Names and faces
Actor Matt Damon criticized “outrageous” stories in the era of fake news as he responded Tuesday to accusations that his role in the new China-Hollywood co-production The Great Wall should have gone to an Asian actor. Damon, 46, plays an English mercenary in the upcoming $150 million adventure fantasy helmed by Chinese director Zhang Yimou about a Chinese army battling monsters. Some critics have said Damon’s casting as the lead character amounted to “whitewashing,” in which Caucasians are chosen for roles that actors of other ethnicities should play. However, Damon said he thinks the term “whitewashing” applies to Caucasian actors putting on makeup to appear to be of another race, as was common in the early days of film and television, when racism was overt. The trailer for Damon’s latest movie sparked criticism in the U.S. that a white man had been chosen to play the lead in a film set in China meant to showcase Chinese culture. Damon questioned whether critical stories on online news sites would have existed before the era of fake news and headlines. “It suddenly becomes a story because people click on it, versus the traditional ways that a story would get vetted before it would get to that point,” Damon said.
Poland’s Supreme Court on Tuesday confirmed that the country would refuse to detain and extradite filmmaker Roman Polanski to the U.S. The ruling upholds the decision of a lower court that was challenged by the justice minister, and closes the matter in Poland. “Game over,” said Jan Olszewski, one of Polanski’s lawyers. “We won in a fair struggle. We feel satisfaction.” Polanski, 83, is wanted in the U.S. in a case involving sex with a minor that has haunted him for almost 40 years. Polanski pleaded guilty in 1977 to one count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl during a photo shoot in Los Angeles. In exchange, the judge agreed to drop other charges and sentenced him to prison for a psychiatric evaluation. Polanski was released after 42 days by an evaluator who deemed him mentally sound and unlikely to offend again. The judge then said he was going to send Polanski back to prison for the remainder of the 90 days and that afterward he would ask Polanski to agree to a “voluntary deportation.” Polanski fled from the United States before he was sentenced.