Q: "Mr. Spielberg, why did you decide to make the Russians Indiana Jones' enemies?"

A: "First off, I am Russian," said Spielberg, an American Jew, with a straight face. He was wearing his long-familiar baseball cap with the stitched motto: 'Relax.' "My descendants were from Ukraine. However, when we decided the fourth installment would take place in 1957, we had no choice but to make the Russians the enemies. World War II had just ended and the Cold War had begun. The U.S. didn't have any other enemies at the time."

Q: "Why did you give Cate Blanchett such a nonsensical name like Irina Spalko?"

A: "I had nothing to do with that. That was the screenwriters!"

also:

Blanchett is familiar to Russian roles. In Sally Potter's film, "The Man Who Cried," she made a magnificent performance as a Russian prostitute. Ingeborg Dapkunayte taught her Russian words to use during the film. This time around, though, it seems they couldn't find a suitable Russian teacher for the star and she had to stick with a thickly accented English.

just thought it was interesting

edit: sorry forgot indiana jones is owned by disney now :agony-soviet:

    • trpoopo [none/use name]
      ·
      4 years ago

      There's also the whole thing where Lucas auditioned Glynn Turnman for Han Solo and then didn't cast him because he wanted to avoid having an interracial relationship in the movie. Or how one of the original designs for Jabba was an orientalist caricature complete with a fu manchu.

      • doublepepperoni [none/use name]
        ·
        4 years ago

        Or how one of the original designs for Jabba was an orientalist caricature complete with a fu manchu

        Thankully Lucas got to explore these themes in the Prequels

        • invalidusernamelol [he/him]
          ·
          4 years ago

          I think it's insane that he basically made a movie series that makes the NLF the heroes then decided he needed to add racism

          • Dirtbag [they/them]
            ·
            4 years ago

            what living in a white supremacist apartheid state does to a motherfucker

      • Vncredleader
        ·
        4 years ago

        It sucks that he chickened out. He threw around the idea of an all-Asian main cast for a time. Luke was even a woman during one part of development, you can still see that version in concept art

    • Catherine_Steward [she/her]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Hoo boy. I had no idea of the context, but I looked it up

      CW for sexual violence in general here

      For anyone else who didn't know, here it is.

      L = Lawrence Kasdan, G = George Lucas, S = Steven Spielberg.

      Source:

      Basically George Lucas just decided out of nowhere that Indiana Jones raped a 12 year old, and then immediately dropped it down to a 10 year old before Spielberg was like "whoa buddy, back up a little bit"