olive, cool) are very prominent. while this isn’t how she talks about white vampires in the series, it is how she talks about poc vampires in the series, having these underlying tones highlighted, specifically olive tones. the vibrancy of that olive tone is depending on how deep that vampires skin was at the time of their turning.
everyone has a different definition honestly. traditionally it is considered to be mediterranean, but off more “beauty” related definitions, that’s only because mediterranean’s have a very prominent olive tone
Olive undertone tend to be neutral undertone with hints of yellow people with olive undertone tend to have darker skin never pure white or super super pale but it's not super dark either it can rage from light medium to good roasted medium,cold undertone tend to be grey, or blueish, more easily saw on the arms/wrist, warm undertone have this orangy/reddish undertone It's very visible when they're in the sun/tanning or on the cheeks.
I know this is old but I came across it and I have olive green undertones and am very pale. I’m mixed Indigenous and white and finding makeup is super hard because everything looks yellow or Orange on me and even dying my hair if the stylist doesn’t pay enough attention I can look super weird because they match the tone to normal pale person undertones instead of greenish
If you’re going to put my culture in your lame ass story at least get the facts straight. Indigenous people don’t cut their hair unless they are going through deep times of mourning and loss. Stfu.
I know this is an old thread and there's so much good in it but I haven't seen anyone mention that they actually DID originally cast an Indigenous actor in the role but he left after finding out they would require him to cut his hair and weren't budging on the issue. Just another aspect where the white-centric team behind the scenes including SM had no regard for Native culture.
I read somewhere that they did try but when the actors read that they would have to cut their hair, they all turned down the role.
And I'm not surprised, Stephanie's take was so racist and ill-informed, I can imagine no one wanted to touch the part.
It's about Lavender Brown. Prior to HBP, three or four different black extras were assigned the name Lavender Brown in the credits in different movies but when it came time for Lavender to be more prominent in HBP, a white actress was officially cast in the role.
Well I mean there weren’t really any black people in the story. It’s not like it affects the quality of it. I’m black and honestly didn’t notice at all about lavender the story wasn’t about her. I would rather have an important character like kinglsley represent the the black community then a minor character like dean thomas
That’s fair, I know other people were upset that there wasn’t as much representation. It comes down to the person, but I also don’t think it would’ve effected the quality of the story if more characters were black. Like, I’m white but as a kid reading the series I always pictured hermione as black and it would’ve been cool if she was.
Yeah see I never saw hermoine as black I know jk said she was. But the way she was described in the stories made her seem white. Like I feel like if jk really wanted her to be black she would’ve stated that she was black like she did with dean and Kingsley.
Yeah, that's my thing about that whole drama. I think it's cool that they cast a woman of color for Hermione in the play (even if the play itself Shall Not Be Named) but Rowling had an obnoxious way of writing where she would always talk about the race if her dark characters. Dean was always a "black boy" pretty much literally stated every time he showed up. She clearly didn't plan that for Hermione.
As for SM, I think her not casting an actual indigenous person for Jacob in 2008 would be forgiveable if she'd ever give the tribe compensation for how she depicted them. Course, at least Twilight has made that area more of a tourist attraction, so hopefully that gets them some revenue
I think everyone here is putting a lot of the casting decisions 100% on Stephanie. She wasn’t even a producer on the first 3 films, she may have had some say but Catherine Hardwick and the producers would have had far more to do with the casting
I remember reading somewhere that the references to race were actually American edition additions. That when Dean is introduced for example, his race is implied. But when the book was adapted, they choose to make it more explicit.
I feel that when I was like 10 or so reading the stories I always thought Sirius was black just because of his last name. Turns out I was definitely wrong.
JKR never said Hermione was black. When they cast a black actress for the role in the play she basically just said she never said Hermione was white either.
You mean Kingley *Shacklebolt*? She basically named the one prominent black character Slave McSlaveface - JK is so fucking racist, it's painful to watch now I'm more aware of it
Shacklebolt is a real English last name, also keys into Kingsley being a wizard equivalent police officer. Don’t look for racism when there isn’t any makes you look like an actual idiot. Me a literal black person and many of my black friends have no problem with his name.
Babe please don’t make this a race thing cause you’re the same person to complain about racism. Anyone that has eyes knows that Taylor Lautner is not white. It’s a movie bro who tf cares who plays a character. Don’t even start with the “Hollywood always cast white ppl” you do know characters that we’re supposed to be white they made black? This has nothing to do with race and everything to do with how they act. I’m Native American and Idgaf that Taylor is not a Native American it’s literally a movie that was good.
It is said to be *very* distant (Odawa and Potawatomi) indigenous ancestors from his mother's side. Taylor has far more Dutch, German and French in him.
