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Jerome Mazandarani Comments on Scarlett Johansson Announcement

Jerome Mazandarani has commented to ANN on the recent announcement that Scarlett Johansson has signed on to star in DreamWorks' adaptation of Ghost in the Shell, and the accusations of 'whitewashing' from some fans. Mazandarani is the Chief Operating Officer of the new company Animatsu; before that he was Manga Entertainment's Director of Marketing and Acquisitions. He has allowed ANN to reproduce his comments below.

I speak as someone who handled all the marketing of Ghost in the Shell - Innocence, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and Arise series events, the ill-fated GITS2.0 and the recent reissue of the original Ghost in the Shell anime feature film on Blu-ray. I've been working with the brand for over a decade and have an excellent relationship with Kodansha - the publisher of the original manga and one of the key production partners on the anime. Also Manga Entertainment was a co-producer on the original anime movie.

So! I feel that I may have slightly more insight into this particular property than others. Let's get to why this story has particularly irked me…

What really annoys me about this debate is how little most people contributing to it actually know about GITS, its fractured development to the big screen, the inception of the original anime and generally basic movie-making and the business of making films. The casting decision has nothing to do with race and everything to do with Hollywood movie-making economics.

1.) This is a $100 million USD plus production.

2.) Therefore, it needs to see an opening weekend in excess of $40 million USD.

3.) It is a major female role that requires a complex combination of skills from the actress. It is also deeply philosophical. How many A list actresses are there that can carry a $100 million movie, guarantee a $40 million+ opening box office in the USA and also be convincing in an action-led role? There's only two actresses that spring to my mind and they are Scarlett and Jennifer Lawrence. Scarlett is the better qualified of the two because she's already played an A.I. in HER and an otherworldly alien/humanoid in Under The Skin. And we all know she can do action very well: Captain America, Avengers, LUCY.

Onto the "whitewashing" debate. Firstly, the character Scarlett is playing is known as The Major and Motoko Kusanagi who is a cyborg. While she has a Japanese name, it has been repeatedly portrayed in the anime series and some of the manga that she travels around the world, and can change her shell (body) to fit into any geographical location. She is known to change her appearance to blend in. She does not have to be Japanese. And while at her core, the Major is a Japanese woman who has ended up downloading herself into a cybernetic shell/body it is a central philosophical point of the manga and anime is to question "Who are we?". When an A.I. becomes fully self-aware does that make it human? If we can download ourseleves into any combination of body, does that mean that we are defined by what we look like or by who we are inside? I think the casting of a white actress in this role can actually be used to the benefit of the story in quite an important way.

Secondly. This is the only character that has been cast so far. The rest of her Section 9 team is multi-racial with Asian and Caucasian members. Before crying "White-wash,” let's all take a step back, wait for further announcements and maybe develop a sense of perspective by re-watching the anime and re-reading the manga.

Thirdly and most importantly, there are no Japanese actresses that can carry a film of this scale and budget. I am certain that if there was an Asian actress that had some good USA box office stats behind her and who fit the role she would have been considered. It is not racist to cast appropriate to the size and expectation of the investors in a movie. Are people going to start a petition about the "brownwashing" of TOHO's live-action Attack on Titan cast? If not, why not? I for one am deeply offended.