-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
TBT to when Naughty Dog cast a white girl doing an accent as a South African black woman and said she was better than actual South African black women
- Thread starter LifeLine
- Start date
Yeah they need to recast her if they ever plan to revisit the series. That's a fucked up quote.
Women are commonly cast as prepuberal boys because they have the vocal range to match and casting actual children carries a long list of logistical problems.
Also, that has nothing to do with this thread.
Shaun Escayg, creative director on Avengers, was the creative director on Lost Legacy and is from Trinidad and Tobago.
How many actors of all races have done terrible accents in movies. I'm an animator that means I should only animate characters of the same race? Wtf
Naughty dog is beloved here OP. Without even clicking the poll I expect the vote to be close when in reality it shouldn't be. As great as naughty dog is, the industry doesn't care enough about proper representation
Edit: and yep it is
Edit: and yep it is
Why are people suggesting that most viable voice actors are white? It's just the famous ones who are. I have an actor friend from Argentina who has done a little bit of voice work, but minorities aren't really given much of a chance compared to white people, regardless of talent. It's absolutely systemic racism.
How are these voice acting audiences made? Because if it was me doing the casting for a voice of a character, honestly, I'd rather not know what the voice actor looks like physically as that will not be relevant for the spectator but it could somehow influence my impression on the acting.
I have no idea if that's how it works in real, probably not, but in a scenario like that I can imagine that you can end up liking the most the acting of somebody not matching the race of the character and feeling choosing anybody else doesn't make sense.
In practice, however, I think it's not a good look when this decision, the portrayal of a black character, relies only on the decision of a, almost assuredly, group of mostly white guys that probably will not have the best idea of what a south African black woman sounds like. Quite probably, because they're so set in making this kind of Hollywood-esque kind of cinematic game they followed the same kind of casting principles that lead si many movies to commit whitewashing casting decisions.
So I actually voted yes because, in principle, I think it's not good to close the door completely for a person to voice a person of a different race but in this particular case I think it doesn't look that good. Like I could excuse a small developer because they don't have the resources or reach to get the voice actors they would want and they need to rely on their closest circle or even themselves. But fucking Naughty Dog? Hard to believe they didn't have a black actress doing just as good of a job or better. I think they should consider recasting, definitely.
I have no idea if that's how it works in real, probably not, but in a scenario like that I can imagine that you can end up liking the most the acting of somebody not matching the race of the character and feeling choosing anybody else doesn't make sense.
In practice, however, I think it's not a good look when this decision, the portrayal of a black character, relies only on the decision of a, almost assuredly, group of mostly white guys that probably will not have the best idea of what a south African black woman sounds like. Quite probably, because they're so set in making this kind of Hollywood-esque kind of cinematic game they followed the same kind of casting principles that lead si many movies to commit whitewashing casting decisions.
So I actually voted yes because, in principle, I think it's not good to close the door completely for a person to voice a person of a different race but in this particular case I think it doesn't look that good. Like I could excuse a small developer because they don't have the resources or reach to get the voice actors they would want and they need to rely on their closest circle or even themselves. But fucking Naughty Dog? Hard to believe they didn't have a black actress doing just as good of a job or better. I think they should consider recasting, definitely.
It's absolutely ok to feel that one voice actor is better than another and really nails the character. However if it's an issue that the voice actress is of a different race than the fake digital person that they are representing, I think the correct route would have been to redesign the character. That is assuming that their stance is truly that the voice actress is just that good.
My bad, I originally interpreted it correctly but for some reason switched to thinking of the directors.
I actually expected the poll result to be overwhelming win for "No"....
l haven't read the thread but I'm curious what are people's main argument for "Yes" ?
l haven't read the thread but I'm curious what are people's main argument for "Yes" ?
User Banned (2 Weeks): Dismissive commentary in a sensitive thread. Regardless of what else is happening right now, minorities can still raise their concerns about issues that affect them.
Yeah, it was a bad move, and, they've already proven they are avoiding similar casting mistakes with TLOU2.
ND devs are getting yelled at daily right now, so, I'm not gonna pile on to that with an ancient conversation that's been had a million times before, during, and, after development of TLL.
ND devs are getting yelled at daily right now, so, I'm not gonna pile on to that with an ancient conversation that's been had a million times before, during, and, after development of TLL.
User Banned (1 month): Dismissing representative efforts and false equivalencies across multiple posts
I completely get why they're picked for those roles, same way I get why a white woman that has the vocal range that's required for a believable black character is fine.
Even more relevant, why didn't they cast some buff white chick to play Abby in TLOU2 and instead settled on a petit white woman?, why didn't they take some Texan VA actor for Joel and instead opted for Troy Baker which can't be further from that?.