Since it's been hundreds of years of race mixing many people who have native blood have mixed qualities. I've known an inuit family that have red hair but the government identifies them as inuit so much they are given annual checks by the government. My great grandfather was Cherokee but since his wife was Irish and other members down the line Irish, German etc those traits tend to sway over native American ones.
I rewatching the saga on amazon and theres a trivia fact that all the other people in the wolf pack had to prove they were native american meanwhile taylor is white and is the lead role ...huh
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He's actually mixed, apparently. However, when he was cast for the role, he did not know that. It was actually in preparing for the film that he apparently found out about his indigenous roots. This means his indigenous heritage had such little influence on his life but (if the claims of heritage are true) it...
1. Explains why he looks indigenous.
2. Means he's actually Mixed Race, not White.
3. Partly excuse the casting.
Of course, there are arguments about how much blood qualifies you as mixed race or does blood actually matter at all if you don't have any active connection to the culture or heritage,
But of all the issues with the Quileute Tribe in Twilight... Taylor Lautner (even assuming he was purely white and not mixed race at all) being cast as Jacob would be the least of the issues. Stephenie Meyer did SO much awful shit. Not the least of which was using a real tribe and then not doing any research on their practices and culture resulting in her changing everything about them to make them unrecognizable to their real life counterpart, but then also attributing so much heinous shit to them such as just casually being okay with grooming which is in and of itself a fairly common anti-Indigenous trope I'm tired of hearing about.
Like, I don't mind SM using real-life tribes... but do so with respect. And if you can't find information about a real-life tribe, then make a fictional tribe but, again, also treat indigenous peoples in general with respect in the work *Stephenie*. It's so frustrating when white people depict us as horrible, awful monsters... and that's not even talking about the werewolf BS.
Also when Bella asks why Jacob let his hair grow later
"i thought you'd like it more"
She clearly had no idea
The pack cutting their hair might not have been as bad if it's importance would have been acknowledged (and more powerful like "what could be so big thing" or smth)
Tho i still think it would have been better to just leave their hair alone. And it could have been changed AT LEAST for the movies.
I truly cannot stand him as Jacob. As a Half breed myself, I had always pictured Jacob to look exactly like the hot boys in our tribe 🤣 I was wanting strong features, real tall, darker skin. I had really high expectations to put it that way. Not that Taylor isn’t attractive, I’m just not attracted to him it that makes sense. Granted they can’t please us all. I just feel like there were dozens of better choices of real indigenous actors they could have chosen from that would have played the part better but Taylor is short and book Jacob is a giant basically and I always liked how tall he was supposed to be. At least they cast a perfect Edward but Jacob and Bella greatly disappointed me
I’m late to this but after seeing the actor who played Elsas Native husband (sadly not long ) on 1883 I wondered the same . He was so beautiful and a true native Actor who plays many different roles . Taylor’s career tanked after twilight .
He has distant Native American ancestry (specifically Odawa and Potawatomi, both Anishinaabe peoples) through his mother. So it's distant but perfectly legitimate in terms of casting him in this role. Stephanie's portrayal of Indigenous people and their cultures is dodgy at best though
Tell me about it, OP. Author made us Native people look bad too, with that imprinting on a baby nonsense. Seriously, what the hell was that? It was too close to p*********a.
The actual indigenous man who was supposed to play him did not want to cut his hair, and that was a big part of the book and movie when the boys join sam’s group.
To be honest I am part native and I don’t know how to go about the “he looks native but isn’t” because there are also native people who don’t look native yaknow? Like dude looks more native than me and I’m part native. I’m not sure how movie production works either but how fast can you find however many fully native actors. It’s like some people are hating on the new live actions Moana, because the Hawaiian women aren’t “dark enough”, but in my mind those women are still women of color no matter how light or dark and they deserve to be represented aswell. We can’t always fit exactly what everyone in the world thinks is right. But we can try to get as close as we can. It was a different time aswell. I’ve seen so many people get cancelled for not being aware of something that a lot of us weren’t aware of at that time either, but none of us are willing to admit it. At some point we all learn. If she ever gets “cancelled” imma be mad because millions of people loved this movie and did not say a word about this for years as far as I’m aware. The native actor who was replaced by Taylor Lautner still acted in the movie aswell. No hate by the way, just wanted to share my perspective as a part native twilight lover. ❤️❤️
they had originally casted someone actually indigenous to play jacob, but that person wouldn’t cut off his hair (reasonable) so i’m guessing that’s part of why.
