Comments on: Great TV Moustaches – Part 2

By: Dallas

Dallas — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 02:37:48 +0000

Simon & Simon…. it explains soooo much.

By: Dave AA

Dave AA — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 22:41:00 +0000

I remember a time when David Yip played all the Asian parts on TV in the UK. Amongst other things he was in Dr Who (playing an android) and had his own series, “The Chinese Detective” in which he played a Jewish song and dance man. Oh wait, I remember now, he played a Chinese detective.

I think there was a period in the sixties and seventies when there was a catch 22 happening: there were few parts for ‘ethnic minorities’ therefore there were few ‘ethnic’ actors, therefore when someone did try and include a minority it was hard to cast. The same’s kind of happening now, with a lot of interest in the Middle East, but not a big pool of actors to draw on. The way out is to keep writing good parts (not just terrorist cliches) and there will start to emerge actors to play the parts.

By: Janet

Janet — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 12:23:25 +0000

Steven Spielberg is good at this. In the second Jurassic Park film, Pete Postlethwaite (who himself browned up for ‘The Usual Suspects’) had an Indian guide who was played by a Jewish actor originally from the UK. And the guy from the Indiana Jones movies who plays an Arab (the famous scene where Indy shoots the swordsman) and an Indian (the utter bastard who whips the kids and Short Round).

There is also the Australian film that blacked up Ed Devereaux and Kamahl. And we won’t talk about the reincarnation of Bony that blacked up one of the Daddos.

‘The Three Kings’ was mentioned earlier and I always thought it was interesting that Cliff Curtis was the ‘good’ Arab and Said Taghmaoui was the ‘bad’ Arab because he did despicable things to Marky Mark in the calvin klein area. So the ‘real’ Arab (sort of) was still the baddie. His profile improved a bit in ‘Traitor’. But my favourite film of his is still ‘La Haine’.

Maxine Hong Kingston’s book ‘Tripmaster Monkey’ has a wonderful chapter on white actors and taped eyes. The final chapter in fact. Every actor that has played Fu Manchu was white. And we all remember ‘Flash Gordon’ don’t we boys and girls?

In answer to your question, John, the most famous Asian actor born in the UK is probably Burt Kwouk (born in Manchester). He, of course, was in the Pink Panther films with Peter Sellers.

By: outlandinstitute

outlandinstitute — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 03:30:24 +0000

Simbo – when the Doctor Who story The Talons Of Weng-Chiang came out on DVD I was surprised to realise the chinese lead was clearly a westerner in make-up, which as a kid I somehow didn’t really take in. And there was a lot of discussion on the commentary track about how you just wouldn’t do that now, yet it IS a really great performance and they argue that since the whole show is a pastiche of Victorian London and not remotely real it somehow fits. But is it OK? I don’t know. I find it hard to believe there wasn’t a suitable Asian actor in the UK at the time.

As for Hollywood Arabs, that’s just nuts – Naveen Andrews (Lost) doesn’t even look Middle-Eastern, and Cliff Curtis had a great line in an episode of Bro’town that was something along the lines of “Now I’m back off to Hollywood to play terrorists”. I remember seeing a Hollywood film once where a clearly Aboriginal actor was playing an African-American, but I can’t remember what it was…

By: Anne-Marie

Anne-Marie — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 03:26:09 +0000

best kitten
best innuendo
best pun

just for starters

By: outlandinstitute

outlandinstitute — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 03:20:08 +0000

I think it’s real, but it’s not like winning a Pulitzer… presumably it generates more traffic to the award-givers site, so it’s spam in the most benign way. Perhaps I should set up the Outland Institute Awards – but what categories would we have?

By: Dave AA

Dave AA — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 03:00:23 +0000

Is that award real? I assumed it was spam.

By: Narrelle

Narrelle — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 01:29:30 +0000

Congratulatoins on the Weblog award, btw. And thank you for reviving all those buried memories of moustaches on some of the world’s most unattractive men. But why are there no moustachioed women on your list? There must be some out there!

By: Dan Cardone

Dan Cardone — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 04:03:37 +0000

“Are you free, Mrs Slocombe? I would like to discuss your vagina.”

I do love a good single entendre…

By: simbo

simbo — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 19:51:30 +0000

While he was playing a Hungarian Jew, Johnny Lockwood was an english bloke.

You don’t get quite as much of the “white people can play any ethnic minority” thing any more – althoguh there is still a fair bit of the cross-ethnicity casting, in particular in catsting Hollywood Arabs (where you can go randomly with Maoris (Cliff Curtis in “Three Kings”), Indians (bloke from “Lost”) and Spaniards (Antonio Banderas in that one where he’s an arab)