MovieChat Forums > Ricardo Montalban Discussion > Playing various ethnicities

Playing various ethnicities

posted 2 years ago by kwestmo (4385)
3 replies | jump to latest

I am very old, so I remember white people playing various ethnicities:
Marlon Brando - a Japanese
Rock Hudson - a Native American
Laurence Olivier - a black man (Othello)
and the most ridiculous - Sean Connery playing an Englishman disguised as a Chinese man.

Even as a young kid "I thought this is dumb. Why not hire the actual ethnicities?"

Then and now, I consider Ricardo the one exception. With his class, style, talent, etc., he could play any ethnicity and make it great.

[–] MCguy (1175) 2 years ago

SAG rule allowed Ricardo to play anyone. Period.

[–] FarmerTed (186) 10 months ago

So did Montalban pass the test playing a Native American such as he did on Bonanza or as Khan Noonian Singh on Star Trek? Sometimes you have to go with dramatic license for the good of the production. I can't imagine anyone else playing Khan in the Star Trek episode Space Seed.

[–] kwestmo (4385) 6 months ago

Montalban aced playing a native American on Bonanza as well as he did Kahn.

On an adjacent note, Michael Ansara is also allowed to play all ethnicities. Like Montalban, Aasara aced every role due to his class, style, talent, subtle (but obvious) masculinity, etc.

Ansara gets extra credit for:
* playing Kang on ST: TOS, ST:DS9 and ST: V
* playing the character the Terminator was based on in the Outer Limits episode Solider
* being married to Barabas Eden during the Jeannie years

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