“I think that controversy is a legitimate one. I think fat phobia is real. I think to pretend otherwise causes further harm.”
Actors (and the society in general) are (usually) more aware of what is offensive and which personalities they should and should not represent as the times change.
Source: NBC / Neal Preston / Columbia Pictures / courtesy Everett Collection
Nonetheless, it occurs. It’s particularly problematic when they put on a “costume” (including makeup and hair) to depict someone who isn’t themselves. It’s great for an actor to transform for a job, but when they “transform” into a member of a marginalized or frequently stereotyped population, it eliminates the opportunity for people who are genuinely members of that community to be cast. Furthermore, their portrayal is frequently insulting.
This usually involves race — things like wearing yellowface or blackface — but also involves wearing “fat suits” and even costumes that are supposed to be reserved for religious or tribal meanings.
Source: NBC
Here are eight times actors wore one of these offensive costumes, and at the very least realized their mistake, and nine times they doubled down and got defensive:
1. DIDN’T CARE: Upon being told that his portrayal of Asian character Mr. Yunioshi in Breakfast at Tiffany’s was insulting, Mickey Rooney, a white actor, responded, “I wouldn’t hurt any individual, be they Black, Asian, or whatever,” adding that the backlash “broke his heart” and that he felt horrible for “the folks people offense.”
Source: Paramount Pictures
They hired me to do this overboard, and we had fun doing it,” Rooney said. “Never in all the more than 40 years after we made it — not one complaint. Every place I’ve gone in the world, people say, ‘ … you were so funny.’ Asians and Chinese come up to me and say, ‘Mickey, you were out of this world.'” He did admit that if he had known how outraged people would be, he would not have done it — but instead of apologizing, he said he “forgave” those who were hurt.
Source: Hulton Archive / Getty Images
2. FELT SORRY: In the problematic movie Shallow Hal, Gwyneth Paltrow appeared as the plus-size love interest of a man who was “cursed” to view women not for their appearances, but for their level of kindness, which she has subsequently labeled “a disaster.”
Source: Leon Bennett / Getty Images
Paltrow said she initially realized the picture was problematic when she tried on the fat costume and saw no one was looking at her, making her feel “humiliated.” She later admitted in an interview that it was her least favorite performance and that she hated it.
Source: 20th Century Fox / Courtesy Everett Collection
3. DIDN’T CARE: In the parody movie Tropic Thunder, Robert Downey Jr. portrayed a blackfaced actor. Despite his doubts about the part, he described it as an opportunity to “be Black for a summer in my mind” and ” hold up to nature the insane self-involved hypocrisy of artists and what they think they’re allowed to do on occasion.” It appears that Downey Jr. saw his role as an actor who thought it was acceptable to wear blackface as more of a critique.
Source: DreamWorks / courtesy Everett Collection
It was impossible to not have it be an offensive nightmare of a movie. 90% of my Black friends were like, ‘Dude, that was great,’” he went on. “I can’t disagree with [the other 10%], but I know where my heart lies. I think that it’s never an excuse to do something that’s out of place and out of its time, but to me, it blasted the cap on [the issue]. I think having a moral psychology is job one. Sometimes, you just gotta go, ‘Yeah, I effed up.’ In my defense, Tropic Thunder is about how wrong [blackface] is, so I take exception.”
Source: Matthias Nareyek / Getty Images
4. FELT SORRY: During the annual Victoria’s Secret fashion show, model Karlie Kloss made headlines by wearing a Native American headdress, which is normally worn on special occasions by men who have performed brave actions in war.
Source: Randy Brooke / WireImage via Getty Images
Victoria’s Secret and Kloss both apologized (Kloss claiming she was “truly sorry”), and the dress was removed from the show’s broadcast, a decision Kloss backed.
Source: Mike Marsland / WireImage via Getty Images
5. DIDN’T CARE: Selena Gomez also sparked outrage with her appropriation of a bindi while performing “Come & Get It” at the 2013 MTV Movie Awards. Her detractors included the Universal Society of Hinduism.
Source: MTV
“The song kind of has that almost Hindu feel, that tribal feel. I kind of wanted to translate that,” In justifying her conduct, Selena remarked. “Plus, I’ve been learning a lot about my seven chakras and bindis and stuff. I’ve learned a lot about the culture, and I think it’s beautiful. I think it’s fun to incorporate that into the performance.” She also said if you educate yourself on a culture, “you should have the freedom to enjoy it.”
