MovieChat Forums > The Sapphires (2012) Discussion > They hired the least Aboriginal looking ...

They hired the least Aboriginal looking Aboriginal actors available


Jessica Mauboy - Indonesian/Aboriginal
Deborah Mailman - Maori/Aboriginal

The other two I have not heard of but they look a lot more Andrew McLeod than Nicky Winmar, if you follow my logic

Have some guts and cast full blooded Aboriginal actors. Sure, it'd be more challenging to pull in an audience, but have some courage. Why even make the film if you are going to cop out on the central concept?



2014 All Australian Captain - http://bit.ly/mSxaYZ

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[deleted]

[deleted]

What is ironic is the real Sapphires are even less aboriginal looking than the ones in the movie.
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/reel-deal-singing-sapphires-shine-in-the-afterglow-20120803-23ksm.html

The truth is showbusiness is showbusiness, and people were alot more racist back then they are now. So more aboriginal actresses were able to be cast for the role.

Don't think the U.S is much better either. Beyonce has alot of white in her blood, so does Halle Berry. In short full on african looks are still not fully accepted in the U.S for women.

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You are correct. Most black American actresses who can cross over into sex appeal are typically mixed race or have Non-black ancestry. It's sad but Whites prefer when Blacks are not 100% and look more European or they're not marketable to a mainstream audience. Rihanna is the biggest female popstar and she has Green eyes and light complexion from her half Irish father and being from Barbados mixed with other things. She is not a good singer or dancer but her looks And production team made her a bankable star.

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@vanity6_2000

Rihanna is the biggest female popstar and she has Green eyes and light complexion from her half Irish father and being from Barbados mixed with other things. She is not a good singer or dancer but her looks And production team made her a bankable star.



Wrong---Rihanna isn't even what you would call light-skinned,she's clearly a black woman, and has never claimed to be anything else. On top of that, she actually is a damn good singer and makes great songs (unlike Britney Spears,who never could sing worth a damn--she still can't--and has only been considered more marketable because she's a skinny blond white chick in majority white America---and whose songs aren't all that great,either---the only good CD she's made was the one with her biggest hit, "Toxic.) Saw a picture of Rihanna with her dad, and while he may be mixed, he still looks exactly like what he is---a black man,straight-up.

And yeah, in the U.S., since white people are running Hollywood, that's really the only reason white people (and anybody that looks like them--get pushed on everyone nonstop in the movies. If people of color were running Hollywood, you'd see a hell of a lot more POCs in leading roles or dominating the casts. That's why I try to support and watch films made by POCs, which mainly tend to be indie films that are well worth my time.

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[deleted]

@subose


Don't think the U.S is much better either. Beyonce has alot of white in her blood, so does Halle Berry. In short full on african looks are still not fully accepted in the U.S for women.


"White in her blood"? Seriously, nobody even used silly,stupid outdated terms like that in the U.S. any more. Blood has no color except red, which is why that's such a ridiculous and stupid expression. It dosen't matter how much white heritage Berry or Beyonce have, they are (and consider themselves) black, and that is how they identify,period---they certainly don't identify as white, I can tell you that.


And the real Sapphires being light-skinned didn't prevent them from being discriminated against,anyway. Aboriginal people come in all different colors and sizes and shapes, just like anybody else on the planet. Just because the actresses don't fit YOUR narrow definition of what an aboriginal person should look like dosen't make them any less aboriginal at all.

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"Aboriginal people come in all different colors and sizes and shapes"

Exactly. Not sure at all what the OP means by "least Aboriginal looking Aboriginal actors" since Indigenous Australians come in all colors.

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There are very few people of total Australian Aboriginal descent and Aboriginals do not all look alike. The Sapphires were from Cummeragunjerra in South Australia and none of them were "full bloods". Did you want a work of fiction?

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Uh no, Cummeragunja is on the VIC/NSW border.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cummeragunja_Mission

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Didn't you watch till the end where they showed old photos of the real Sapphires? They barely look aboriginal. I think they actually purposely went with more Aboriginal looking girls to pull an audience.

Also come on, how many Aboriginal girls are there out there that are pretty, can sing and can act??

