Does anybody think it's ironic that the new movie based on the Fifties TV series The Lone Ranger stars Johnny Depp as Native American sidekick Tonto yet the original series starred an actual American Indian named Jay Silverheels?
Back in the 50s most Indian parts, and there were a slew of them as it was the Golden Age of the Western, were played by Italian American actors. Eventually people protested the lack of actual Indians in Indian roles and the movie Last Of The Mohicans got a lot of press by employing real Indian actors and that was in the 90s. It seems that here in the 21st Century we've gone beyond dressing up white actors in "red face", even though there seems to be an epidemic of English actors portraying Americans, even Superman!
Here it is, 2013, and we've got Johnny Depp playing a Native American. At least Robert Downey Jr. played an African American as played by an Australian and that was in a comedy where all was played for laughs.
I haven't seen the new remake of The Lone Ranger starring Johnny Depp (starring as the sidekick?) and I doubt I will since no one could ever replace Klinton Spilsbury in my mind as the quintessential Lone Ranger.
I'm kidding about Klinton Spilsbury who was a bigger train wreck than the actual train wrecks all Lone Ranger movies feel is mandatory.
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