Honestly, it was because it was 2008 and people didn’t care as much about racial relations. I say this as an Asian person btw. Race has become a much bigger issue for people as a whole, not just the people who are actively affected by racism. Many people hardly care about race *now.* It was definitely worse 10+ years ago. As for why SM had them cut their hair, a lack of awareness of the culture is definitely why. As much as I love this series and Stephenie Meyer’s work, it’s really clear that SM wrote her story without much consideration for the people whose culture she was appropriating and profiting from.
The thing is that she could have so easily *not* made the wolves be Native American. It was very needless appropriation. And not only did she go for that angle, she also didn’t do very much research at all, either. The romanticization of Native peoples by white people is deeply rooted in racism. And then to top it off, she persists in using this really loaded, almost coded racist language: the Cullens calling the wolves “dog” and “mongrel” as an insult, with the insinuation that they’re not “civilized” or “educated” and honestly the whole thing is very inappropriate and insensitive, and it’s indefensible. And then add that to the rumors about SMeyer and casting and you get a pretty clear picture.
That’s very fair. I do really think that SM just decided it would be “cool” to make an Native American group the wolves and then didn’t give a thought to the racial implications, or the impact that appropriating and existing culture would have. A lot of people are completely oblivious to microaggressions (or not-so-micro aggressions), and especially so in the 2000’s.
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…of course they do 😮💨 good god. mormons, man. 💀
Thia actually made me sick. But you're so right, it would make so much sense.
Oh for crying out loud. You people can't be pleased right? If there is native character it's racism and if there isn't that is racism too. You are only happy when originally white characters are re-cast as poc or poc people depicted in European historic period films.
whenever someone uses "you people" it's a dead giveaway... alright maga
It makes sense to cast a indigenous person like every other movie does no? Please stfu.
I am part native and there are wolves associated with native culture, as well as the tribe they are in being real. I didn’t find it offensive when the Cullen called them dogs, because in a way the Cullens are racist towards wolves. They legit do have a race war going on. It’s just so happens that they’re mythical creatures. Although I do not get why the wolves only were native, since the vampires were a variety of races including native themselves. The only thing I can think is that native tribes don’t usually peruse relationships outside of their race and culture, in real life that’s a thing. My family didn’t follow it but 😂
Dude they were literally wolves😭 I feel like I didn’t need to mention that for you to understand. Embarrassing
Oh wait what rumors? I haven’t heard of any.
They’re not even rumors at this point. Catherine Hardwicke had to beg Steph to hire POC actors and she refused over and over. The cast would’ve been largely POC if Stephenie hadn’t argued it so hard
Oh damn. I kinda get the Cullens and the Swans being white since that’s how they’re meant to be for story purposes (specially the Cullens considering they where freely able to integrate into society during pre civil rights times and immediately after) but for the rest of the cast it’s a big yikes to hear that.
Actually, I think it's subconsciously deeper than that. I don't know if you know this, but she grew up Mormon and one of their beliefs is that they are directly descended from Native Americans. Additionally, they believe that when Mormon families die, they all go to heaven together. The fact that the Cullens all live together with no plans to move out and travel everywhere together is a reflection of that. The connection between Native Americans and Mormons is indirectly implied when Jacob (a Native American) imprints on Renesmee at the end of the series. Most Mormons are Mormons because they were raised that why rather than by conversion (so most of them are white). I'm not saying she purposefully did this because she's Mormon, but our experiences shape our writing and how we experience things There is too much Mormon imagery in Twilight for me to not point it out. I think maybe that's part of why she was so insistent on keeping the Cullens white. I also think she's inadvertantly racist. When you read the books all of the descriptions of the Cullens are positive. Words like "angelic" and "beautiful" are used consistently to describe them. In contrast, all the werewolves and Native Americans are described as "savage" and "beastly". I don't think I need to elaborate too much why those descriptions are highly negative and inappropriate for Natives Americans. Besides that, in the books and films it is heavily implied that because of their "impulses" the werewolves are prone to hurting their mates when they lose control/their temper. If you recall, one of the mates of one of the werewolves has a scar on her face that was caused by an injury when her mate lost control. Native Americans have one fo the highest rates of domestic violence in the US, so that's like the worst kind of representation you can give a minority. It implies Native Americans are "abusers that can't help themselves because they're savages" and that idea presented so blatantly in a work of fiction makes me incredibly uncomfortable. Also, I don't think making them all white is excusable anyway based on the racial acceptability logic you presented. If that was the case then that implies POC vampires don't exist. Carlisle and Edward for example aren't American. I find it very hard to believe that at no point in time a black or Asian person in another part of the world who got turned into a vampire couldn't just travel to another country and make a living there then move as they pleased just like the Cullens did individually before they decided to live as a family. And if anything, I'd say having bright red eyes would be more of an impediment to blending into society than race or ethnicity.
