“Hello Michael, hello Alicia. And I don’t know the rest of you but I’m wondering if the director could say why he wanted to cast Michael and Alicia, the two actors for the price of one maybe…”
The 79th Cannes International Film Festival officially wrapped up on the 24th (KST). However, a comment made by a white reporter during the press conference for ‘Hope’ (directed by Na Hong-jin) on the 18th remained a subject of controversy throughout the festival.
The audience from various countries was left stunned by the reporter’s bold attitude, openly stating they “didn’t know” who the other lead actors were during an official press conference for a film invited to the competition section. Instead of using Na Hong-jin’s name, the reporter simply referred to him as “the director” and bluntly speculated that the married acting couple, Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander, were cast for a low fee.
Fassbender and Vikander weren’t the only Western actors present at the press conference. Taylor Russell, a mixed-race actress from Canada, along with lead actors Hwang Jung-min, Jo In-sung, and Jung Ho-yeon, were all in attendance, yet they were all treated as “the rest.”
It might be difficult to strictly label this attitude as “racial discrimination,” as the reporter did not use explicitly hateful language or openly express racial superiority toward the non-white director or actors.
Still, it is hard to dismiss this remark as a simple mistake. The act of calling Western white stars by their names while referring to a relatively less-known non-white director and cast as “the rest” reveals a certain power dynamic that still exists within the global film industry.
For a long time, the global film scene has been filled with creators from diverse backgrounds, including Asia, Africa, Latin America, and indigenous communities. However, the language used to describe and name them often still revolves around the coordinates of the Western star system. This tendency to center white Western stars while marginalizing non-Western directors and actors reflects the contradictions and hierarchies of Western-centric film journalism that persist on the world stage.
The reporter who made these comments is reportedly an Australian freelance critic. Having contributed to various Australian and US media outlets, they have written extensively about Korean and Chinese cinema, including works by directors Bong Joon-ho and Park Chan-wook. Nevertheless, the careless remark at the official press conference remains a stark example of the “hierarchy of gaze” that exists on the international stage.
