Disney is almost known for race swaps in their live actions. It’s been a huge topic as Disney wants to spread awareness to other races but does that in a way that doesn’t make sense for a lot of people. Instead of making new movies or characters, they often just change originals. But recently their changes in races or actresses chosen have been getting a lot more pushback. When Snow White’s casting was made, it sparked uproar because they hired a Colombian-American actress to play Snow White, a character named because of her white skin. But truthfully, Nani is the biggest and probably the most important current issue for casting in Disney.
Just going on history in Hollywood, it is pretty well known that Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders are very underrepresented and barely cast in Hollywood. This is a bigger issue of non-representation with dark-skinned actors and actresses in media. So casting for Nani was something that was very important for these people and really supposed to help these people get their representation. Especially when you see that Polynesian people are 0.01% of the world’s population. Making it harder to even get their voices heard by a huge audience.
So when the casting for the movie came out, it made a lot of people very upset. The actress who plays Nani, Sydney Agudong, was a huge problem for this reason. While I don’t condone people sending her, or anyone at that, hate, it’s understandable. Sydney was born and raised in Kauai. Nani was known as a character representing more ethnic features, darker skin, and dark black hair. Making her character both recognizable and a realistic portrayal of Hawaiians. But in parallel to that, Sydney is half white and half Filipino. Fans were frankly upset at her skin color and the fact she wasn’t of Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, or Polynesian descent. Saying it was unfair and cruel to hire an actress from Hawaii but choosing a lighter-skinned one and not even choosing who is local. In casting, her fans felt that this was a blatant form of colorism.
All I can really say on this is that it was a misrepresentation. I cannot give further information because it’s not my place, but when the actress herself, Sydney, posted a video on Instagram of a teaser for the movie in the comment section, it was an opportunity for fans to truly express feelings on the cast, with a lot of fans blatantly calling her and Disney out.
One fan states, “Really disappointing to see a woman who clearly [knows] to only look out for herself playing a role for a character [whose] thing is being selfless. It’s so sad. This was a big opportunity to make people who actually [look] like Nani feel beautiful on the big screen and YOU took that away. you chose to take this role and i pray one day you feel how heavy the weight of the damage that is. The damage you add by pretending you don’t understand or simply not caring to do anything about it.” Another fan comments saying, “When colourism is impacting representation opportunities within your own community, it should feel personal to right that wrong and create space for it to fall into the right hand. -So that all, and not just some, of our people are uplifted. Instead, you’ve done the opposite. Our darker-skinned kanaka maoli women deserved this role, and you have stolen their chance at that representation.” Continuing on a fan points out, “To not address the rightful outrage of the Hawaiian community is terrible. This is a problem the Pasifika community has been facing for FOREVER. And I’m saying this as a Hawaiian-Filipino myself. When it comes to AAPI spaces, Pacific Islanders are severely disenfranchised by Asian Americans systemically and individually. Not addressing the harm you are causing only causes more harm. Haven’t seen [you] once talk about the issues facing native Hawaiians, shine light on Native Hawaiian activists, actors, or influencers, or extend our resources for others to learn about our history or what is currently going on during this time.” And another ranting, “There is a lot I can forgive, being white passing, not having the body type to represent the role, not even having the look. I can forgive that I shouldn’t compare the body of an animated character to a REAL human. However you took this role without a SINGLE DROP of Hawaiian blood in you, and have continuously lied about actually being Hawaiian. SHAME ON YOU!” (sydneyagudong).
The problem wasn’t just her as well. The colorist and racist comments came in more as Disney changed very minor characters—such as the Shaved Ice Guy or Myrtle, who were white in the original—to more local actors. Only perpetuating the ever-growing claims of Disney’s double-sided standards and casting choices. and making people even more outraged, making more colorist claims and more whitewashing claims accessible, saying that if they didn’t have a problem casting local actors for smaller characters, why couldn’t they choose one for a main character, especially one that is so important for representation?
Disney will forever do this; there will never be an end. The company is stuck in a weird situation where they’re trying to make representation happen, but to fans it’s disingenuous. This is because they’re changing characters that don’t need it and keeping the characters that have representation or are a certain race for a reason and changing it. Nani is just one of the examples of why it’s so important that you keep proper representation and you hire proper people to play characters. In some cases race doesn’t matter, but for things like this, especially when trying to show people that are severely unrepresented, it’s important to remember and be conscious of who you are choosing. While Sydney is an amazing actress and seems like a nice person, that doesn’t and shouldn’t excuse what had happened to this group of people.
I think a huge problem is also that Disney has made a lot of the audience feel obviously misrepresented but also get in the mindset that representation only matters for certain races. That it’s fine to do a race swap to get more representation instead of white people, but when it comes to other communities, it’s totally fine to whitewash the character. Whether you agree with what people are saying or not, I think the real takeaway is that representation is important. This is but a learning point that Disney should take.
That is the reason why the casting is really controversial. Talking about this more is important to really understand why Sydney is receiving so much backlash from audience members.