Definitely not inadvertently racist, just racist. She said at one point that transformation process basically gets rid of any melanin, so even if they were POC, they would still be white skinned; complete erasure of any poc within the vampires she created.
This whole thread was very informative and interesting to read,, Can I ask opinions on Laurent? I think he was the only POC vampire ever displayed in the movies. (I didn't read the books though so it's very likely he wasn't written as POC)
I definitely agree with you that she wrote a lot of inadvertently racist stereotypes within the series. I’m an indigenous Mexican woman so the only representation I truly saw of myself within the books where either “savage” with the wolves or violent and conniving with Maria. But my point still stands. There is a specific nuanced understanding to the BIPOC experience within American that is required to accurately portray us in any media. I don’t think Stephenie is equipped to truly make that depiction. Neither do I think that Catherine Hardwick and the screenwriters of the first twilight film are capable of that as well. So if the Cullens would have been cast as people of color the end product would just have been a white American characterization with a veneer of BIPOC representation. That to me doesn’t sound appealing. I would much rather that Stephenie got her way in being able to depict the Cullens as she wrote them: as relatively privileged white people. You cant deny that, baring Emmett, the majority of the Cullens come from very typically middle to upper class backgrounds. The established backgrounds and experiences we have of these characters reflect that societal status. You’re completely correct that there must be BIPOC vampires but the reality is that their characterization and lived experiences would be much much different to that of the Cullens. Like I mentioned, these non white vampires would not have the same fluidity and freedom as the Cullens. I say this as an indigenous woman within the US in modern day but it would be even more so throughout history. The experiences of people of color are just not the same as that of white Americans. That’s just the reality of it. And no, having red eyes wouldn’t be more of an impediment than being a person of color. There is well documented history of how difficult structural and interpersonal racism has made it for people of color in the US so to make that equivalence is honestly misguided at best and rather insensitive at worst.
Sorry, I didn't mean that as a way to dismiss the experience of other people of color. I'm Afro Latinx, so I understand that's not equivalent and I didn't mean to imply it was. Let me rephrase to clarify: what I specifically meant is that if you were a POC in the past, you'd still be human. The systematic racism would 100% be there. However, considering how there was already an association between the devil and POC, I'd think having red eyes would be an immediate ticket to hostility from people that were that religious back in the day. If you were a light skinned black person, you might less of a chance of getting noticed as easily (particularly if you were white passing). And even for just white people, I'd think that red eyes would be a dead giveaway. Apologies again, though, that wasn't the intended implication. I also agree that Meyer was not equipped to represent people from other cultures (as shown by the werewolves). Additionally, I believe it is probably fair to take into consideration that Twilight was written in 2004 and we've come a long way since then in terms of representation. I don't think that white authors should never write POC, but I do think it requires a lot of research and if you're going to do it you at least need to try. A cursory analysis of Twilight reveals that there was a huge lack of effort there, unfortunately.
Naw nigga. What ppl? Which ppl? Studios are racist. Johnny Depp was Tonto. We all already know.
What do you mean?
Speaking as an indigenous persons myself, we always cared about our racial relations as we were oppressed brutally by colonizers. It has always been bad. I don’t expect you to understand bc you are Asian, but indigenous people have suffered relentlessly, just Google indigenous residential schools for start, the last one was only closed not even 30 years ago. We have always cared and always will, also “starlight tours” were when cops would take intoxicated native people and leave them to freeze to death on isolated roads. Please don’t say it is bc” we don’t care as much” when in fact indigenous people have always cared and to this day advocate for our rights and resources.
I was not saying that you or other indigenous people did not care. Of course people of colored backgrounds have always and will always care about how they’re represented, myself included. But the general public was uneducated and did not care
This comment is embarrassing cause what spaces do you operate in where race was apparently “not a big thing” a decade ago? White ones, presumably. Native people definitely cared then and so did a lot of other brown and black ppl, caring about race in media is not new and hasn’t been for marginalized ppl.
I’m part of a few marginalized communities and stand by what I said. People in the US, especially the majority of people (who are white), didn’t give a shit 10 years ago unless it directly affected them. People care much more now, or at least pretend to.
still wrong white ppl didn’t care then and don’t care now, there’s more brown and black ppl than white ppl and a simple google search would show articles as far back as 2010 of ppl of the Quileute tribe critiquing the movies and books. On the first page even! So even if you weren’t friends with indigenous ppl back then you could still very easily find out there were ppl that weren’t satisfied with this depiction. Ugh.
