Game of Thrones actor Ed Skrein quits Hellboy role after 'whitewashing' criticism

Game of Thrones actor Ed Skrein has quit the upcoming film reboot of the Hellboy series, saying "I must do what I feel is right", after public criticism of his casting as a character portrayed as Asian in the original comic book.

The British actor's departure from Hellboy - a film about a heroic demon - "is the first time in recent years that an actor has publicly backed out of a major Hollywood movie role over concerns about whitewashing," says the New York Times.

"I accepted the role unaware that the character in the original comics was of mixed Asian heritage," Skrein wrote in a statement released on Instagram and Twitter. "There has been intense conversation and understandable upset since that announcement and I must do what I feel is right."

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The producers of the film Larry Gordon and Lloyd Levin have since made a joint statement with backers Lionsgate and Millennium to add their support to Skrein's decision.

"Ed came to us and felt very strongly about this. We fully support his 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," they said.

"Skrein’s decision to leave the project is significant, especially as Hollywood continues to struggle with whitewashing," says The Verge.

In an article for The Guardian last year, Ben Child said that while film studios "no longer give us squinting, stereotyped 'Asians', they’re still finding new ways to shoehorn white faces into stories where they don’t belong".

In 2016, Scarlett Johansson played Japanese character Major Motoko Kusanagi in the live-action remake of Ghost in the Shell, while Tilda Swinton faced a backlash when she was cast as Tibetan mentor the Ancient One in Doctor Strange. Emma Stone also faced criticism in 2015 for playing a character in Cameron Crowe’s Aloha who was described as "Hawaiian and Chinese".

The issue of "yellowface" in Hollywood still exists, says Child, due to a sense that "film audiences won’t turn out to see a movie unless there are Caucasian faces involved somewhere". This is despite research that people of colour make up a sizeable portion of the cinema-going population in the US.

Hellboy executive producer Christa Campbell "came under fire for angrily responding to those who were displeased with the news of Skrein's casting," says The Guardian.

In a now-deleted tweet, she wrote: “Someone comes and does a great audition to get the role. Stop projecting your own shit onto us. We are all one. We don’t see colours or race.”

Skrein has received near unanimous acclaim for his decision with fellow actors, Riz Ahmed and Daniel Dae Kim taking to Twitter to applaud the Deadpool star.

Others on Twitter have also praised the decision particularly highlighting Skrein's relatively low-profile and the lucrative nature of the role he has given up.