MovieChat Forums > Ricardo Montalban Discussion > Playing various ethnicities

Playing various ethnicities

posted 2 years ago by kwestmo (4167)
2 replies | jump to latest

I am very old, so I remember white people playing various ethnicities:
Marlon Brando - a Japanese
Rock Hudson - a Native American
Laurence Olivier - a black man (Othello)
and the most ridiculous - Sean Connery playing an Englishman disguised as a Chinese man.

Even as a young kid "I thought this is dumb. Why not hire the actual ethnicities?"

Then and now, I consider Ricardo the one exception. With his class, style, talent, etc., he could play any ethnicity and make it great.

[–] MCguy (949) a year ago

SAG rule allowed Ricardo to play anyone. Period.

[–] FarmerTed (186) 4 months ago

So did Montalban pass the test playing a Native American such as he did on Bonanza or as Khan Noonian Singh on Star Trek? Sometimes you have to go with dramatic license for the good of the production. I can't imagine anyone else playing Khan in the Star Trek episode Space Seed.