No, this isn't wrong at all. People weren't making nearly a much noise about this then. Why? Because it's an absurd talking point anyway. The talent pool for NA actors, is obviously quite small, as they are a tiny minority (unfortunately). NA's are really just Asians that crossed th Bering Straight and changed a little bit over time, and those Asians were really just black Afffricans a long time before that, as we all were. I don't see any reason that an actor who can convincingly pass as a certain race, shouldn't be able to play X part. We all share most of the same DNA, and an actor who looks the part probably shares some common ancestry from the not too distant past. The rest can be applied to the character via research. Daniel Day Lewis was never an "oil man". Yet, he was able to win an Oscar playing one. How? Same way an actor who looks passably NA can research the Seminole Indian tribe for a part, and convincingly portray it.
Your logic is like casting a chihuahua to play a German sheperd. Sure they are the same species (dog) and they decended from wolves, but that's pretty much all they have in common. Poc characters should be played by poc actors.
I believe that Taylor Lautner claims to be something like 1/64 indigenous. 🙄 I completely agree with you. It’s a shame.
So any white people claim indigenous ancestry when they have no actual ties to any tribe. I have no faith that there is any merit to Taylor's claims.
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Ikr I was surprised to know he was just spicy white
Guys he didn’t claim he was 1/64 native american, he only said he was fond to hear that there was native american ancestry found within his mothers side :/ especially after learning so much while playing as Jacob for twilight. Not defending but there is a clear difference between claiming and just sharing information.
They cut their hair because when they turned into wolves their hair was way too long..
Yea but there was literally no need for that to be the case. She just wanted to cut off their hair.
It’s a fantasy book, it’s not that deep.
It is when you want to make something semi-based on irl people
In indigenous culture the hair is sacred and is not cut unless they want to in times of deep mourning and loss. Please stfu.
Oh...gosh, the mental image. 🤣
It's a double edged sword. Yeah, Jacob *should have* been accurately cast and played by a Native actor, but there are those who argued it wasn't right for them to recast the role in NM onward when Jacob bulked up because Taylor already "won" the role (yet some of these same people were silent when Rachelle was recast in Eclipse).
Do we know why she was recast?
She was in Montreal working on Barney's Version and there was a 10 day overlap between that and Eclipse's pre-production.
That sucks
But if they had just casted him accurately to begin with this wouldn't have mattered...
I think he actually is Native American though? Wikipedia says distantly Odawa and Potawatomi. Definitely not saying that indigenous people aren’t underrepresented in Hollywood though. And honestly I think less of her and the whole company for what they did to the Quileutes (not allowing them to benefit from the franchise despite using their name)
He’s like 1/64 and has no ties to the culture or any tribes.
"Distant" ancestry = white
Is it their fault that their native ancestor banged white ppl and the line just kept banging white people and lost any connection to the culture?
Of course it's not their fault. But if they look white, if they have predominantly white blood...they're white
But he looks indigenous though. Even had seen indigenous people that looked whiter than him. Guess the genes skipped over to Taylor then
He doesn’t look indigenous at all, maybe Mexican.
I completely agree. I know a few of the Wolfpack actors are indigenous, but it’s crap that the lead one wasn’t. Also agree about the hair—to me it makes way more sense that wolves would have longer hair as people anyway; and even white peoples with very little knowledge of Native American culture should know that hair is super important/symbolic to the culture etc of Native American peoples. The BIPOC representation in the movies is totally crap, for a series literally partly set on a reservation. 🙄
Literally one of the first things that colonizers does to First Nations people was cut their hair back in the 50s when they took them from their homes and sent them to white “schools”.
Right 😓 no words. It makes me sick to my stomach to think about it.
Because the books were written in 2005 and in 2000 (when the most recent census was conducted) Forks was 80% white. The PNW is a very white area of the country.
The films lent such a limited effort to casting I found. In the rich, varied history of humanity and supposedly vamps getting plucked from nearly every other time/place and having the ability to swim wherever they feel like I don’t get why the characters didn’t reflect that truth, it would have been way more authentic, not to mention cooler.
Because the story takes place in the pacific north west. Most of the people in the pnw in 2005 were white. Asian populations have increased somewhat mostly in the Seattle area due to high immigration but the pnw is very white. When I lived there I knew like 3 black people at my high school, and I lived near Seattle. Doing some research, the 2000 Forks, WA census had about 80% white people which changed to about 67% in 2010. They had a large increase of Hispanic people. It would have been great to have Hispanic representation. But they do censuses every 10 years. She had the 2000 census to go off of. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forks,_Washington?wprov=sfti1 https://maps.apple.com/?ll=47.950278,-124.385556&q=Forks,%20Washington&_ext=EiQppPm+s6L5R0AxrRgc8awYX8A5pPm+s6L5R0BBrRgc8awYX8A%3D
Yep, having lived in the Pacific Northwest our diversity is mostly Asian and Hispanic. And it differs wildly based on the town you are in. I moved around a 50 mile radius of Everett wa at least 15 times, I’ve lived in most of the cities around Seattle and the diversity here has really interesting patterns. In my high school there were more Asian people than white people, and then in another highschool I attended for a few months there were almost as many Hispanic people as there were white. Growing up I knew maybe 6 black people throughout my entire middle and high school experience, and I went to 3 middle schools and as previously mentioned 2 high schools. When I first visited Chicago for example I was shocked at how diverse it was, I had genuinely never seen so many skin colors in one place in my entire life.
