Like the owners of the resort hotels that line the beautiful beaches of Cancún and Cozumel, Mel Gibson cast no Maya to work on his project, except in the most minor roles. Maya nationalists think the hotels and tourist packages that use the word "Maya" or "Mayaland" (a translation of Mayab) should pay for what they appropriate for their own use. The Maya patrimony, they say, is neither gold nor silver nor vast stretches of rich farmland; they have only their history, their culture, themselves. Like the hotel owners who bring strangers to the Yucatán to do everything but labor in the laundries and maintain the grounds, Gibson has brought in strangers to take the good parts from the Maya. He said in an interview that he chose people who "looked like you imagined they should," but I have seen photographs of Rudy Youngblood, and he does not look like any Maya I ever saw. One can only ascribe the choice of Youngblood and the other non-Maya to stereotypes that Gibson has adopted.
8 comments:
Writerfella here --
The complaint expressed in the article actually is quite old, from the time that Eastern Europeans and Hispanics played Native people to the time now when there are Native actors who rarely play their own tribal selves. When WINDTALKERS was on the boards and casting, it was noted widely and well in the Navajo media that Adam Beach was not Navajo and is in fact from Canada, and that Roger Willie, though a Navajo, was not raised on the Navajo reservation. Apparently, Roger Willie was not 'Navajo enough' to suit the complainants. The upshot was that the articles and letters to editors disapproved of 'real' Navajos not being cast in the film.
As a sometime actor in the past, I have been asked several times in various venues just why this is so. First, I said, I am Kiowa but I have played Seminole, Tamiami, Meskito, and generic Native parts, while never having played a Kiowa. Even Dawson WalkingBear, my Native character aboard the Starship ENTERPRISE, began life as a Kiowa but had to be morphed into a Comanche because of studio fears that few might know the word Kiowa. And as far as memory serves, the last Kiowa roles in a film story were in THE WAR WAGON (John Ford/1967) with John Wayne and the original THE UNFORGIVEN (John Huston/1960) with Burt Lancaster. WAGON's Kiowas were played by Navajos and UNFORGIVEN's Kiowas were played by Hispanics.
Second, though a production company may wish to hire authentic Natives, a main requirement is that such a person in lead and featured roles have experience and that they have demonstrated acting ability. Not unkindly, I asked who among the Navajos had that kind of track record. The answer was, no one. Then I added that movies have millions of dollars at stake in most productions and that any and all people involved, most especially the actors, have a responsibility to grace the project with their very best.
Apply those answers to such doctrinaire questions and it can be seen that, in theory and in an ideal world, Maya should play Maya and Navajo should play Navajo. But then again, that's usually what is wrong with certain kinds of theoretical thinking...
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
So far, Apocalypto's actors haven't received any praise from critics. If Gibson was going to hire amateurs to play the parts, why not hire Maya amateurs? With "more than a million Maya" to choose from--versus 2-4 million Natives in the US--it's not like the pool of potential Maya actors was minuscule. I bet Mexico's Yucatan region has its share of small theater companies.
Gibson had the wealth and prestige to hire anyone he wanted. I don't know if he made an effort to find Maya actors, but it sure doesn't seem like it. Given the theme and content of the movie, I think the article has a valid point. Gibson's prejudice against "primitive" Indians is evident on the screen.
Writerfella here --
Oopsy doo! writerfella forgot DREAMKEEPER, the two-part miniseries from Hallmark Entertainment (Robert Halmi/2003) and the segment titled, "The Legend Of The Red-Headed Kiowa". To writerfella's chagrin, the story was about writerfella's Caucasian ancestor, Kohl-Aw-Khoy (Wrinkle-Neck) who was an Irish-German boy of 5 when captured by Comanches and later traded to the Kiowas. The segment showed a couple dozen Kiowas, all played by Canadian Natives and with Kohl-Aw-Khoy being played by Scott Grimes (currently Dr. Morris on ER). So, there were Kiowa parts of a more recent vintage but to tell the truth, no word of such a project ever reached this region as it was filmed in Canada and then run by NBC during Xmas week of 2003. When next in L.A., writerfella plans to arrange to meet Scott Grimes and hug him for playing his great-great-great grandfather!
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
I'm sure most productions feel that hiring Natives for Native roles is good enough. And for the most part, it is. Most Native movies have small budgets and can't afford to scour the continent for tribe-appropriate actors. But when you're casting a big-budget movie and have the resources to find Natives from the groups being portrayed, you should strive to do so.
A couple of reviewers have praised the actors playing Jaguar Paw, Zero Wolf, and Snake Ink. That suggests Gibson did more than just pluck any ol' Native actor wannabe off the street. Who knows? He may have tried to find Maya actors but failed.
Writerfella here --
Indeed. And sometimes questions beneficially provide their own answers, if one is listening while one is asking.
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
I checked Apocalypto's credits online. Many of the actors were non-Mayas from Mexico City; a few were Mayas.
On the one hand, Gibson apparently made an effort to use Mexican (if not Maya) actors. An all-Maya cast might have been difficult to arrange. On the other hand, if astute viewers can recognize the Indians as non-Maya, that's a shortcoming. Authenticity is almost always better than inauthenticity.
What the fuçk, it's s a movie, do you also think that REAL MONSTERS should play the monster's role in a horror movie? Lighten up, movies are meant to entertain us.
What's the
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