" Give darker - skinned Pacific Islanders the visibility we deserve . "
According toThe Hollywood Reporter,Disneyhas tapped Sydney Agudong to play Nani Pelekai in Disney’s upcoming live-action remake ofLilo & Stitch.
The article states that Sydney was “born and raised on the island of Kauai,Hawaii” and doesn’t mention if she is Native Hawaiian.
The casting choice sparked immediate backlash across social media. Here’s why:
Pacific Islanders have notoriously little representation in Hollywood. And the majority of PI celebs who do find fame in the US are light-skinned — despite many, many islanders coming in a range of darker skin tones.
So Lilo and Nani’s looks were a big part of what madeLilo & Stitchiconic for many folks in the PI community. With her brown skin and body shape, Nani became the first mainstream representation for many Pacific Islanders.
Casting an actor without these features has sent the internet into an uproar. Many Pacific Islanders were upset at Disney for taking away this opportunity for representation:
Nani has fatheaded leg and thigh , browned pelt , and curves and that was cool to see growing up because I did n’t feel so unsafe about my body . Again she ’s probably run to be just fine but man
And people of all different backgrounds felt similarly:
Literally no one inquire for a live natural process Lilo & amp ; Stitch the flick & amp ; shows are perfect . As a browned kid I did n’t have a heap of representation spring up up and seeing Disney not cast brownish actors to act Nani & amp ; Lilo is so deleterious . Disney do better !
A lot of folks took a nuanced view of the situation, explaining that while light-skinned Native Hawaiians certainly exist, this role should have gone to a dark-skinned Native Hawaiian:
@FilmUpdates I intend it ’s of import to recognize that yes , she is Hawaiian and light skinned / white take place Hawaiian aborigine subsist . But nani is a dark shin Hawaiian fair sex so give a colored skinned actress the probability too play her . regardless , this is still colorism / white washing .
i ’m certain she ’s amazing — it just really puts me off that disney has an aversion to casting brown the great unwashed a lot of the sentence or someone canonically similar . hawaiians are very divers ( look at me for cry out loudly ) but girls who look like me should n’t be the only ones make role
Of course, not everyone was upset that Sydney would be playing Nani.
Some people thought the actor’s Hawaiian ancestry meant her casting was justified:
And others drew comparisons toHalle Baileybeing cast inThe Little Mermaid:
@remslvst @FilmUpdates I do n’t see a trouble with it . If Ariel can be blackened then Nani can be lighter skin .
However, many people argued that Nani’s skin tone is essential to the story, which is not the case for Ariel:
nani is meant to limn the experience of natives who visibly are ethnically native , and the struggle of maintain house together with the looming menace of tourist settlers and increase of housing prices . the movie portrays the life of local Hawaiian , https://t.co/7VFCkqdmcC
y all do n’t recall how nani would get laid off of jobs for ostensibly random reasons and lilo would get bullied by the white-hot girl in her class and the fact that someone called cycle per second on them in the movie for seemingly no rationality — all this happened BEFORE stitch came into the pic https://t.co/IBwucon5EO
Twitter: @MotivatedUni