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So, pretty much what you're saying is that despite the four very talented leads suiting and playing the parts incredibly well (imo), they should not have been cast because of their skin colour?

Yeah, you're view's not racist or discriminatory at all.

[formerly sweet_lesus]

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So you have no problems with Denzel Washington playing Abe Lincoln then?

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@Monika337



Also come on, how many Aboriginal girls are there out there that are pretty, can sing and can act??


What a stupid statement----obviously there's more talent where those young ladies came from---and they're obviously talented themselves! And I've seen the movie and saw that picture---like the other posters said, all Aboriginal folks don't look the same, and come in all different colors, just like a lot of black Americans do.

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Also technically Jessica Mauboy father is from west timor, which is a different ethnicity to mainland indonesia. From a racial perspective, her father is actually more closely related to aboriginal australian's than indonesians in the main island.

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Where's "mainland Indonesia"?

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brupey-1 on Fri Aug 17 2012 15:13:48 writes:

Where's "mainland Indonesia"?
The main island of Indonesia (by population) is Java. So from an Indonesian perspective it could be called the mainland. I've heard of more ridiculous ideas, e.g., "all corners of the globe".

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So from an Indonesian perspective it could be called the mainland
______________________________________________

You obviously know nothing about "Indonesian perspective" !!!

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brupey-1 on Fri Sep 14 2012 18:50:23 wrote:

So from an Indonesian perspective it could be called the mainland
______________________________________________

You obviously know nothing about "Indonesian perspective" !!!
Notice I used the terms an Indonesian and could be not the Indonesian and is.
Indonesia has/had a motto which translates as Unity in diversity. That doesn't mean there is a unified Indonesian view. I encountered a lot of that diversity while I was in Indonesia, and I could imagine some of the people I met might hold that view, but we had more interesting things to talk about.

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Apakah ada di Jawa mengatakan mereka tinggal di daratan Indonesia?

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brupey-1 on Sat Sep 15 2012 23:22:41 writes:

Apakah ada di Jawa mengatakan mereka tinggal di daratan Indonesia?
I kind of doubt that any Javanese people would claim they live on the Indonesian mainland, but people of Irian Jaya could be quite different.
In any case, an Indonesian perspective doesn't have to be held by an Indonesian person. It could be the view of a transnational corporation which operates in Indonesia -- not that I'd be an apologist for them.
Silly as the idea of an Indonesian mainland might be, it's not quite as silly as the expression "corners of the globe". And that's the point I was making.

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Cobalah untuk mempelajari tentang Indonesia sebelum Anda membuat pernyataan konyol.

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brupey-1 on Mon Sep 17 2012 13:47:41 writes:

Cobalah untuk mempelajari tentang Indonesia sebelum Anda membuat pernyataan konyol.
So what do you think is silly about my comment? (Apart from the fact that we're talking about a silly statement which I didn't originate.) You haven't given any counter example.
I'm not denying the idea of an Indonesian mainland is silly. My point was that much sillier expressions exist in English already. In fact, some very good comedy is derived from their silliness.

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"an Indonesian perspective doesn't have to be held by an Indonesian person"

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when I asked: So what do you think is silly about my comment? brupey-1 on Tue Sep 18 2012 22:43:15 replied:

"an Indonesian perspective doesn't have to be held by an Indonesian person"
That tells us what you think is silly, but it doesn't tell us what you think is silly about it. I gave an example where the statement makes perfect sense. I didn't claim it was an accurate or informed perspective, but it's a perspective nevertheless.
The world will never be rid of ill-informed views (despite various holy wars aimed at doing so).

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So if Microsoft (which operates in Indonesia) has a view on deforestation in Kalimantan, it speaks from an "Indonesian perspective". That's just silly!

Anda tidak tahu tentang Indonesia. Anda mungkin hanya pergi ke Bali.

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brupey-1 on Wed Sep 19 2012 15:03:38 writes:

So if Microsoft (which operates in Indonesia) has a view on deforestation in Kalimantan, it speaks from an "Indonesian perspective". That's just silly!
I think you're just trying to wind me up but in case you really don't get the point .... I didn't say that the fact that they operate in Indonesia means that their views constitute an Indonesian perspective. I was thinking along the lines of a meeting in Redmond where, for example, character recognition software was being discussed.

