'Absolutely Fabulous' Movie Adaptation Criticized As Being Racist; See The Reason Here!

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Dec 17, 2015 05:40 AM EST

"Absolutely Fabulous" is a well-loved television series that is known for its appalling fashion industry portrayal. To give the fans a treat, the TV series is going to have a movie adaptation. However, it seems like the upcoming movie is facing a racism issue right now.

According to Telegraph, the issue started when the movie cast a Scottish actress to portray the role of a Japanese fashion designer.

It is not that her character is going to be one of the main casts. In fact, she will only have a cameo appearance. However, the fact that a non-Asian actress would take the role of a Japanese character despite the fact that there are plenty of Asians available to portray the character upset some people, including Korean-American actress and comedian Margaret Cho.

Independent reported that the "Absolutely Fabulous" movie cast Janette Tough, a Scottish comedian best known for her portrayal of Wee Jimmy Krankie in "Eighties" TV shows, to play as Huki Muki.

The comedian was dressed to look like an Asian fashion designer in shooting the film. It seems like the AbFab film team took the Japanese writer and artist Yayoi Kusama as an inspiration for Tough's character in the film as she is seen wearing a red, polka-dot dress and a pair of winged sunglasses. She is also pulling the Asian look with a short black bob wig.

Despite all the effort to make Tough look like a real Japanese designer, Cho still criticized the movie. She vented her disappointment on Twitter saying that she is already tired of "yellowface" in movies and that the movie industry should hire Asians actors for Asian characters.

She pointed out that she was actually looking forward to the movie adaptation of "Absolutely Fabulous." However, after being disappointed to know that a white actor is going to play the role of an Asian, she is no longer hyped to see the film.

Tweets of Cho talking about the upcoming movie and the issue of racism has been retweeted by her Twitter followers who agree with her point of view.

According to Daily Mail, BBC Films and the executive producers of the movie—Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders—declined to comment about the "yellowface" racism issue.

This "yellowface" racism controversy in Hollywood can be traced back to a long time ago. Among the Hollywood actors who were criticized for this issue were Audrey Hepburn and Micky Rooney.

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