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“Zhang Yimou called me and asked me to be in his movie,"
Damon said in Beijing, referring to the film's director who
joined him on a panel.
Damon, also joined by co-star Andy Lau, said he would be
"mortified" if he felt the accusations were merited.
Critics decried the decision to cast Damon for the fantasy film
set in ancient China.
Damon said the issue was "very important" but drew a distinction
between the practice and his role in "The Great Wall".
"When I think of 'whitewashing' I think Chuck Connors playing
Geronimo, that’s whitewashing and that’s unacceptable," he said,
referring to a Caucasian actor who played the Native American
chief Geronimo in a 1962 Western.
Zhang, the acclaimed director behind "Hero" and "House of Flying
Daggers", said the accusations were "unfair" to Damon.
"Once you’ve seen the film you’ll see it’s not like that," he
said.
"It’s a group of people, a group of heroes, and as it’s set to
the backdrop of a Chinese story so there are lots of Chinese
heroes."
“The Great Wall”, out in China in this month and in the United
States in February, features Zhang's trademarks of martial arts
and saturated filters, and is centered around the mysterious
origins of The Great Wall of China and what the wall's original
purpose was.
Strict censorship laws have prevented many Hollywood films from
being released in mainland China. To counter that, U.S. studios
are co-producing big budget movies with Chinese investors.
Hong Kong actor Andy Lau, an Asian super-star, said it remained
to be seen whether Zhang's “mission” to bring Chinese culture to
the West through film would succeed.
"It might not be that successful in foreign markets, and I don’t
know whether people in our Chinese market will appreciate this
style, but I think this is a new direction,” he said.
(Reporting by Natalie Thomas; Writing by Christian Shepherd;
Editing by Robert Birsel)
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