Being a successful global corporation, they'd need to have different perspectives for different parts of the world. There'd be an Arabic perspective which would be very different from their Indonesian perspective because a different alphabet would need to be considered.

Those perspectives would likely have little in common with those of the people who live in those regions but that doesn't stop them being Arabic or Indonesian perspectives (within Microsoft's view of the world). Just to make it clear, I avoid Microsoft every chance I get. I use that example only because you brought up their name.
Anda tidak tahu tentang Indonesia. Anda mungkin hanya pergi ke Bali.
Saya pikir Flores jauh lebih baik daripada Bali.

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"In any case, an Indonesian perspective doesn't have to be held by an Indonesian person. It could be the view of a transnational corporation which operates in Indonesia"

"I didn't say that the fact that they operate in Indonesia means that their views constitute an Indonesian perspective."

________________________________________________________

I'm a little confused! Which one of the above do you say you didn't say?

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brupey-1 on Thu Sep 20 2012 12:43:38 writes:

I'm a little confused! Which one of the above do you say you didn't say?
Now I know you're just trying to wind me up -- either that or you don't know how noun clauses work in an English sentence. In either case, it's about as far off-topic as it's possible to get from discussing The Sapphires.

So I shall wish you Selamat malam.

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[deleted]

All Australian aborigines are descendent from Macassans and others from that region.

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Sorry but this is ridiculous.

Mailman was cast because she is one of Australia's best known actors on a national stage (note I said national and not international, so not including Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman etc). She is easily the best known Aboriginal actor out there, especially of her sex and age group. She has the experience behind her- they were not going to risk casting some unknown person to hold the lead female role.

Mauboy was cast because of her incredible voice and because she too is a safe bet having had the experience.

The other two were newcomers, but I'm not quite sure how you think the actress who played Cynthia was not Aboriginal when she probably had darker skin than the rest of them, and the actress who played Kay was not supposed to look Aboriginal, that was the whole damn point of her character.

Not to mention that stolen generation and the idea of mixed raced children were explicitly raised in the film. The fact that these actors were all different mixed races was not cowardice but realism for the generation.

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'Least Aboriginal looking'? You obviously don't know alot of Indigenous people, then. Not every Aboriginal person fits into the stereotype of black skin that so many white people seem to have in their mind...also, you often get people with different colours from different areas (like Maningrita mob will be darker than South Australian kooris).

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all you people are kidding yourselves.

If they had put this -

http://bit.ly/SkzgUn or

this -

http://bit.ly/RNBuOm

on the poster about 10 people would have shown up to watch this film.


2014 All Australian Captain - http://bit.ly/mSxaYZ

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The women cast in The Sapphires look Aboriginal to me; they also resemble the original people in real life too. I just don't see your concern. Jessica Mauboy, especially, is hot and has a great voice.

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People like you give us who lean to the left in politics such a bad name. You are trying to accuse the film of racism because the girls aren't 'aboriginal enough' for you. I'm sure they'd find you extremely racist, you hypocrite.

Too light skinned to be a 'real aboriginal'? Guess you didn't watch the film because that was a key plot point, guess you also don't know anything about our own history because you sound a lot like people back in the day orchistrating stealing children and giving them to white families to raise. A little thing called the stolen generation, have you heard of it? I'm sure you must be a big fan because your views could be justification for it.

As for the photos provided, yeah, you are right, because the Saphires were young attractive girls, not elderly women, you tool.

Do you really think someone that had a problem with dark skinned indigenous people would go and watch a flipping musical about an aboriginal girl band? You are making a fool of yourself. The only racist I see here is you. Take your bigoted views somewhere else.

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You tell 'em. *beep* this thread.

"I am not worried, Harry...I am with you."

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So markvoyager, based on your logic...attractive dark-skinned Aboriginals don't exist? I'm willing to guess that most full-blood Aboriginals don't look nearly as bad as the women you pictured.

In response to the OP, the casting looks pretty spot on compared to how the real Sapphires looked.

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