Elizabeth Banks has just earned the honor of portraying the villainous Rita Repulsa in the upcoming Power Rangers reboot movie. She’ll be the sole A-list star among a cast that predominantly consists of young unknowns. The fact that Banks is both a comedic talent and a recognizable big-name draw probably contributed to the decision to cast her in the iconic over-the-top role. After all, Elizabeth Banks is no stranger to campy performances …
This casting announcement has been met with lukewarm reactions, none of which have to do with Banks specifically, but rather the fact that the role of Rita Repulsa has historically been played by non-white actors. Let’s review our Power Rangers history, shall we?
Machiko Soga originated the role. The original television series had an all-Asian cast, and tons of footage from that original show got repurposed into the American version. Many live-action scenes (besides the in-costume fights) got re-shot with new actors. In the case of Rita Repulsa’s scenes, American voice actors re-dubbed the lines, while Machiko Soga’s live-action footage remained.
In later stateside live-action versions of Power Rangers, Carla Perez played the role, which has led many American fans to see the role as one that a Hispanic performer should play — if not an Asian actor. Meanwhile, Filipino-Australian actress Julia Cortez also played the role once for the 1995 live-action Power Rangers movie. Regardless of which portrayal is the one that you grew up watching and remember the best, it’s undeniable that Elizabeth Banks will be the first white woman to wear the Rita Repulsa costume.
I’ve previously applauded the Power Rangers movie for seeking out diverse actors and taking a chance on unknown performers, many of whom might get their “big break” out of appearing in this movie. By the numbers, the current line-up of Rangers for the film is actually more diverse than the original TV show’s first season, albeit only slightly.
The casting of Elizabeth Banks feels like a step backwards as a result, but I’m sure it’s a money-motivated one — she’s a big A-list star with the level of fame needed to help drive this movie at the box office. Still, her casting is nonetheless indicative of the larger structural problems in Hollywood.
There are very few actors of color who have the same A-list status as Elizabeth Banks. One way to demonstrate this is to scroll through this list of most-searched actresses on IMDB; that’s just one example of how many popular actresses tend to be white (and also how actresses tend to have a specific body type, and also are within a particular age range, and so on). There are some exceptions — and it would have been nice to see the casting directors take a chance, here. They could’ve cast, say, Aubrey Plaza. Maybe she was busy? Or maybe they wanted to “play it safe.”
Power Rangers has a strange place in our culture already because it’s an example of a show that has been repurposed wholesale from its original form, then repackaged as a very different and distinctly “American” product. As a result of that, it’s now up to the people rebooting it to decide what direction their interpretation will take — and what their version of “Americanizing” Power Rangers will look like.
(via io9, images via Instagram and Giphy)
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