Chinese/Japanese people in the UK: You’re wanted…

[almostwitty]

to be an extra in a film alongside Keanu Reeves. Although it’s unlikely that you’ll actually *be* next to him, of course – unless you’re extremely lucky in the way that I ended up next to Ewan McGregor in a 1990s film shoot…

Anyway, here are the details of what’s wanted:

From: laura@castingcollective.co.uk

Hi

Can you help us find ORIENTAL MEN & WOMEN age between 16 & 90 for a major new feature film starring Keanu Reeves that will be filming in London between April & June 2011?

We are looking for lots of ORIENTAL MEN & WOMEN age between 16 & 90.

If you are of an Oriental ethnic background and already on our database, PLEASE DO NOT come to the open casting as we have already suggested you for this film.

We are hoping you can help by passing this information on to any Oriental friends/family who might like to take part and come along to the casting in the New Year. If you don’t know anyone suitable, please delete this email.

If you are ORIENTAL, not already on our database and unable to make the casting in January, please apply online instead @ http://www.castingcollective.co.uk/oriental and I can contact you with information of future castings for this film.

If you are NOT of Oriental ethnicity, please don’t come to the casting as we wont be able to see & you will be turned away.

WANTED – ORIENTAL MEN & WOMEN TO BE EXTRAS IN A MAJOR NEW FEATURE FILM
STARRING KEANU REEVES FILMING IN THE UK BETWEEN APRIL TO JULY 2011

WARRIOR PRODUCTIONS ARE LOOKING FOR ORIENTAL MEN & WOMEN AGE 16 TO 90

INTERESTED?
PLEASE COME TO OUR OPEN CASTING ANYTIME BETWEEN 10AM TO 6PM
ON SATURDAY 8 JANUARY 2011
AT
THE BOURGOGNE SUITE, HOTEL NOVOTEL LONDON WEST, 1 SHORTLANDS, HAMMERSMITH, LONDON W6 8DR

OR YOU CAN ALSO APPLY ONLINE

http://www.castingcollective.co.uk/oriental

& WE CAN EMAIL YOU ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

WE NEED LOTS OF YOUNG MEN IN PARTICULAR TO BE SOLDIERS SO ANYONE ORIENTAL WITH MARTIAL ARTS, HORSERIDING, ARCHERY, SWORD’S SKILLS ARE PARTICULARLY WELCOME. WE WILL ALSO NEED LOTS OF MEN & WOMEN ASWELL SO EVERYONE CAN APPLY.

IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO ATTEND THE CASTING OR CAN’T APPLY ONLINE, YOU CAN EMAIL laura@castingcollective.co.uk A RECENT PICTURE & ALL YOUR CONTACT DETAILS THEN WE CAN CONTACT YOU DIRECTLY WITH DETAILS OF FUTURE CASTINGS FOR THE FILM. OFFICE TELEPHONE NUMBER 020 8962 0099

PLEASE BRING YOUR PASSPORT, WORK PERMIT/VISA & NI NUMBER TO THE CASTING – WE HAVE TO PROVE YOU CAN LEGALLY WORK IN THE UK

WARRIOR PRODUCTIONS LTD
GOOD RATES OF PAY

Many thanks for your help.

Laura@CC

Mirrored from almost witty.

Comments

[actionreplay.livejournal.com]

So they want people with specialist skills but are not willing to pay Equity rates for them? Hmmmm

[almostwitty]

As I understood it, Equity rates only apply to Equity-registered *actors*.

These folk are looking for extras, perhaps with a special skill, but no acting is actually required. Just background noise, really.

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

So, wait, they think that the UK movie viewing audience can't tell the difference between Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese actors?

[almostwitty]

Most of them won't even care, let alone tell the difference.

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

But... it's glaringly obvious.

[almostwitty]

Is it? I can't always tell. And drunk Eastern Europeans often ask me if I'm Chinese or Japanese.

Plus, of course, these are meant to be background extras etc.

To be fair, the cause of Western-"Asian" equality/presence is a wee bit behind America. Remember the Spanish basketball team just before the Beijing Olympics doing the slitty-eyed gesture for an advert?

