Skrein explains Hellboy pullout
Critics claimed casting was ‘whitewashing’
Ed Skrein responded Monday to backlash against his casting in the Hellboy movie by relinquishing the role, saying, “I must do what I feel is right.”
A week ago the 34-year-old British actor tweeted that he would be playing Ben Daimio, a character that was AsianAmerican in Mike Mignola’s Hellboy comics. The news was met with complaints that Hollywood was once again “whitewashing” an Asian character.
In a message posted to Twitter and Instagram Monday, Skrein, whose credits include last year’s Deadpool and Game of Thrones, said he had been unaware of the character’s heritage in the comics when he accepted the role.
“It is clear that representing this character in a culturally accurate way holds significance for people, and that to neglect this responsibility would continue a worrying tendency to obscure ethnic minority stories and voices in the arts. I feel it is important to honour and respect that.”
Nancy Yuen, who has written about the barriers minorities face in Hollywood, said “most of the actors who have been in the crossfires of these whitewashing uproars usually give excuses.”
Skrein appears to be “listening and reading what people are complaining about, so it was definitely beyond a ‘yay diversity’ kind of a message.”
The movie was scheduled to begin filming in October, according to Variety.
The movie’s producers said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter that Skrein had approached them about leaving.
“Ed came to us and felt very strongly about this. We fully support his unselfish decision. It was not our intent to be insensitive to issues of authenticity and ethnicity, and we will look to recast the part with an actor more consistent with the character in the source material.”
The response has been largely positive.
Actress Jessica Henwick of Iron Fist called the decision “immense.” Ming-Na Wen of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. said Skrein was a “rock star.”
They were joined in their praise by Hellboy creator Mignola and Stranger Things actor David Harbour, who is playing the movie’s titular hero.
The pushback against casting white actors like Skrein as characters that originally were Asian stems in part from what many AsianAmerican actors say is the dearth of significant parts in an industry where a vast majority of characters onscreen are white.
A 2016 study by the University of Southern California of hundreds of films and televisions shows found that half had no Asian speaking characters.