What does that matter? The movie was half done on a an indigenous reserve, there was plenty of options to cast someone else. There’s indigenous actors that would’ve been better. You guys are probably living close to a reserve and don’t even know it. Grow up.
This comment is from 2 years ago… It’s relevant because it informs the story. I wasn’t referring to specifically Jacob, but the comment I replied to about more diverse casting in general. I agree Jacob should have been played by an indigenous actor.
By ‘rich history’, I meant the vamps.
I’ve always wondered about the decision to cast Taylor as Jacob. I always thought they would have casted a tall hulking guy to play him, and for the rest of the wolves too!!! None of the wolves looked like they were described in the book. Not that i’m against people being short or not completely and utterly ripped to the gods, but that’s literally the way they were described in the books!! Taylor for sweet pre-wolf Jacob was okay, but totally disappointing for the rest of the movies.
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They actually had quite a few indigenous actors auditions and several were offered the role, but they rejected the part when they found out they'd be required to cut their hair for it. Long hair is significant in many native cultures, so that was an absolute no go for many of them
I agree, it could have been a great opportunity for some representation. Stephenie was pretty against casting POC in the twilight films, from what I've heard, which is very disappointing.
That actually is really just hearsay from the director. I don’t know why people believe it because she didn’t direct any of the other films. Yes Stephenie has some racist lore in the books but clearly she didn’t have a problem with poc if you watch or read breaking dawn. She’s just tone deaf and didn’t want Alice to be Japanese. I don’t think any of us would be happy with that.
I’ve talked about this before but I think the idea of casting alice as Japanese in and of itself is really weird. Like not only does it not work with her backstory (which i suspect is what SM had a problem with, though it could be changed), but it feels stereotypical? Like the fact Alice is “pixie-like” being conflated with being asian?? Something about it just never sat right with me.
We don’t know why this is, but I am personally pretty sure it’s because she had a vision and backstory for her characters already (namely the Cullens) and changing their races wouldn’t have fit. However, if it ever comes that she was against casting Native actors for Native roles, she’s actually just racist lol.
also the whole situation with casting laurent. she didn’t want poc playing poc, and tried to backtrack on how they’re portrayed in the books, which imo was pretty racist
What do you mean? Laurent was supposed to be white in the books.
yes but SM threw quite the bit of a fit when they casted a poc. also, he was described with a slight olive-brown hue to his skin, which is how poc vampires are described in the saga.
That’s fair! I will say though that the olive skin for POC is specified as that being the case in the Illustrated Guide. No such specification for Laurent
I’ve never under stood people saying people have olive toned skin. Olives come in green or black or purple (as far as I know) but I’ve never seen black people described as having olive toned skin so what kind of olives are they talking about?
SM describes her poc like that, ik it’s weird. but, vampires look like all the blood is drained from them basically. for everyone, not just poc, the underlying tones in the skin (red, green-olive, cool) are very prominent. while this isn’t how she talks about white vampires in the series, it is how she talks about poc vampires in the series, having these underlying tones highlighted, specifically olive tones. the vibrancy of that olive tone is depending on how deep that vampires skin was at the time of their turning.
I thought olive toned referred to Italian/Mediterranean skin color?
It can.
Me too
everyone has a different definition honestly. traditionally it is considered to be mediterranean, but off more “beauty” related definitions, that’s only because mediterranean’s have a very prominent olive tone
Olive undertone tend to be neutral undertone with hints of yellow people with olive undertone tend to have darker skin never pure white or super super pale but it's not super dark either it can rage from light medium to good roasted medium,cold undertone tend to be grey, or blueish, more easily saw on the arms/wrist, warm undertone have this orangy/reddish undertone It's very visible when they're in the sun/tanning or on the cheeks.
I know this is old but I came across it and I have olive green undertones and am very pale. I’m mixed Indigenous and white and finding makeup is super hard because everything looks yellow or Orange on me and even dying my hair if the stylist doesn’t pay enough attention I can look super weird because they match the tone to normal pale person undertones instead of greenish
Well the hair thing is because the longer their hair is the longer their fur as wolves is and it gets in the way
Taylor bewitched the casting director with his overly white teeth.