[anivair.livejournal.com]

Or maybe they're filming scenes where the difference doesn't matter. I mean, go to Chinatown sometime. it's not just chinese. You get tons of koreans and japanese there, too.

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

For me the difference between chinese and japanse facial structure is huge. Even more so for Korean facial structure. Korean/Vietnamese is somewhat harder for me for some reason.

[almostwitty]

But in a generic background crowd shot, people's faces are often obscured with hats, or other people etc.

Anyway, I remember once doing a test on alllooksame.com and getting 5 out of 18. Must see if I'm improved since then.

(Although in my defence, there are much more Chinese people here than Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese etc. thanks to the British running Hong Kong till 1997)

[almostwitty]

I just did the test again, and got 2 out of 18. Outstanding.

[madmosh-uk.livejournal.com]

I thought calling someone "oriental" was racist? Or was that last month?

[almostwitty]

It is to American-Chinese folk. British-Chinese folk are more likely to consider it a tad old-fashioned or insensitive.

[madmosh-uk.livejournal.com]

Good grief. This whole language and political correctness thing is a minefield. What *should* you generically call people from the eastern nations (genetically, historically or birthed from parents who hailed from those nations)?

If this PC crap keeps up, we'll need a paragraph to replace each word that's become "racist".

[almostwitty]

I've always been a big fan of Chinese/Japanese/Korean/Vietnamese meself. Or South East Asia.

After all, you wouldn't call a Hungarian a Polish person.

[madmosh-uk.livejournal.com]

But you would call them both "Eastern European". Likewise, I'm both British and English despite being of Welsh and Scots heritage.

So the catch-all phrase for all Chinese, Taiwanese, Philippine, Thai, Vietnamese, Laotian, etc etc is "South East Asian"? Yeah, suppose that's as accurate as you can get! Covers as much as "oriental" is intended to anyway.

I still don't get why one word can be classes ad offensive, but I'm sure there are historic reasons of which I'm not aware.

[almostwitty]

Ye? Welsh? You can't even sing!

As for why Oriental has been deemed offensive, then alicemeichi commented on one of my Facebook statuses:

"in America, the term "Oriental" is considered old-fashioned and only in use by old bigots. Like how "Negro" is now antiquated and offensive. The term "Oriental" (meaning "easter...n") in itself suggests a Western point of view, because -- for instance -- Chinese people in China would not consider themselves eastern. They would just consider themselves.. there. Not to mention, it implies that an Asian person born and raised in any other country (like for instance, America) is not considered truly "American" but is rather "from the East" and therefore, Foreign regardless of their nationality. "

[madmosh-uk.livejournal.com]

I just took it as meaning they were from the Orient - a vague geographic region. And therefore descriptively correct while being non-offensive. I guess people pick up on things with the purpose of *wanting* to be offended at times.

And I'm only 1/2 or 1/4 Welsh depending on how you look at it (parentage / grandparentage). You were flipping born there - what's your excuse? ;)

[almostwitty]

To be fair, it's far more often the intent behind the word than the word itself. Paki is Urdu for beautiful. Negro was a perfectly acceptable word. Waving the British flag around used to be perfectly fine until BNP fascists started co-opting it for their own ends and waving it around became a symbol of fascism to some people.

And I was never born in Wales - how DARE you? I just grew up there. Twice. ;)

[madmosh-uk.livejournal.com]

I always thought you were born in Wales! ah well.

I agree that issues are regularly about interpretation. It just annoys me how many people choose to assume they're being insulted rather than that the other person is using a perfectly innocent meaning of the word in question.

[almostwitty]

Well, when you're insulted all your life for just being somewhere and looking a certain way, you kinda get tired of giving random people the benefit of doubt.

I'm quite often asked if I'm Chinese or Japanese. Not offensive in itself, but years of schoolboy taunting about Chinese/Japanese/dirty knees, means that if I'm asked that in a dinner party, I'm liable to walk away rather than punch someone in the face, which is what I want to do.