Gere Casting Rates Softer Protest by Asia Americans

A group of Asian actors who have protested the casting of a noted Welsh actor as a Eurasian in “Miss Saigon” is taking a much softer line on the casting of an American movie star as a Eurasian in renowned Japanese director Akira Kurosawa’s next film.

Kurosawa’s selection of Richard Gere for the role of a Japanese American in “Rhapsody in August” was described as “far-fetched” by members of the Assn. of Asian Pacific American Artists, in a statement released Tuesday.

The Los Angeles-based group, which has been active in the dispute over the casting of Jonathan Pryce in the now canceled Broadway production of “Miss Saigon,” acknowledged that “the casting of Gere constitutes ‘non-traditional casting’--a Caucasian actor playing a Japanese role” within the relatively narrow context of Japanese cinema.

But, added spokeswoman Beulah Ku, “Unfortunately, it (that type of casting) is not being reciprocated in America.”

Ku said that the actors’ association believes that Kurosawa, widely heralded as one of the world’s leading film directors, “is giving a white actor an opportunity in Japan and he’s doing something different . . . Obviously (Gere got the part) because he is a star. He’s a box-office hit.”

Reached at Kurosawa Productions in Yokohama on Tuesday, the director’s son, Hisao, explained the choice of Gere matter of factly: “We don’t need someone who looks Japanese. The situation of the story calls for an American . . . so we chose Mr. Richard Gere.”

Ku said Kurosawa’s casting is in sharp contrast to what “Miss Saigon” producer Cameron Mackintosh is trying to do in his casting Pryce in the starring role in the $10-million production. Pryce, who originated the role in the London production, has been widely praised for his performance as a sleazy pimp catering to the desires of American GIs.

“There are probably Asian American actors who could play the part,” said the group’s statement. “But they (the producer) are not giving them even a chance to fail.”

The actors’ association determined its position at a meeting on Monday night in Hollywood during which the members also reaffirmed their support of the Actors Equity union for insisting that the starring role in “Miss Saigon” be played by an Asian. In response to Equity’s action Mackintosh has canceled the production which was set to open next year on Broadway.

Ku said the association is continuing its efforts to support Equity’s position with a letter and telephone call campaign directed at the union’s leaders. The Equity board is scheduled to meet Thursday afternoon to reconsider its position regarding Pryce, after more than 100 of its members signed a petition calling for the change. The petition cited the loss of more than 50 jobs for actors.

Kurosawa’s film, which will be distributed in the U.S. by Orion Classics in fall of 1991, is about one family’s emotional reconciliation with relatives who moved to America long before World War II. Bloom said that the topic provides Kurosawa, “with the opportunity to recall the traumatic aftermath of World War II in his native country.”

Gere, who plays the son of an Asian man and a white woman, has made a success of himself in Hawaii and, upon learning he is seriously ill, sends a letter his aunt and other relatives in Japan. He will speak Japanese in the film, which also bills stellar Japanese actors Sachiko Murase, Hisashi Igawa and Hidetaka Yoshioka.