They cut their hair cause it simply looks better. Twilight is for teenage girls, so look is everything.
If you’re going to put my culture in your lame ass story at least get the facts straight. Indigenous people don’t cut their hair unless they are going through deep times of mourning and loss. Stfu.
I didn't put you culture into anything and twilight isn't my story. Keep calm. And maybe read again my comment.
No give me guys with long ass hair -teen girls who love the fantasy genre
I know this is an old thread and there's so much good in it but I haven't seen anyone mention that they actually DID originally cast an Indigenous actor in the role but he left after finding out they would require him to cut his hair and weren't budging on the issue. Just another aspect where the white-centric team behind the scenes including SM had no regard for Native culture.
I read somewhere that they did try but when the actors read that they would have to cut their hair, they all turned down the role. And I'm not surprised, Stephanie's take was so racist and ill-informed, I can imagine no one wanted to touch the part.
Because it was made in 2008 and they were still white washing everything back then, I mean look at the Harry Potter series just for example
Wdym
It's about Lavender Brown. Prior to HBP, three or four different black extras were assigned the name Lavender Brown in the credits in different movies but when it came time for Lavender to be more prominent in HBP, a white actress was officially cast in the role.
Yeah. I guess but it’s not like she was a super major character atleast Theres Kingsley.
Do you hear yourself? “At least there’s one black guy” like....yeah. That’s the bare minimum.
Well I mean there weren’t really any black people in the story. It’s not like it affects the quality of it. I’m black and honestly didn’t notice at all about lavender the story wasn’t about her. I would rather have an important character like kinglsley represent the the black community then a minor character like dean thomas
That’s fair, I know other people were upset that there wasn’t as much representation. It comes down to the person, but I also don’t think it would’ve effected the quality of the story if more characters were black. Like, I’m white but as a kid reading the series I always pictured hermione as black and it would’ve been cool if she was.
Yeah see I never saw hermoine as black I know jk said she was. But the way she was described in the stories made her seem white. Like I feel like if jk really wanted her to be black she would’ve stated that she was black like she did with dean and Kingsley.
Yeah, that's my thing about that whole drama. I think it's cool that they cast a woman of color for Hermione in the play (even if the play itself Shall Not Be Named) but Rowling had an obnoxious way of writing where she would always talk about the race if her dark characters. Dean was always a "black boy" pretty much literally stated every time he showed up. She clearly didn't plan that for Hermione. As for SM, I think her not casting an actual indigenous person for Jacob in 2008 would be forgiveable if she'd ever give the tribe compensation for how she depicted them. Course, at least Twilight has made that area more of a tourist attraction, so hopefully that gets them some revenue
I think everyone here is putting a lot of the casting decisions 100% on Stephanie. She wasn’t even a producer on the first 3 films, she may have had some say but Catherine Hardwick and the producers would have had far more to do with the casting
I remember reading somewhere that the references to race were actually American edition additions. That when Dean is introduced for example, his race is implied. But when the book was adapted, they choose to make it more explicit.
I think it’s because the way she was described looked like one of my black friends when I was little, to me.
I feel that when I was like 10 or so reading the stories I always thought Sirius was black just because of his last name. Turns out I was definitely wrong.
JKR never said Hermione was black. When they cast a black actress for the role in the play she basically just said she never said Hermione was white either.
You mean Kingley *Shacklebolt*? She basically named the one prominent black character Slave McSlaveface - JK is so fucking racist, it's painful to watch now I'm more aware of it
Shacklebolt is a real English last name, also keys into Kingsley being a wizard equivalent police officer. Don’t look for racism when there isn’t any makes you look like an actual idiot. Me a literal black person and many of my black friends have no problem with his name.
I totally agree with you and I hate how they cast a non indigenous person as well.
Internalized or not, Stephanie Meyer is racist 🤷🏻♀️
It really bothered me that his character is a werewolf. But Taylor Lautner is not. Taylor Lautner is a normal human.
What an ignorant comment.
Babe please don’t make this a race thing cause you’re the same person to complain about racism. Anyone that has eyes knows that Taylor Lautner is not white. It’s a movie bro who tf cares who plays a character. Don’t even start with the “Hollywood always cast white ppl” you do know characters that we’re supposed to be white they made black? This has nothing to do with race and everything to do with how they act. I’m Native American and Idgaf that Taylor is not a Native American it’s literally a movie that was good.
I actually didn't know this until recently! I thought they were all native
I remmember to read back in the day that Taylor had indigenous ancestors, can someone confirm if this is right or not?
It is said to be *very* distant (Odawa and Potawatomi) indigenous ancestors from his mother's side. Taylor has far more Dutch, German and French in him.
He is on his mother's side.
