 Make Nani sound white. She can't be like, Lilo, you gotta go to your room and take this crazy little alien dog with you. Yeah, she can definitely tan. I mean, I'm not Hawaiian, but I used to play tennis in Texas. I would get so dark, black people would ask me if I was half black. Has Disney's White Washington gone too far with the new Lilo and Stitch Live action movie or are there other possible reasons for it? I'm here with Ronnie Chang's number one Asian upcoming comedian to look out for Vic Tran to talk about this issue. Hey, what's up? I'm Vic Tran. I'm Vietnamese and Filipino, but am I dark enough for Lilo and Stitch? Maybe in the summertime, I don't know. Guys, so we got to talk about this viral issue. It's going crazy on Twitter and of course in the Asian community and also in just the Disney and you know, Hollywood community. The casting came out for the new Lilo and Stitch Live action and a lot of people are mad because Nani's character is played by Sydney Agudong who has way too light a skin and very Eurocentric features, right? She's clearly part European, part white, right? But she is from Hawaii. So I think they got that right. However, she really doesn't have a lot of like the native Hawaiian or Pacifica people features, things like that. Obviously Nani had a wider nose, much tanner skin. And so they're accusing Disney of perpetuating Eurocentric beauty standards and whitewashing or is it just showbiz, you know? And we're going to talk about it in this video if you guys are interested by this topic, please hit that like button and check out other episodes of the hot pop boys right now. Vic, what's your initial reaction, man? I don't know, I feel like there's been examples of whitewashing in the past with Emma Stone playing a Pacific Islander woman. But in this instance, you know, I feel like she's Hawaiian enough. You know what I mean? Like I feel like we're fighting over shades now. This isn't whitewashing as much as, it's lightwashing if anything. It's lightwashing. I mean, I feel like at this point, it's hard Disney, Disney can't win that they cast her. I mean, I'm sure she's, I believe she is part Filipino, this actress, but she's just like, you know, the mestizo Filipino or the Hapa, right? Who's clearly like half white, but she grew up in Hawaii. So I don't know if they can make her, I don't know if they would make her darker. That might be getting kind of dicey with makeup, but maybe if she tans long enough. Yeah, she can definitely tans. I mean, depending on the picture you use, I think she looks a little bit, I guess, tanner skin, but her nose is small. Like Nani and Lilo's nose are clearly pretty wide. And you know, that's more of the Hawaiian feature, but like, I don't know if they're gonna, they can't make her nose wider. Yeah, I think you just got, you win some and lose some with like live action casting, you know? And I'm sure she could have like a European nose, but as long as she has that tsunami mommy booty, I'm buying two tickets. I'm watching. Man, I hope they just don't cast a stitch as just like an Asian guy. Like just don't put like Kiwe Kwan in there and just like call it a day. Cause people already think that we're aliens. God dang it. All right, we're gonna go in the comment section. So this comment was just like, Hey, how about you stop remaking perfectly good animated movies into live actions? They're really hit or miss here guys. The Mulan one recently that came out. It was also really bad timing too for that one, but that one was like a big flop. And that was like right during COVID. And then like, I think there's some other Disney live actions that didn't really turn out. Obviously little mermaid has yet to be seen. That's a live action one. So I guess like, should they just stop doing it? Because with animated films, you can just make people look however you want. And then to go backwards and try to find an actor that looks like them is tough. It's tough. And I don't think there's been a single movie where people have been happy with the cast. Like they were upset with Lion King and I didn't even have real people. Yo, do you want to know something crazy that the person who actually voiced Lilo in the animated film looks like Avril Lavigne. Not a lion or whatsoever. And then also Tia Carrera who is from Hawaii, voiced Nani in the original, but she's like a little lighter skin than Nani is in the animated film too. Yeah, she's lighter too. And she sounds very Hawaiian in the movie. She's got the fizzy guy. Well, she is from Hawaii so she was able to do the good accent and the voice. But her as an actress is like, she's lighter skin. Anyways, there's this other one. That said, man, these same people complaining right now didn't say anything when Ariel, the little mermaid, became black. She became black, like she's Rachel Dole's all. Well, you know, people are like, yeah, well, you know, when I said I wasn't interested in this new black little mermaid, I call racist. But now people are saying that Nani's gonna be too light skinned and they're not being called racist. So everybody's arguing about race. But we're only the ones being called racist. Yeah, that analogy doesn't make sense because like, what is it the mermaid community that's being misrepresented on screen? It's like, it's a fantasy that can be played with. Right, right, right. I mean, the mermaid is not a real thing. And I guess obviously Lilo, Nani, they represent humans. So I guess you wanna be more accurate when you're casting human for human. But I guess this other comment was like, see, there's that double standard against