Watch: John Oliver Berates Hollywood For Its Embarrassing History of Whitewashing
Whitewashing, race-bending, call it whatever you want: Hollywood has been casting white people in minority roles for a long, long time. With the #OscarsSoWhite controversy brewing before this year's ceremony this coming weekend, comedian and talk show host John Oliver decided it'd be a good time to tackle the subject on a segment of his fantastic HBO series Last Week Tonight.
Oliver's not pointing out anything new here, and those of you who have studied the history of film can probably point out a few examples that aren't mentioned in his video. But it's a good reminder that studios are running out of flimsy excuses when it comes to their pathetic attempts to justify these decisions, and hopefully it'll convince a few casting directors to put a little more effort into finding a minority actor to play a minority role instead of slapping yet another white person in there and calling it a day.
Oliver also took on the polarizing topic of abortion last night, so I'll go ahead and embed that in case you missed the episode or don't watch the show: