Years later, as the movie finally arrives in theaters, the debate continues.Ĭan someone tell me whether we’re supposed to be offended by Johnny Depp’s portrayal of Tonto or not? Must know for dinner parties/twitter.

( Here’s a recent example: Michelle Williams dressed in stereotypical braids and feathers for a fashion spread this past March, and the response from the Native American Journalists Association that when a nonnative person dresses up as a Native American it leads to problems, even if the magazine’s editors don’t see them.) Particularly for Disney, a studio with a track record that’s checkered at best when it comes to Native American characters - see Peter Pan - the decision to cast Depp has raised big questions that are unlikely to be answered by one movie. Though American audiences are probably more familiar with the history of blackface, “redface” is likewise fraught territory. for someone to play a race other than his own? As might be expected when a prominent actor decides to take on a character who is specifically a race other than his own, the controversy wasn’t far behind. Is it O.K. Follow The Lone Ranger opens in theaters today, but debate over the big-budget western epic has been raging online for years, ever since Johnny Depp first said in 2011 that he wanted to make a movie of the radio and TV classic - and that, rather than playing the masked man, he wanted to play Tonto.

Who was the lone ranger