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If there’s a sequel, he hopes even more American Indians get to be involved in it. It opens the doors for more creative visions with regard to Native Americans in the future,” he says. Depp was made an honorary member of the Comanche nation more than a year ago, and he attended the Comanche Fair last October as an honored guest.Ĭoffey says he’s happy whenever he sees Native Americans in pop culture, which includes those non-Depp characters in The Lone Ranger (played by actors like Gil Birmingham and Saginaw Grant). “This is just the beginning, is my thinking. Depp, who has said he has some Native American heritage (but unsure about tribe or extent), has also personally reached out to the Comanche people, an effort that Coffey says has been much appreciated. “In some instances, it was only the Comanches that laughed, because we could relate to it.” Coffey adds that he was pleased by the spiritual elements of the Tonto character, as an accurate enough nod to the relationship between a Native American of that time period and the environment in which he lived. It’s got drama and it’s got a lot of comedy it fits right in with Comanche culture because we are well known as a humorous people,” he says. “I think it was a very realistic portrayal of a Native American.
The lone ranger actors movie#
Still, on the day he spoke to TIME about The Lone Ranger, he had already seen the movie three times - and was looking forward to a fourth. He says he doesn’t pay much attention to casting choices, but, as one with a deep interest in the story, he thinks it would have been nice to have a Native person starring in a big Hollywood movie. One of those people is Comanche Chairman Wallace Coffey.Ĭoffey is an elected official for the Comanche people and was, according to a Disney spokesperson, an unofficial but respected adviser on the film. The Twitter consensus for Dunham landed pretty firmly in the “be offended” camp but, for a number of reasons, the answer is more complicated than “if you have to ask, it’s racist.” Both detractors and defenders agree that, while it would have been a nice opportunity for a Native American actor to play the part, the issue isn’t so much the casting as it is the character.Īnd, though the Onion’s satirical headline (“Ecstatic American Indians Praise ‘The Lone Ranger'”) may make it seem like an impossibility, there actually are some Native Americans who do praise the movie. Years later, as the movie finally arrives in theaters, the debate continues.Ĭan someone tell me whether we’re supposed to be offended by Johnny Depp’s portrayal of Tonto or not? Must know for dinner parties/twitter. ( Here’s a recent example: Michelle Williams dressed in stereotypical braids and feathers for a fashion spread this past March, and the response from the Native American Journalists Association that when a nonnative person dresses up as a Native American it leads to problems, even if the magazine’s editors don’t see them.) Particularly for Disney, a studio with a track record that’s checkered at best when it comes to Native American characters - see Peter Pan - the decision to cast Depp has raised big questions that are unlikely to be answered by one movie. Though American audiences are probably more familiar with the history of blackface, “redface” is likewise fraught territory. for someone to play a race other than his own?
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As might be expected when a prominent actor decides to take on a character who is specifically a race other than his own, the controversy wasn’t far behind. Is it O.K.
The lone ranger actors tv#
Follow The Lone Ranger opens in theaters today, but debate over the big-budget western epic has been raging online for years, ever since Johnny Depp first said in 2011 that he wanted to make a movie of the radio and TV classic - and that, rather than playing the masked man, he wanted to play Tonto.