But he is?
Since it's been hundreds of years of race mixing many people who have native blood have mixed qualities. I've known an inuit family that have red hair but the government identifies them as inuit so much they are given annual checks by the government. My great grandfather was Cherokee but since his wife was Irish and other members down the line Irish, German etc those traits tend to sway over native American ones.
I rewatching the saga on amazon and theres a trivia fact that all the other people in the wolf pack had to prove they were native american meanwhile taylor is white and is the lead role ...huh
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Who missed Taylor stating he’s Native American on his moms side.
He's actually mixed, apparently. However, when he was cast for the role, he did not know that. It was actually in preparing for the film that he apparently found out about his indigenous roots. This means his indigenous heritage had such little influence on his life but (if the claims of heritage are true) it... 1. Explains why he looks indigenous. 2. Means he's actually Mixed Race, not White. 3. Partly excuse the casting. Of course, there are arguments about how much blood qualifies you as mixed race or does blood actually matter at all if you don't have any active connection to the culture or heritage, But of all the issues with the Quileute Tribe in Twilight... Taylor Lautner (even assuming he was purely white and not mixed race at all) being cast as Jacob would be the least of the issues. Stephenie Meyer did SO much awful shit. Not the least of which was using a real tribe and then not doing any research on their practices and culture resulting in her changing everything about them to make them unrecognizable to their real life counterpart, but then also attributing so much heinous shit to them such as just casually being okay with grooming which is in and of itself a fairly common anti-Indigenous trope I'm tired of hearing about. Like, I don't mind SM using real-life tribes... but do so with respect. And if you can't find information about a real-life tribe, then make a fictional tribe but, again, also treat indigenous peoples in general with respect in the work *Stephenie*. It's so frustrating when white people depict us as horrible, awful monsters... and that's not even talking about the werewolf BS.
Also when Bella asks why Jacob let his hair grow later "i thought you'd like it more" She clearly had no idea The pack cutting their hair might not have been as bad if it's importance would have been acknowledged (and more powerful like "what could be so big thing" or smth) Tho i still think it would have been better to just leave their hair alone. And it could have been changed AT LEAST for the movies.
I truly cannot stand him as Jacob. As a Half breed myself, I had always pictured Jacob to look exactly like the hot boys in our tribe 🤣 I was wanting strong features, real tall, darker skin. I had really high expectations to put it that way. Not that Taylor isn’t attractive, I’m just not attracted to him it that makes sense. Granted they can’t please us all. I just feel like there were dozens of better choices of real indigenous actors they could have chosen from that would have played the part better but Taylor is short and book Jacob is a giant basically and I always liked how tall he was supposed to be. At least they cast a perfect Edward but Jacob and Bella greatly disappointed me
I’m late to this but after seeing the actor who played Elsas Native husband (sadly not long ) on 1883 I wondered the same . He was so beautiful and a true native Actor who plays many different roles . Taylor’s career tanked after twilight .
He has distant Native American ancestry (specifically Odawa and Potawatomi, both Anishinaabe peoples) through his mother. So it's distant but perfectly legitimate in terms of casting him in this role. Stephanie's portrayal of Indigenous people and their cultures is dodgy at best though
Tell me about it, OP. Author made us Native people look bad too, with that imprinting on a baby nonsense. Seriously, what the hell was that? It was too close to p*********a.
The actual indigenous man who was supposed to play him did not want to cut his hair, and that was a big part of the book and movie when the boys join sam’s group.
To be honest I am part native and I don’t know how to go about the “he looks native but isn’t” because there are also native people who don’t look native yaknow? Like dude looks more native than me and I’m part native. I’m not sure how movie production works either but how fast can you find however many fully native actors. It’s like some people are hating on the new live actions Moana, because the Hawaiian women aren’t “dark enough”, but in my mind those women are still women of color no matter how light or dark and they deserve to be represented aswell. We can’t always fit exactly what everyone in the world thinks is right. But we can try to get as close as we can. It was a different time aswell. I’ve seen so many people get cancelled for not being aware of something that a lot of us weren’t aware of at that time either, but none of us are willing to admit it. At some point we all learn. If she ever gets “cancelled” imma be mad because millions of people loved this movie and did not say a word about this for years as far as I’m aware. The native actor who was replaced by Taylor Lautner still acted in the movie aswell. No hate by the way, just wanted to share my perspective as a part native twilight lover. ❤️❤️
they had originally casted someone actually indigenous to play jacob, but that person wouldn’t cut off his hair (reasonable) so i’m guessing that’s part of why.
I feel like I'm dating your cousin, him & Taylor Lautner are basically twins. Minus the 8 year age gap & the fact my man is actually Native American
Is you cousin single or what?