Annihilation: Natalie Portman and director Alex Garland react to the sci-fi film's whitewashing controversy

Alex Garland's ambitious new sci-fi Annihilation has faced accusations of whitewashing concerning its lead characters, though the director claims there was "nothing cynical and conspiratorial" about the film's casting.

The film takes its inspiration from Jeff VanderMeer's book of the same name, the first of his Southern Reach trilogy, with Natalie Portman playing a biologist who crosses into an environmental disaster zone in search of answers about her husband (Oscar Isaac)'s disappearance, with the aid of several other specialists, played Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

Though the ethnicities of both Portman and Leigh's characters are not named in the first book, the second book reveals that the biologist is of Asian descent, while Leigh's character is half-Native American/half-Caucasian. Though the film boasts strong diversity elsewhere (Sonya Miznuo, Tuva Novotny, and Benedict Wong also star), both MANAA (Media Action Network for Asian Americans) and American Indians in Film and Television have issued criticisms of the film.

However, Garland issued a response to Deadline explaining he only used the first novel as his source material, and so the whitewashing of the two characters was not intentional. "This is an awkward problem for me, because I think whitewashing is a serious and real issue, and I fully support the groups drawing attention to it," he stated. "But the characters in the novel I read and adapted were not given names or ethnicities."

"I cast the film reacting only to the actors I met in the casting process, or actors I had worked with before. There was no studio pressure to cast white. The casting choices were entirely mine. As a middle-aged white man, I can believe I might at times be guilty of unconscious racism, in the way that potentially we all are. But there was nothing cynical or conspiratorial about the way I cast this movie."

MANAA board member Alieesa Badreshia released a statement reading, "He exploits the story but fails to take advantage of the true identities of each character. Hollywood rarely writes prominent parts for Asian American and American Indian characters, and those roles could’ve bolstered the careers of women from those communities."

Founder of American Indians in Film and Television Sonny Skyhawk said: "We are not surprised by the Whack-a-Mole diversity replacement that goes on; just when you finish objecting to one white-washed casting, another one pops up."

Both Portman and Leigh were seemingly unaware of the whitewashing issue until the subject was breached by Yahoo!. Portman responded with: "Well, that does sound problematic." She explained, "We need more representation of Asians on film, of Hispanics on film, of Blacks on film, and women and particularly women of color, Native Americans — I mean, we just don’t have enough representation."

"These categories like ‘white’ and ‘nonwhite’ — they’re imagined classifications but have real-life consequences... And I hope that begins to change, because I think everyone is becoming more conscious of it, which hopefully will make change." Leigh added, “There should be more parts for everyone and more diversity in all films.”

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