‘Aladdin’ Film Slammed For Tanning Actors ‘To Look Middle Eastern’

Set for a 2019 release, Disney’s upcoming live-action “Aladdin” came under fire on Monday after it was revealed that Caucasian extras on the film were having their skin darkened on set, according to The Sunday Times and their interview with extra Kaushal Odedra.

The outlet described Odedra as a stand-in for one of the major leads, which gave him access to see a lot of what was going on, which is how he said he saw a few white actors who had been “heavily tanned to look Middle Eastern,” as well as almost 20 “very fair-skinned” actors in line to have their skin darkened.

“Disney are sending out a message that your skin colour, your identity, your life experiences amount to nothing that can be powered on and washed off,” Odedra told The Times.

The mouse company told The Times that “this is the most diverse cast ever assembled for a Disney live action production” and that over 400 of the 500 extras “were Indian, Middle Eastern, African, Mediterranean and Asian.” It’s the close to 100 other extras on “Aladdin,” though, that are getting the company slammed online. Disney says this occured because they couldn’t find people in the Asian community who were qualified for specific roles.

“Diversity of our cast and background performers was a requirement and only in a handful of instances when it was a matter of specialty skills, safety and control (special effects rigs, stunt performers and handling of animals) were crew made up to blend in,” a Disney spokesperson responded, according to Deadline.

One of the voices who spoke out about this revelation was actor Kal Penn, who currently stars on ABC’s drama series “Designated Survivor.”

“I love @Disney so much,” Penn began his tweet. “But when a PR person says they decided to put 100 people in Brownface in 2018 because not enough of us are qualified, that’s bs, someone just didn’t want to spend the $ to do it right. Let’s all expect more & do better this year.”

Along with the actor, there were many fans who were upset by Disney’s actions and took to social media to share their distaste.

“It was all well and good for 4yo me to see that racist smorgasbord of south and west Asian cultures that was the original aladdin bc I was just excited to see a princess who looked like me but it’s 2018 and guess [expletive] what what Disney,” Twitter user dadblo wrote.