Characters of color played by white people
Check this article chronicling characters of color played by white people. Many of the films from the 50s and 60s are black characters played by white people in blackface. But some of the other movies it points out are films I’ve never really thought about. The most recent being Nacho Libre—Jack Black, a white male playing a mexican wrestler. When I started seeing posters for that movie, I thought it was cool that Jack Black plays characters that aren’t built, buff, clean cut, and tan, but are still popularly considered cool. It never crossed my mind that he wasn’t Latino, but was playing a Mexican wrestler. But now that you mention it… a few other films that jump out at me on the list are Scarface and Carlito’s Way, where Al Pacino, an Italian actor, plays a Cuban and a Puerto Rican character. And West Side Story where a woman of Russian decent plays Maria.
I’m going to see Superman Returns tonight (on Imax in 3D!!!), where a white man plays an alien from the Planet Krypton. Lol.