Iron Man 3‘s Ben Kingsley Hasn’t Read Any of the Comics, Doesn’t Care What You Think

I think it’s fine that he hasn’t read the comics. First of all, the comic’s Mandarin doesn’t really have a well defined character and second it might work better for the film if he’s not trying to emulate something he can’t relate to.

I don’t like it. If you’re going to portray a character that is beloved by millions than you have to….

I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I couldn’t type that with a strait face. The comics Mandarin is BONKERS racist and no one loves him.

Not reading the source material here can only help.

Ugh, I’ve never liked Mandarin. With those rings he’s just a beholder with mad ninja skillz.

I think that, ultimately, it’s up to the writers to bring the core of a character to the movie. A good writer will give the actor enough to work with that any further knowledge should be unnecessary. It’s great when actors are interested in the character’s history beyond what’s written in the script, and sometimes that can inform great performances, but as others (and Ms. Pahle herself) have pointed out, for a character with such blatantly racist under- (and over-…and sideways) tones, he’s better off sticking to the script.
Besides, BEN KINGSLEY. *Gravitas*

I don’t think anyone who’s starred in a Uwe Boll movie has any room for pretentiousness, but sure, whatever. As long as his performance is actually GOOD, he can talk about his artistic integrity like it’s still a thing.

I understand why every mention of the Mandarin has to be followed by “it’s racist, ya’all,” but is there anyone out there that just doesn’t like the character because he’s boring and has a silly silver age style backstory? Cuz that’s where I am with it.

“silly silver age style backstory” You’re not referring to how John Byrne told it? Wouldn’t work in the movies, but Dragon Seed is a great story…

Which of his good movies does the Uwe Boll movie negate? Schindler’s List? Hugo? Mother Effing Gandhi?

Well, whichever one it is, he still has his knighthood to fall back on.

I didn’t really feel pretentiousness in the comments he made, though. He hadn’t seen the Marvel Movies. Big deal. Pretension isn’t the only reason to not see a comic book movie. They might just not be his cup of tea.

I’ve never played a Halo game; that doesn’t mean I think they’re below me.

Yeah, my dislike of him stems mostly from the fact that he’s a boring character followed pretty closely by “racist.” The idea of magic vs technology should be interesting, but it rarely works.

Yeah, exactly, though I am glad they differentiated him somewhat from Fu Manchu…

His attitude is probably the right one. Doing it for the fans is noble but there’s a certain point where avoiding the message boards is probably the smartest decision. It can get to a level where people get needlessly mean and obsessive over super minor things. I mean every superhero movie has that period where regardless of what it is, everyone online is screaming about the costume being changed or the actor having the wrong hair color or something like that.

And the less said about the nonsense over Idris Elba’s casting in Thor or the girl playing Rue in the Hunger Games, the better.

Originally I wrote “Says Kingsley of constructing his version of the ICONIC Marvel villain” before thinking… waaaaait…

Diplomatic of him to compare the source material to Shakespeare.

I refuse to believe that there isn’t a single iteration of the Mandarin in the comics that is more politically correct. Seriously, did nobody reinvent him in the decades since his creation into a character that doesn’t resemble something out of a Yellow Peril novel?

Don’t get me started on the Rue casting…and about how IT WAS 100 PERCENT APPROPRIATE FOR THE ROLE.

There’s been several attempts to make him not a racist stereotype. In the 80s, he was repurposed as using corporations as a front for his criminal opperations, but people said they were just updating xenophobia to Asian corporate raiders. There have even been stories where they minimize his ties to Chinese culture & just have him be a generic supervillain, but it’s hard to keep a villain interesting when his background is removed. The 90s Iron Man cartoon turned him green from exposure to the alien rings so he wouldn’t resemble any Earthly race, but it ended up reinforcing Yellow Peril stigma.
Although the character has racist roots (he was originally half-German so Stan Lee could rag on Nazis & Communists simultaneously), it’s more important to note that that character of the Mandarin himself is generally racist towards non-Chinese. So he’s a meglomanical extremist who mistakenly thinks he speaks for all his race akin to Red Skull or Black Manta. He wasn’t the more eggregious racist character who is explictly massively inferior to Caucasians because he was always built up as a huge obstacle for Iron Man to overcome. He has his own goals, henchmen, resources, & enough success so he doesn’t come off as a joke. It feels like the racist appellations have stuck not because he’s irredeemably offensive but because there are few prominent Chinese superheroes to counterbalance his villainy.

“but people said they were just updating xenophobia to Asian corporate raiders”

Well, they were. It was like watching Rising Sun.

“The 90s Iron Man cartoon turned him green from exposure to the alien rings so he wouldn’t resemble any Earthly race, but it ended up reinforcing Yellow Peril stigma.”

They did that to Dr. No and Ming the Merciless at the same time, too, which didn’t help. It was like 90s cartoons had invented a whole new stereotype.

Am I the only one who had assumed Taran Fahir was the Mandarin in the first movie? I mean, he had a big ring, a thing for Genghis Khan, a group called The Ten Rings…

If can channel a tenth of Don from Sexy Beast it will be awesome.

He said “the man whose ring I wear” so I thought he was just one of the Mandarin’s lackeys. I wouldn’t have minded him becoming an updated version of Titanium Man though.

Whymes with “racism?”

“Grey Schism?”
“Ray System?”
“Lace Islam?” (Okay, this one’s kinda weak)

Oh yeah, forgot about that part. Also accidentally spoonerized his name.

ALSO, in a Time magazine interview, he said that the reason he did Bloodrayne was (aside from the money) to fulfill a childhood goal of playing a cheesy, caped vampire.

Terrible movie? Oh yeah, and there’s no doubt he knew that going in, but he signed on to have fun (also, make money), and I cannot help but respect that.

“It feels like the racist appellations have stuck not because he’s
irredeemably offensive but because there are few prominent Chinese
superheroes to counterbalance his villainy.”

That was my thought, that to counterbalance Mandarin’s co-opting of his own people’s history for Yellow Peril, there should be a Chinese superhero to balance it out.

Watched it on Tuesday night (I’m in NZ). It was amazing. Just brilliant. I’m Chinese Korean so I was kinda iffy about the whole Mandarin thing too. But I loved the movie.