By Jake Coyle, Film Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --British actor Ed Skrein has withdrawn from the upcoming "Hellboy" reboot a week after his casting sparked outcries of whitewashing.
In a lengthy post on his social media channels Monday, Skrein said he accepted the role of Ben Daimio unaware of its Asian heritage. The character Skrein was to play, Ben Daimio, is Japanese-American in the "Hellboy" comics the films are based on. Critics said Skrein's casting was just the latest instance of an Asian or Asian-American role being handed to a white actor.
"It is clear that representing this character in a culturally accurate way holds significance for people and that to neglect this responsibility would continue a worrying tendency to obscure ethnic minority stories and voices in the arts," wrote Skrein. "I feel it is important to honor and respect that. Therefore I have decided to step down so the role can be cast appropriately."
The backlash followed previous controversies including the castings of Emma Stone as a half-Hawaiian, half-Chinese Air Force pilot in Cameron Crowe's "Aloha" and Scarlett Johansson as the cyborg protagonist in the Japanese anime remake "Ghost in the Shell." Last week's Netflix release, the Japanese manga adaptation "Death Note" also drew criticism for transferring a Japanese story to Seattle without any Asian actors.
Producers of "Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen" said they fully supported Skrein's "unselfish decision."
"It was not our intent to be insensitive to issues of authenticity and ethnicity, and we will look to recast the part with an actor more consistent with the character in the source material," said Larry Gordon, Lloyd Levin, Lionsgate and Millennium Films in a joint statement.
California governor signs law to protect children from social media addiction
California will make it illegal for social media platforms to knowingly provide addictive feeds to children without parental consent beginning in 2027 under a new law Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Friday.
California follows New York state, which passed a law earlier this year allowing parents to block their kids from getting social media posts suggested by a platform's algorithm. Utah has passed laws in recent years aimed at limiting children's access to social media, but they have faced challenges in court.
The California law will take effect in a state home to some of the largest technology companies in the world. Similar proposals have failed to pass in recent years, but Newsom signed a first-in-the-nation law in 2022 barring online platforms from using users' personal information in ways that could harm children. It is part of a growing push in states across the country to try to address the impacts of social media on the well-being of children.
"Every parent knows the harm social media addiction can inflict on their children — isolation from human contact, stress and anxiety, and endless hours wasted late into the night," Newsom said in a statement. "With this bill, California is helping protect children and teenagers from purposely designed features that feed these destructive habits."
The law bans platforms from sending notifications without permission from parents to minors between 12 a.m. and 6 a.m., and between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. on weekdays from September through May, when children are typically in school. The legislation also makes platforms set children's accounts to private by default.
Opponents of the legislation say it could inadvertently prevent adults from accessing content if they cannot verify their... Read More