white people I've always been talking about. White characters can get replaced with all the different colors of people. But then when there's one ethnic character that becomes a little bit more light skinned, it's a problem. This double standard, how long is it gonna last? I guess the question is, and if you're like a frustrated white person, I'm trying to put myself in their shoes, right? They see like white characters turn ethnic and they're like, how long is this gonna last? Minority, how many roles do you want? Yeah, I don't know. Whenever an argument starts with double standard for white people, my brain sort of just starts muting the rest of the argument out. I don't really listen to it. I mean, I guess maybe it's, I gotta give it to them, like casting issue maybe. Like it's just hard to find. Maybe she was the best actress. Maybe she can do the voice really well. We don't know. We don't know the reasons. But yeah, clearly she is more European than Nani is in the animated film. There's one more comment that tried to make sense of it all and tried to defend them and was like, well, not all people from Hawaii are even as tan as Lee Loh and Nani. Nani is clearly out in the sun a lot and even trying to find an actress who is fully Hawaiian and fully that dark and that tan skin is actually really hard. So that's why in all the Hawaii shows, they just keep recycling the same actors and actresses. Yeah, because Hawaii obviously, even though there is a lot more Hawaiian people and a lot more Asian people, it's the most Asian state in the whole United States and people generally are more tan or skin. There's also, they're very mixed. That's where the word Hapa comes from, right? It's half Asian. So there's a lot of mixed people and I believe Sydney Agudong is mixed. How mixed? I don't know. But yeah, I mean, they're just trying to defend and say like maybe there's not even that many like, I guess to them, Nani and Lee Loh are pretty tan skin in the animated film. Like it's hard to even find full Hawaiians in Hawaii that are that tan. Yeah, that makes sense. Maybe this live action adaption is a better representation of what Hawaiians are actually like than the Hawaiian cartoon. Maybe, yeah, I mean, maybe they casted more for the Oahu Lilo and Stitch and not like the Kauai one, you know, like the far out island. But I think as far as my takeaway is, I think it's tough, there's always a fine line for sure, no doubt that this actress has more Eurocentric features. Do I think Disney's trying to do it to push Eurocentric beauty standards? I mean, I mean, I don't know. I can't say for sure, but Disney does put out a lot of other like ethnic movies. They did Raya, if they turned Raya into a live action, they're gonna have to get a lot of like Southeast Asian and tanner skin people for that. But yeah, I would say, man, just don't make Nani sound white. She can't be like, Lee Loh, you gotta go to your room and take this crazy little alien dog with you. Yeah, yeah, she can't sound like she kisses the alien dog on the lips. Yeah, she can't be like, geez, I need to find work. Where's the nearest Jamba Juice? It's gotta still be like, if this actress can do like pigeon, maybe she's really good at the pigeon accent, you know, and like that way of speaking, you know. Yeah, let the performance and the movie speak for itself. We'll just find out whenever it comes out. Yeah, I understand their pain though. I want to say like, I get it because I think people want to be seen. And you know, I don't want to complain. I have no complaints because with a lot of like the East Asian representation, there's a lot of East Asian actors you can find. Like they'll never have a problem finding a girl to play Mulan. That's true, that is true. There's half a billion of them like they can choose from, you know? So I want to say like, yeah, I get it because I think everybody was so proud of Lilo and Stitch and also like Moana, that animated film for like representing Native Hawaiians and Islanders and Pacifica, you know? So I get it, it's harder. They have a smaller pool of actresses and actress to pull from, you know? So I guess they're kind of going for it. But you know what? Crazy rich Asians. They got Henry Golding. You know, he's like half Asian. So I guess like, I don't know. Some people even had something to say about that casting as well, too. Yeah, people are always upset. People are always upset. I think what they should push for is push for this actress to represent Hawaii correctly. Yeah, 100%. But yeah, she does have the small pointy nose. Anyways, any last takeaways, Vic on this topic? Yeah, Lilo and Stitch, you know, hopefully it turns out good. You guys let me know in the comments down below what you think about it all. I think there's a multitude of different perspectives here. But I think at this point, I think all you can hope for is that it's a good piece. But for sure, it definitely like falls in line with what people already think that Hollywood wants to do, which is whitewash. Which you let me know in the comments down below if you think that this is an issue that's going to continue, right? So, you know, is it always going to be like this? Maybe it's a pooling issue. Maybe there's, I mean, they got the little girl, right? I feel like Lilo, the girl that they got to play Lilo Fitz. Yeah, this is very cool. Yeah, and maybe the guy who plays David is an okay pick, but seems like they went more lighter with Nani. But anyways, you guys let me know in the comments down below. Check out Vic's stuff, his link down below. And until next time, we out. Peace.