Source: Tibrina Hobson / Getty Images
6. FELT SORRY: In The Danish Girl, Eddie Redmayne portrays Lili Elbe, one of the first known people to have sex reassignment surgery. Despite the fact that his performance was praised and earned him an Oscar nomination, he believes he would not take the role now. ” I made that film with the best intentions,” he continued, “but I think it was a mistake.”
Source: Focus Features / courtesy Everett Collection
“The bigger discussion about the frustrations around casting is because many people don’t have a chair at the table. There must be a leveling; otherwise, we are going to carry on having these debates,” he continued, responding to criticism that the part should have gone to a trans actor.
Source: Taylor Hill / WireImage via Getty Images
7. DIDN’T CARE: Renée Zellweger wore a fat costume for her part as Pam Hupp in The Thing About Pam. She stressed the importance of looking as much like Pam as possible when discussing the decision: ” Because she seems so familiar; she seems like someone that we recognize and we know.”
Source: NBC
“It just felt really crucial that we came as close to that as we could,” Zellweger added, “in order for you to better appreciate how possible it may be for others to project onto her who they are sure she might be or what sort of person she might be.”
Source: Axelle / FilmMagic via Getty Images
8. FELT SORRY: Sarah Paulson gained 30 pounds and wore a fat suit to play Linda Tripp in American Crime Story. Recognizing the criticism, Paulson stated that the “controversy is a legitimate one. I think fat phobia is real. I think to pretend otherwise causes further harm, and it is a very important conversation to be had.”
Source: Tina Thorpe / FX / Courtesy Everett Collection
She did admit, though, that the decision to wear a fat suit wasn’t solely hers, and that she believed she was cast since she was the proper fit for the part. However, Paulson claims she should have anticipated the response and regrets “not thinking about it more fully. And that is an important thing for me to think about and reflect on. I also know it’s a privileged place to be sitting and thinking about it and reflecting on it, having already gotten to do it, and having had an opportunity that someone else didn’t have. You can only learn what you learn when you learn it.”
Source: Priscilla Grant/Everett Collection
9. DIDN’T CARE: For her music video for “Bounce,” Iggy Azalea wore a sari and a bindi. While some thought it was a fun Bollywood-inspired affair, others claimed it was cultural appropriation, something Azalea never addressed openly.
Source: Universal Music Operations Limited
According to BRTHR, the video’s director, special attention was made to hire an Indian producer and Indian locals. While Azalea did not respond to these specific allegations of cultural appropriation, she did address broader ones in 2019, calling cultural appropriation “subjective” and declaring, “I’m still going to make the same type of music and still be ridiculous and larger than life. So I can’t be that fucking sorry about it.”
Source: Gary Gershoff / Getty Images
10. FELT SORRY: Josh Kiszka, the frontman of Greta Van Fleet, became famous for his onstage Native American-inspired outfits. This year, after being publicly chastised, he apologized and donated to the nonprofit First Nations Development Institute, which helps Native American tribes.
Source: Christopher Polk / Getty Images for Coachella
Kiszka wrote on Instagram about his strong admiration for the Chippewa tribe he grew up with in Michigan, stating he knew “the harm that ignorance can have on marginalized communities,” and that he would never want to propagate it. “Hate, disrespect, and prejudice of any kind are not welcome in this community. As I’ve come into adulthood, I’ve been able to grow and learn. This growth has not stopped and will not stop here.”
Source: Rich Fury / Getty Images for iHeartMedia
11. DIDN’T CARE: Katy Perry sparked outrage when she dressed up as a Geisha in a kimono and performed her song “Unconditionally” at the American Music Awards. She chose the Geisha costume because she adores Japan and “spectacle,” and she thought it complemented the song’s message. “I was thinking about unconditional love, and I was thinking: Geishas are basically, like, the masters of loving unconditionally.”
Source: ABC
Perry responded to criticism by saying she believed people misunderstood her. “All I was trying to do is just give a very beautiful performance about a place that I have so much love for and find so much beauty in, and that was exactly where I was coming from, with no other thought besides it.”
Source: Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images
12. FELT SORRY: In Short Circuit and its sequel, Fisher Stevens, a white man, played an Indian man. He had been promised, however, that the character would be played by a white man. “They rewrote it, and were like, ‘Can you play it?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I can do it. Let me learn.’ Stevens said he was a young actor trying to get his break when it happened, and he said he tried his best to learn about India and its culture before filming.
