Translation result.
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| Photo: Cannes Film Festival official social media |
[Sports Today columnist Yoon Ji-hye] The 79th Cannes Film Festival was notable for two concurrent developments: Park Chan-wook became the first Korean to chair the festival jury, and the director and several cast members of the film Hope were subjected to a rude, off-hand question.
“I don’t know the rest of you but I’m wondering if the director could say…”
That was a line from a reporter at the official press conference for Hope, which screened in competition at Cannes. From the outset, the tone turned awkward. Instead of addressing the film, the director, or the full cast, the reporter began by greeting two actors, Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander.
I do not want to dwell on the crude intent, but to be precise: the reporter made it clear, without hesitation, that they recognized only the white, Western actors. It only got worse. By saying “the rest of you,” the reporter signaled they did not know who the others were, then asked the director whether he had cast the married couple Michael and Alicia as a way to “get them for the price of one.”
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| Photo=DB |
Remarkably, the room included not only those two actors but also mixed‑race Canadian actor Taylor Russell and Korean actors Hwang Jung‑min, Jo In‑sung, and Jung Ho‑yeon. That single question instantly reduced them to “the rest” — the director, who appeared to benefit from casting the two white actors as a married couple, and the others seated beside him, whose compensation no one even asked about.
The incident is striking on reflection. A person in a visible position at a high‑profile event voiced an ignorant remark. Did the reporter fail to anticipate the backlash, or simply not care? My guess is the reporter may not even have noticed—their Western‑centric worldview was likely so ingrained it felt invisible and natural.
They may have dismissed the rudeness as the problem of those offended, or may still believe that. People who hold such unquestioned assumptions tend to act similarly, and when that person is a journalist, the bias lands with greater force. The real tragedy is that, even after justified criticism and condemnation, that embedded worldview is unlikely to change. That should prompt all of us to ask whether we, too, hold unexamined assumptions that lead us to behave rudely without realizing it.
[Sports Today columnist Yoon Ji-hye ent@stoo.com]
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