VA are taken by complimenting the vision of the director, if someone matches for a role, he/she should match regardless of their skin tone, gender or anything really.
User Banned (2 Weeks): Dismissive drive-by post in a sensitive thread.
Haven't played either game.
Generally I don't care when a cartoon or videogame character is voiced by a different ethnicity. Or sex.
If you start doing stereotypes I'll probably quit watching. But that's a specific case.
Generally I don't care when a cartoon or videogame character is voiced by a different ethnicity. Or sex.
If you start doing stereotypes I'll probably quit watching. But that's a specific case.
If they do ever bring Nadine back I do believe ND will recast her. While they may never admit it I do believe they know they made a mistake there, and they've shown with part II that they are making great strides with having better representation throughout their games and I hope other studios take notice.
I'm calling it here right now, but I bet if savage starlight is their next IP or if it's a sci-fi based game, you're gonna see asian and black co-leads with Jesse's voice actor returning, and it's going to be awesome to see.
I'm calling it here right now, but I bet if savage starlight is their next IP or if it's a sci-fi based game, you're gonna see asian and black co-leads with Jesse's voice actor returning, and it's going to be awesome to see.
I'm conflicted.
It's obviously a bad situation. But I think Laura Bailey gave a really good VA performance. I really like that character. I don't think the character/game suffered from the choice not to recast. In general I think all VA should be able to play anything. A black VA should be able to play a white character also.
But that's not happening, and it leads to lack of diversity/opportunities in the industry that is unfair.
I can only hope that ND are done with Uncharted and those characters(avoid need to recast altogether) and they start a new sci-fi franchise with a black central character/actor from the start.
It's obviously a bad situation. But I think Laura Bailey gave a really good VA performance. I really like that character. I don't think the character/game suffered from the choice not to recast. In general I think all VA should be able to play anything. A black VA should be able to play a white character also.
But that's not happening, and it leads to lack of diversity/opportunities in the industry that is unfair.
I can only hope that ND are done with Uncharted and those characters(avoid need to recast altogether) and they start a new sci-fi franchise with a black central character/actor from the start.
She didn't even do a good job with the accent, though. They just cast her because she's famous.
The game never tried to say something about lynching, it's not the theme.
Says who? I never even noticed there was anything wrong with her performance, I assume most people were fine with it as well.
People who are from South Africa in this very thread have commented on how bad her accent is.
The question has two side, one about the acting and the other the actor.
For the acting it's possible to debate if you stay on the pure artistic.
But for the actor not really regarding to all what minority still endure.
For the acting it's possible to debate if you stay on the pure artistic.
But for the actor not really regarding to all what minority still endure.
There is context to explain it but in the end, no it wasn't a good choice and should've been challenged internally.
It's naive to think that it's just that in any way shape or form.
Well sorry for them, for the rest of the universe that isn't in this thread her performance was adequate.
there has been a distinct lack of posts who acknowledge that they voted yes, which is hilarious. arguments for yes mainly circle around "WHERE DO WE DRAW THE LINE?!".
And now imagine how much better it would've been if someone who could actually do the accent correctly was playing the role.
This. Also yeah, I think most people liked her performance.
I guess Phil LaMarr shouldn't have gotten the part for Samurai Jack, despite being incredible in the role.
Edit: Beaten lol
User Banned (1 Month): Dismissive and inflammatory false equivalence.
A voice is a voice. It's got no skin color. If Laura Bailey provided better acting than other ethnically correct candidates and got the character right I don't have any issues. Of course, would have no problem with black VAs playing white characters.
They have to know what the actor/actress looks like since it's not just about voice. Body language is a huge part of it because performance capture is involved.
Performance? Yes. Accent? No. Most people aren't even familiar with what that sort of accent sounds like so ofc it would be adequate.
FTFY.
A lot of these same indiviuals were out here head hunting on social media because Company X didn't make a BLM statement. Funny how things change so quickly given scenario and cicumstance.
I'm black I disagree with all this. It's actually really upsetting.
I wouldn't mind an actual Japanese person doing Samurai Jack since Jack's accent always struck me as problematic when it's a black dude doing it.
Ya'll don't have some gotcha with this whatabout argument. You're just fucking stupid.
Ya'll don't have some gotcha with this whatabout argument. You're just fucking stupid.
It's even worse than that. The character is straight up based on a real life black actress that I'm going to assume they never even approached to play the character(If they did and she declined, ripping off her likeness and hiring someone else who is white to do it would be worse yet):
I don't think this is strictly a "Naughty Dog" issue; it's unfortunately an issue that many people are accustomed to handwaving because they view representation as a matter that extends only to the character and not the performer as well.
The poll results are embarrassing, but not surprising.