Asian American Media Group Accuses Scarlett Johansson of ‘Lying’ About ‘Ghost in the Shell’ Whitewashing Controversy

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LOS ANGELES: The Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA) has blasted the casting choice of Scarlett Johansson in “Ghost in the Shell” just ahead of the film’s opening weekend. In a statement released Friday, the group condemned the movie’s “whitewashing” of Johansson’s character Motoku Kusanagi who first appeared in the Japanese manga of the same name.

The organization also criticized Johansson’s recent interview on “Good Morning America,” in which the actress said she “would never attempt to play a person of a different race, obviously.” MANAA responded by writing that “she was lying.”

Additionally, the group denounced the casting of Michael Pitt in the role of Kuze in the film, which MANAA said “is revealed to have originally been named Hideo, meaning he too was Japanese.” “Apparently, in Hollywood, Japanese people can’t play Japanese people anymore,” MANAA President Robert Chan said. “There’s no reason why either Motoku or Hideo could not have been portrayed by Japanese or Asian actors instead of Scarlett Johansson and Michael Pitt. We don’t even get to see what they looked like in their original human identities — a further white-wash.” (RTRS)

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