Recently Disney and Naomi Scott have been getting a lot of backlash about the upcoming live action "Aladdin" film. I do not understand why all this hate is being thrown at her when so far she has only been given the role. I am here to show some support for Naomi and to explain why I think everyone needs to stop complaining.
First off, we have not even seen the movie yet. You cannot hate on someone being cast as a certain role until after you see the final product. It is unethical, rude and selfish to hate a person right off the bat. Sure, Naomi is not the exact same race as Jasmine but that has not been a problem in the past. Actors of all races have been portraying characters of other races and nationalities for years. The voice actors of the original animated "Aladdin" were not even Arabian but nothing was said about that. We expect movies to completely remake the originals films frame by frame, but where is the creativity in that?
Naomi will probably not look exactly the same as the animated film, but I am kind of OK with that. In the live action "Beauty and the Beast" the actors were not French, but no one complained. Why is that? Also, Belle's dresses were similar, but not exactly the same and there is nothing wrong with that. Disney did not choose a white woman to portray Jasmine which is highly respectable and would receive loads of backlash. The film industry is able to transform any actor with the magic of makeup.
That is the beauty of the industry. The film industry is an artform and it will blow your mind by what they can achieve. Naomi is of Indian decent and therefore her skin is extremely close to Jasmine's. India is home to a portion of Arabic's within its population, although it is not an Arabic country. Of course, her skin is not going perfectly match an animated character. When you go to a Disney Park and meet the characters, their skin tones are not a perfect match because the animated characters were colored in. I saw an image on Facebook (as seen above) stating that the woman on the left is what Jasmine should look like. Well obviously, the image on the left is a cosplay and the image on the right is of Naomi with a filter. Also, the woman on the left is clearly African American and NOT Arabic.
I think the backlash Naomi has been receiving is absolutely disrespectful. Naomi Scott is an extremely good actress and she can sing. Disney has seen tons of auditions to fill in the roles of Jasmine and Aladdin. They found a perfect match in Naomi and that should be respected. Naomi can sing extremely well. If she does not do the position justice then maybe you will have the right to complain, but as of right now stop hating the girl because of her skin tone when you have not seen her in hair and make up.