Source: TriStar / courtesy Everett Collection
Fisher remarked now, reflecting on the part, “It definitely haunts me. I still think it’s a really good movie, but I would never do that part again. The world was a different place in 1986, obviously.”
Source: Michael Loccisano / Getty Images
13. DIDN’T CARE: In Dallas Buyers Club, Jared Leto, a cisgender man, plays a transgender woman. His performance was praised by critics and won him an Oscar, but many people believed a transgender actor should have been hired.
Source: Anne Marie Fox/Focus Features / courtesy Everett Collection
At a Q&A, Leto responded to a heckler who argued he didn’t deserve honors for the part, saying, “Because I’m a man, I don’t deserve to play that part? So you would hold a role against someone who happened to be gay or lesbian — they can’t play a straight part? … Then you’ve made sure people that are gay, people that aren’t straight, people like the Rayons of the world would never have the opportunity to turn the tables and explore parts of that art.”
Source: Elizabeth Goodenough/Everett Collection
14. FELT SORRY: In 1999, Hilary Swank received an Academy Award for her performance as trans man Brandon Teena in Boys Don’t Cry. While she has reaffirmed her decision to cast her, she claims that the same decision would not have been made today.
Source: 20th Century Fox Licensing/Merchandising / Everett Collection
Swank recalls when the film was released, “Trans people weren’t really walking around in the world saying, ‘Hey, I’m trans. Twenty-one years later, not only are trans people having their lives and living, thankfully, [although] we still have a long way to go in their safety and their inclusivity, but we now have a bunch of trans actors who would obviously be a lot more right for the role and have the opportunity to actually audition for the role.”
Source: Hector Mata / AFP via Getty Images
15. DIDN’T CARE: In Soul Man, C. Thomas Howell portrayed a white Harvard student who disguised himself as a Black man in order to obtain a scholarship meant for Black students. Howell noted in a 2013 interview that he’d had rewatched the film and was “shocked at how truly harmless that movie is, and how the anti-racial message involved in it is so prevalent.”
Source: New World Pictures / courtesy Everett Collection
“I still don’t understand, and I guess this is just my own ignorance, the fact that certain people really hate the whole blackface idea, because this isn’t a movie about blackface,” Howell continued. “It’s not like I’m Al Jolson in blackface singing ‘Mammy.’ … It’s 180 degrees from that. It’s an innocent movie, it’s got innocent messages, and it’s got some very, very deep messages. And I think the people that haven’t seen it that judge it are horribly wrong.”
He also termed it “an essential film” and likened its usage of blackface to that of Robert Downey Jr.‘s character in Tropic Thunder, adding that it was acceptable and that Soul Train had a lot more prominent anti-racism message that even taught him about racism.
Source: Bob Riha Jr / Getty Images
16. DIDN’T CARE: Jenette Goldstein, who is Jewish and of Russian, Moroccan, and Brazilian descent, played a Latina woman in Aliens. She used makeup to darken her skin for the role.
Source: 20th Century Fox
Goldstein admitted in a 2016 interview that the same casting would would not happen now, adding that “there should be, obviously, roles available in a wide range of ethnicities, I think.” She did, however, point out that there are Latino Jews, and she argued that you shouldn’t be limited to playing your own ethnicity: “I have never been cast, or given the opportunity to audition for a short, freckle-faced Jewish girl who is half-Russian and half-Moroccan and Brazilian. So I don’t think I would work very much if that’s all I was able to read for.”
Source: Albert L. Ortega / Getty Images
17. And finally, FELT SORRY: Eiza González used blackface for a role in the Mexican telenovela Lola, érase uno vez in the 2000s, then apologized in 2020 when photographs of her wearing it appeared on social media, claiming she was just 15 at the time and was forced to do so. “I am deeply sorry and ashamed about having worn blackface makeup shown in the images circulating,” she said to Page Six.
Source: Televisa / Canal 5
“With no negotiating power, I could not advocate for myself in the situation. I wish I had the voice and knowledge then that I have now,” she added. In contrast, she defended her use of yellowface during a trip to Japan, saying she was told by her host it was “considered an intercultural exchange to dress up in their traditional clothing and makeup” and that it was “seen as an appreciation of their culture,” though out of context, she said it did call “for a dialogue about contemporary cultural appropriation.”
