I remember hearing something vague about Matt Damon doing a movie in China or a movie about China, but I honestly didn’t pay much attention to it. As it turns out, Matty D is the star of a film called The Great Wall. It comes out in February 2017. You can see a promotional photo from The Great Wall ^^ above. I’m also including the poster for the film, which is just a close-up of Matt Damon’s face. The film is a fictional (sci-fi/fantasy) account of how and why The Great Wall of China was made. And… the film stars (in the lead roles and first-billed) Matt Damon, Willem Dafoe and Pedro Pascal. I sh-t you not. To be fair, the rest of the cast is Chinese. But with all of the whitewashing going down in Hollywood these days (and always), I’m SHOCKED that no one at any point just stopped and said, “Hey, are we making a movie about China starring a bunch of white people? Just checking.” Here’s the just-released trailer:

Fantasy-action film that’s supposed to be China’s version of Game of Thrones? Starring Matt Damon? Eh.

Well, Constance Wu is having none of this turdburger. Wu, the star of ABC’s Fresh Off the Boat, has increasingly become a de facto spokesperson for Asian and Asian-American representation in Hollywood, and she’s part of a larger conversion this year especially about diversity in entertainment. Well, after the trailer for The Great Wall came out, Wu took to Twitter and posted a lengthy statement, first tweeting “Can we all at least agree that hero-bias & ‘but it’s really hard to finance’ are no longer excuses for racism? TRY” and then posting the full piece statement here. Here’s the main gist:

“We have to stop perpetuating the racist myth that [only a] white man can save the world. Our heroes don’t look like Matt Damon. They look like Malala. [Gandhi]. Mandela. Your big sister when she stood up for you to those bullies that one time. Money is the lamest excuse in the history of being human. So is blaming the Chinese investors. (POC’s choices can be based on unconscious bias too) Remember it’s not about blaming individuals, which will only lead to soothing their lame “b-but I had good intentions! but…money!” microaggressive excuses. Rather, it’s about pointing out the repeatedly implied racist notion that white people are superior to POC and that POC need salvation from our own color via white strength. When you consistently make movies like this, you ARE saying that. YOU ARE. Yes, YOU ARE. YES YOU ARE. Yes, dude, you fucking ARE. Whether you intend to or not. We don’t need salvation. We like our color and our culture and our own strengths and our own stories. (If we don’t, we should) We don’t need you to save us from anything. And we’re rrrreally starting to get sick of you telling us, explicitly or implicitly, that we do. Think only a huge movie star can sell a movie? That that has NEVER been a total guarantee. Why not TRY to be better? If white actors are forgiven for having a box office failure once in a while, why can’t a [person of color] sometimes have one? And how COOL would it be if you were the movie that took the ‘risk’ to make a POC as your hero, and you sold the s–t out of it?! The whole community would be celebrating!” After all, actors of color should have the chance to make box-office bombs — just like white ones!

[From Constance Wu’s Twitter]

Then as a follow-up, she tweeted:

Y'all sayin that im blaming ppl didnt read. It's NOT abt blame, it's abt awareness. That way we dont get in tired fights abt good intentions — Constance Wu (@ConstanceWu) July 29, 2016

For the millionth time it's NOT abt blame. Not blaming Damon, the studio, the Chinese financiers. It's not about blame, It's about AWARENESS — Constance Wu (@ConstanceWu) July 30, 2016

I don’t know what she’s talking about, Hollywood. I for one am looking forward to the Gandhi remake starring Matthew McConaughey as the Mahatma. I think casting Blake Lively as Aung San Suu Kyi is brilliant. I’m eagerly awaiting the film on Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus starring Leonardo DiCaprio. I can’t wait for Chloe Moretz to play Malala Yousafzai in Malala’s life story – and I even think it’s a great idea for Chloe-as-Malala to be “saved” by Tom Hiddleston riding in on a horse. That way you can take away Malala’s agency too! These are excellent ideas!