Racism in Action? The Black "Ford Prefect"

[Snowblind]

What are people on here saying about this? I realize this is most assuredly and painfully obviously scooped - I'm not presenting it as news - but what are folks' thoughts on Mos Def as Ford Prefect, now that trailers are doing the rounds and photos from the flick are out?

Frankly, I really, really don't like it.

I don't consider myself a racist, and my most offensive prejdudice is probably one involving my fellow roleplayers, not ethnicities. But I really, really don't like Mos Def in this role.

Arthur could've been black, white or brown. There's something about the quintessential Englishman that is entirely in the way you act and speak and has nothing to do with skin colour. Arthur as a normal black guy would have been equally as funny as a normal white guy. Zaphod could (arguably) have been even funnier as a double-cool rapper-style black guy. Trillian, I believe in the books, is referenced as dark-skinned on a number of occasions. Again as with the other 2, a black character would have made no difference to me. Even a cool-looking actor would have made no difference to Arthur, because he is so *obviously* out of his depth. No amount of cool could hide that.

But with Ford it doesn't work, because he was always only subtly out of his depth. He pretended he wasn't, but everything about his character and appearance told you he was getting by on luck and slacker's charm. Mos Def ruins this for me. Or rather, the fact he's really a popular cool rapper ruins it for me, because he talks and looks like one even when he's acting. Maybe not to the degree of 50 Cent, but Mos Def in this role talks and looks more like a cool, good-looking rap artist than most other people in the world.

See, to me Ford was always an outsider, and not because he was cool. He came across as a complete hobo, a goofy slacker and a total boob. He was funny because he was this unassuming loser who really, truly believed he was in control of every situation. Everyone else could see he wasn't, but he honestly thought he did. That's what made it funny. He was the boob who couldn't see how uncool he was, when everyone else could. He thought he was froody.

The problem is that this new Ford Prefect *does* look perfectly cool and in control. He's coming across as smarmy and self-assured, like Ford should...except he actually looks that way to the others, as well. A smarmy and self-assured obvious loser getting by on luck is hilarious. A smarmy and self-assured cool guy getting by isn't the same at all.

So it's not that he's black. It's that he's attractive and cool-looking and defies the image of the calm, deluded loser right from the outset.

Of course, I'm just gabbing based on a trailer and photos. The flick might well restore my wavering confidence.

Hmm. Thoughts?

[Joe Dizzy]

Mos Def is a rapper? Interesting.

Other than that, I never saw Ford as desperately uncool. He was perhaps the geeky and slightly less froopy version of Zaphod (but then again it's hard to out-froop Zaphod). But he was never the delusional loser to me.

He was always the bridge between Zaphod and Arthur. The two characters are extremes, though. Ford always seemed like the average hitch-hiker to me. I agree that this Ford (judging by the trailers) has more similarity to Zaphod as opposed to the BBC series Ford, who was closer to Arthur.

Doesn't really bother me, though. Actually, it makes quite a bit of sense.

[jrients]

I think Joe is onto something here. It doesn't matter how hip the portrayal of Ford is as long as Zaphod is cooler.

[Kevin Mowery]

I never saw Ford as unhip, either.

He's more low-key than Zaphod, but not a geek. He's managed to find himself a job that enables him to booze and slack his way across the galaxy on someone else's dime. Zaphod is just more in-your-face, party animal cool.

[Burgonet]

I'll reserve judgement until I've seen the film.
That's as honest an answer I can give at this stage.

[Future Villain Band]

Actually, I think Mos Def's got potential. Right now, he's kind of the low-rent Don Cheadle, if his acting parts are any indication, but he's done well in most of the stuff I've seen him in. "The Italian Job" and "What the Lord Made" -- I think that's the latter's title -- prove that he can do lower key. And the Chappelle Show eps he's been on prove he's got some comedy chops.

I'm open-minded. Although, more to the point, I certainly don't see any racism in it.

--Eric

[Matthew]

What are people on here saying about this? I realize this is most assuredly and painfully obviously scooped - I'm not presenting it as news - but what are folks' thoughts on Mos Def as Ford Prefect, now that trailers are doing the rounds and photos from the flick are out?

Frankly, I really, really don't like it.

I don't consider myself a racist, and my most offensive prejdudice is probably one involving my fellow roleplayers, not ethnicities. But I really, really don't like Mos Def in this role.

