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        <title><![CDATA[James Earl Jones dragged into Jenny Slate’s ‘Big Mouth’ casting debate]]></title>
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            <media:title type="html">James Earl Jones dragged into Jenny Slate’s ‘Big Mouth’ casting debate</media:title>
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        <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The Darth haters are out in full force.</p><p>Actresses <strong>Jenny Slate</strong> and Kristen Bell might&#8217;ve garnered online praise after <strong>stepping down from voicing biracial TV characters</strong> this week amid accusations of whitewashing. However, online detractors were quick to point out that African American screen legend James Earl Jones voiced a &#8220;white character&#8221; in &#8220;Star Wars&#8221; sans any criticism, sparking a raging Twitter debate on race-appropriate casting.</p><p>&#8220;James Earl Jones played Darth Vader a white guy, no one thought it was weird,&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/cloudwalker08/status/1276082283905245184" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">tweeted one naysayer</a> in response to a post about Slate, 38, portraying biracial character Missy Foreman-Greenwald in Netflix&#8217;s &#8220;Big Mouth.&#8221; He was referencing the fact that Jones, 89, provided the voice for the space opera villain, who was played on screen in &#8220;Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi&#8221; by white actor David Prowse.</p><p>The Twitter film critic added, &#8220;Voice actors bring a voice to a character not a race.&#8221;</p><p>Another social media denizen questioned that sentiment, <a href="https://twitter.com/HardwoodRandy/status/1276087437257838592" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">saying</a>, &#8220;If there&#8217;s a talented voice actor that is race appropriate, cast that actor. It&#8217;s simple.&#8221;</p><p>One Twitter user exhumed an interview Jones did with Dick Cavett in 1972 <strong>in which the legendary actor said</strong> he&#8217;d like to play Ludwig Van Beethoven, who was white.</p><p>However, others balked at the comparison. &#8220;[Jones] was playing a cyborg man in a robot suit, not a white guy,&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/IndieGamerChick/status/1276147281566134273" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">said one</a> social media movie buff. &#8220;He was playing something that doesn&#8217;t exist.&#8221;</p><p><a href="https://twitter.com/mrmattimation/status/1276104257490616321" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Another pointed out</a> that &#8220;<span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">Darth Vader wasn’t even inherently a white character when </span><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-vw2c0b r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">James Earl Jones</span><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0"> took the role, he didn’t become Luke’s father until &#8216;Empire [Strikes Back]&#8217; was being written. </span><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">That was also forty years ago and not at all comparable to a black character being voiced by a white actor in the present.&#8221;</span></p><p>&#8220;James Earl Jones about to apologise for taking a voice acting role away from a lion somewhere in Africa,&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/FishBowlOfWine/status/1276056937260605440" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">quipped one Twitter wit about Jones&#8217; role as Mufasa in &#8220;The Lion King.&#8221;</a></p><p>Some pointed out that a black actor playing a white guy isn&#8217;t reverse racism because the latter doesn&#8217;t experience systemic discrimination.</p><p>&#8220;People of color playing white people doesn&#8217;t have the same long history of discrimination, bigotry, and exclusion,&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/everyfan3417/status/1276147682466291722" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">observed one</a>.</p><p>&#8220;This whole but James Earl Jones played Vader is bulls - - t,&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/OldFuckGCG/status/1276117523440648192" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">fumed another</a> in a Twitter cinema dissertation. &#8220;It&#8217;s about more than actors playing the parts of different races. It&#8217;s about one more way to systematically exclude black people from picking up a f - - king paycheck in Hollywood when they have a hard enough time getting work.&#8221;</p><p>The Post reached out to Jones&#8217; reps for comment about his newfound trending status but did not immediately hear back.</p><p>The online war comes as other controversial media receives the ax following the <strong>deaths of George Floyd</strong> and other black men in police custody. On Wednesday, Hulu <strong>scrapped three episodes of “Scrubs”</strong> that featured characters in blackface, and entertainers ranging from <strong>telenovela actress Eiza González</strong> to <strong>talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel</strong> have faced criticism for unearthed offensive clips.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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