Arthur could've been black, white or brown. There's something about the quintessential Englishman that is entirely in the way you act and speak and has nothing to do with skin colour. Arthur as a normal black guy would have been equally as funny as a normal white guy. Zaphod could (arguably) have been even funnier as a double-cool rapper-style black guy. Trillian, I believe in the books, is referenced as dark-skinned on a number of occasions. Again as with the other 2, a black character would have made no difference to me. Even a cool-looking actor would have made no difference to Arthur, because he is so *obviously* out of his depth. No amount of cool could hide that.

But with Ford it doesn't work, because he was always only subtly out of his depth. He pretended he wasn't, but everything about his character and appearance told you he was getting by on luck and slacker's charm. Mos Def ruins this for me. Or rather, the fact he's really a popular cool rapper ruins it for me, because he talks and looks like one even when he's acting. Maybe not to the degree of 50 Cent, but Mos Def in this role talks and looks more like a cool, good-looking rap artist than most other people in the world.

See, to me Ford was always an outsider, and not because he was cool. He came across as a complete hobo, a goofy slacker and a total boob. He was funny because he was this unassuming loser who really, truly believed he was in control of every situation. Everyone else could see he wasn't, but he honestly thought he did. That's what made it funny. He was the boob who couldn't see how uncool he was, when everyone else could. He thought he was froody.

The problem is that this new Ford Prefect *does* look perfectly cool and in control. He's coming across as smarmy and self-assured, like Ford should...except he actually looks that way to the others, as well. A smarmy and self-assured obvious loser getting by on luck is hilarious. A smarmy and self-assured cool guy getting by isn't the same at all.

So it's not that he's black. It's that he's attractive and cool-looking and defies the image of the calm, deluded loser right from the outset.

Of course, I'm just gabbing based on a trailer and photos. The flick might well restore my wavering confidence.

Hmm. Thoughts?


I'm going to ignore your obsession with racism, since I think it's at least possible it doesn't have anything to do with this.

I've seen Mos Def in movies. He's an actor. It's his job. Depending on what the script, the director, and his expertise call for, he may play Ford exactly the way you want to see him.

Personally, I think of Ford as being someone who's very hip, but from a Douglas Adams point of view. Adams always presented hipness as being linked to desperation. None of his characters are effortlessly cool, they're always putting on a show. I don't think most people get this, though, and will be perfectly happy with Ford being rapper-cool. It won't bother me.

[Joe Dizzy]

I don't think most people get this, though, and will be perfectly happy with Ford being rapper-cool.

They might also just disagree.

I think Adams' characters have a certain hipness, because they do what they want to do and ignore what others might think. They are the complete opposite of the stereotypical stuffy brit, who's obsessed with appearence and a good reputation (like Arthur).

Zaphod is a very good example of this kind of hipness.

[Yuri]

Ya' know the last time I looked.... there were lots of Black people in England.

True, my perspective is from movies and documentaries filmed there... but there seemed to be a healthy number of non-whites there.

And since Douglas Adams never really described Ford... perhaps Ford was always Black... ya' never know.

Yuri

[Bleys]

hmm... did he never describe Ford?

Odd, my memories of the books may be off, but I thought Ford was black in them. *shrugs* like I said, I could just be remembering wrong.

[Snowblind]

I never saw Ford as unhip, either.

He's more low-key than Zaphod, but not a geek. He's managed to find himself a job that enables him to booze and slack his way across the galaxy on someone else's dime. Zaphod is just more in-your-face, party animal cool.


Well, yeah, that's kinda what I was trying to get at. Not "geek", so much as "wandering, clumsy, slacker hitch-hiker". I think Mos Def is way too cool-looking, cool-sounding and attractive to do that. At least, from what little I've seen. I think he's miscast. Though, as I said, the flick might change my view completely.



I'm going to ignore your obsession with racism, since I think it's at least possible it doesn't have anything to do with this.

Indeed. Hence the fact that my entire post was about "I don't like him in this role, but that's not because he's a black Ford, it's because he's a superficially cool Ford." I've seen many badly described declarations against Mos Def in this role, and some were race-orientated. Mine wasn't. Hence...well...everything I said. I was trying to make that clear from the outset, to deprive anyone of including a later "racism!" comment. This is the internet, and I figured it was wise to try and cover bases in advance.


I've seen Mos Def in movies. He's an actor. It's his job. Depending on what the script, the director, and his expertise call for, he may play Ford exactly the way you want to see him.


Indeed. Hence why I ended my post speculating the same thing. The meat of my post involved my speculations and opinions of what I believe so far, and I ended by that classic internet spoiler-saying of "But when it's out I might change my view."

I'm confused as to your point, here. Except that we agree on everything.



Ya' know the last time I looked.... there were lots of Black people in England.

You're absolutely right. And that's relevant...how? Is there any part of my post where I state that there aren't?

You've lost me.

[Participant-Observer]

Well, yeah, that's kinda what I was trying to get at. Not "geek", so much as "wandering, clumsy, slacker hitch-hiker". I think Mos Def is way too cool-looking, cool-sounding and attractive to do that. At least, from what little I've seen. I think he's miscast. Though, as I said, the flick might change my view completely.

Have you seen Mos Def in the remake of The Italian Job? He could probably do the kind of Ford that you want.

Now, would Arthur Dent easily believe that Ford comes from Guildford? That's more of an issue with Mos Def's ability to pull off an accent, unless they drop that part of Ford's character altogether. It's not like there aren't any ex-patriate Americans in the UK ...

[Calculon]

"You sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? Now there's a frood who really knows where his towel is."
-- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (possibly contributed by Ford Prefect)


Ford is a hoopy frood. Although the Guide contains much that is apocryphal (or at least wildly inaccurate), it outsells even the Encyclopaedia Galactica.

Ford's not a loser. He's in over his head, to be sure, but only because there is turmoil engulfing the Galaxy. He knows his way around, and that's always been what came across for me in the books.

The only thing about the portrayal that will really matter is best-friend chemistry with Martin Freeman's Arthur.

Bitch all you want right now, DBC; at the moment, we really can't gather much of that at all from an action-focused, and not character-focused, trailer.

[litlfrog]

I am, all too often, not critical enough. I had seen the trailer and been slightly more excited about the Hitchhiker movie. Comments here have made me realize: that is a really bad trailer. It captures nothing of the off-kilternesss, absurdity, and satire of the book. The movie doesn't look bad, but those snippets, combined with the narration and music, make it look like a generic Hollywood movie.

Oh, and Dead.Blue.Clown: Mos Def has a rep as a widely knowledgeable, slightly spacey guy. He is anything but a typical American rapper. I think he's an unusual but brilliant choice to play Ford Prefect.

[SteveD]

For may look like he's a galactic backpacker, but he's the COOL galactic backpacker, the guy who buys all the drinks, scores with the two swedish girls and then complains about how it was all better twenty years ago.

I don't know Mos Def from a bar of soap but I really think you're jumping the gun here.

[Eric Tolle]

What do I think?

I think with the movie coming out soon, we have very little time to turn thisinto a mjor internet brew-haha.

You really should have brought this up sooner. If we're going to do this properly, we need to set up online petitions, spam usenet newsgroups, send e-mails to the IMDB, Salon, Fark and random news sites, start a Metafilter thread, and of course blog about it repeatedly. Do you even realize how much work that is?

I really think you're being a bit irresponsible- if we're going to have a proper internet tempest, we shouldn't wait for the last minute.

[thePill]

Bless you, Mr. Tolle.

[pawsplay]

Has no one seen Mos Def in Bamboozled? The man can act.

[thePill]

Mos Def made Cosby Mysteries bearable. I am not kidding.

[Coriander]

I think it gives a message of hope that in the wider universe black people can get lifts too, when hitchhiking.

[LeoCrusher]

Why is it that rappers can act, but rock stars cant?
Mos Def, Tupac, Ice Cube... All have produced excellent performances... And what does Rock give us?
The guy from biohazard was decent in Oz... Jagger in Performance? Sting in Dune?

[Voidnaut]

Dude! Motherfuggin' David Bowie!

<img src="http://razaarkaadle.werewolfsmg.net/jareth.gif">

-Voidnaut

[Max]

David Bowie in Labyrinth.
Sting in Dune.
Keith Richards in the sequel to Pirates of the Caribbean?

[teucer]

I have no problem with Ford being black. I don't like the idea of him being played by some big-name rapper, but I really don't think Mos Def qualifies as "big-name". If it were Eminem or somebody, that I'd have a problem with, and not because Eminem is white.

[James Holloway]

I really don't think Mos Def qualifies as "big-name".
It would surprise the heck out of me if most people knew he was a rapper at all. I consider myself moderately up on the hip-hop world, and the best I could manage was "oh yeah, the other guy from Black Star." He's much better known as an actor.

[oldladynevermore]

I dunno...what color ARE the people living on Betelgeuse V ?

[Theo Axner]

David Bowie in Labyrinth.
Sting in Dune.
Keith Richards in the sequel to Pirates of the Caribbean?


Stiv Bators in Polyester. :D

[teucer]

I dunno...what color ARE the people living on Betelgeuse V ?

It doesn't matter.

Ford's from Betelgeuse VII.

[teucer]

It would surprise the heck out of me if most people knew he was a rapper at all. I consider myself moderately up on the hip-hop world, and the best I could manage was "oh yeah, the other guy from Black Star." He's much better known as an actor.

I'd heard the name before he was cast, but wouldn't have been able to tell you anything about him at all.

[Frank Sronce]

David Bowie in Labyrinth.
Sting in Dune.
Keith Richards in the sequel to Pirates of the Caribbean?

Mick Jagger in Freejack! :D

[Cossack]

http://www.ianhardy.net/albums/bvvr001/crw_3484l_std_std.jpg

[Calculon]

(Raises flag)

IPPON!

[Amado G]

Ford is Low-Fi hip, I've always imagined him as a sort of pork-pie hat, thin-tie wearing SKA kid.

Mos Def is pretty much the embodiment of Low-Fi (Cool-to-be-Square) hip in the clips I've seen him in, especially with that US TV Reporter accentless english. Give him some thick-rimmed glasses, and kids with vinyl collections will be head over heels for him...

[Future Villain Band]

I dunno...what color ARE the people living on Betelgeuse V ?

They look a lot like Michael Keaton done up in white makeup, with black rings around his eyes, bad teeth, and strung-out David Crosby hair.

Why?

--Eric

[Brandi]

Aside: anyone seen David Bowie's performance in The Man Who Fell to Earth? I've heard it was excellent.

[S. John Ross]

What are people on here saying about this? I realize this is most assuredly and painfully obviously scooped - I'm not presenting it as news - but what are folks' thoughts on Mos Def as Ford Prefect, now that trailers are doing the rounds and photos from the flick are out?

I prefer not to weigh in on a film I haven't seen, but _conceptually_ it doesn't bother me at all.

At the depth of cinema (where some of the nuance of any novel, even a satirical novel, must be stripped away to avoid tedium and redundancy), it seems to me that Ford will primarily be defined by his contrasts to Arthur and secondarily by his ties to Zaphod.

Mos Def seems equipped to portray both those things just fine.

[Like A Honeycomb]

Aside: anyone seen David Bowie's performance in The Man Who Fell to Earth? I've heard it was excellent.


I have, and I'd say that Bowie's performance is very good perhaps even excellent.

The film itself is really wonderful and a nice adaptation of the Walter Tevis novel. It's just a little hard to properly gauge Bowie's performance in the film, as that was right at the height of Bowie's drug and paranoia period, so a lot of the insolation and alienness of the character might well be a chemical inclination on Bowie's part at the time.

I get the distinct impression that Bowie found a lot of resonance in the role of an alien trapped on earth. After all, he did use an image from the film for his album Station to Station, which was recorded...just prior to the film, I want to say. I know that bits of an aborted soundtrack that Bowie was writing for the film ended up as seeds for some of the material on the second side of Low, so I'm wanting to place the recording of Station to Station right prior to filming of The Man Who Fell to Earth.

Sorry, I'm digressing. I'd definately recommend the film is you're a fan of Bowie's, or of the director, Nicolas Roeg, or just of the nebulous category of "70s SF Art Film".

[Friendly Bartender]

Mos Def is pretty much the embodiment of Low-Fi (Cool-to-be-Square) hip in the clips I've seen him in, especially with that US TV Reporter accentless english.

Accentless? He had a pretty strong American accent in the trailer. I personally found it a little jarring, but then I rewatched the TV series recently.

[teucer]

Accentless? He had a pretty strong American accent in the trailer. I personally found it a little jarring, but then I rewatched the TV series recently.

He speaks US english with what a lot of USians would mistakenly call no accent (I put him somewhere a little bit west of the Appalachians and not in the south; I could be wrong); of course the britpack will consider this heavily accented, just like what we'd think of your "accentless" characters.