THE HOLLYWOOD INJUN | AMANDA GIRALDO

THE HOLLYWOOD INJUN

AMANDA GIRALDO

The tension on set was real. There I was, standing amid a heated argument with six fellow actors. Two of us wom- en, wearing long deerskin dresses with fringes along the sleeves and along bottom of our dress painted with tribal designs, like that of women warriors. Four men with their buckskin shirts, one shirtless, with their breechcloths with leather leggings. Wearing moccasins to cover our feet on this hot summer day. I could feel the drip of sweat run down my back and across my forehead as we try to reason with the producers. In that moment, it felt like Cowboys vs Indians. It’s a typical weekday morning where I struggle to wake up as I hit the sleep button on my phone to allow myself five more minutes of sleep. But then, I smelled something good, something that arouses my senses; I smelled the coffee brewing. The smell guides me to the kitchen where I pour myself a cup, but I skimp on the creamer because nothing wakes me up like a cup of fresh hot black coffee. I make my way to the living room to turn on the TV to see what is happening in the world today. That’s when I see it flash across the screen in big bold letter as the news anchor from KOAT is talking, “CASTING CALL FOR EXTRAS IN NEW ADAM SANDLER MOVIE”. As a film student, I thought to myself, “Should I audition?” I have never acted before, but this is an Adam Sandler movie. The funny guy from Big Daddy, Just Go With It, Blended, and his most recent, Pixels. Then I hear her say that other actors involved in the production are Luke Wilson, Terry Crews, Rob Schneider, and Taylor Lautner, amongst many others. All these famous actors coming to New Mexico! That alone was motivation for me to give it a shot. I take my cup of coffee and immediately go online. On Project Casting, I find that this movie will be a funny western comedy that is about an orphan, played by Sandler, who was raised by an Indian tribe in the Old West. I see that that they are looking for New Mexico residents only, “Townsmen (lots of beards!) and women, saloon girls, children, and lots and lots of NATIVE men, women, and children for a western.” All I had to do was submit a recent photo and my current height and weight to the listed email address. Three months later, I receive the email to come in for a look-see. The next day, to my surprise, I get the call.

“Hello, may I speak with Allison Young?” “This is her.” “Hi! This is Lorrie Latham, the casting director for Ridiculous, and you have been selected to be an extra.” I feel the rush of adrenalin run down my spine; I can’t

believe it.

“Hello, are you still there?” “Oh yes, I’m here and thank you.” “Ok, you will be receiving an email shortly regarding all the details. Shooting starts in two days; we look forward to working with you.” She hangs up and I sit in complete silence as I try to comprehend what just happened. I gather myself, screaming on the inside, as I realize that I am going to be in a movie.

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE >

‘THE HOLLYWOOD INJUN’ CONTINUED >

Arriving on set at Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, NM, I am ready to work. It’s a nice cool day, clouds in the sky amongst the hills of pine trees. In the short distance, I can see six teepees and off to the right a small river with huge rocks, big enough to stand on, along the banks. There are about 150 other Natives on set as well, ranging from men, women, and children of all ages. The producers were nice as they explained to us what we will be doing. In one scene, they say about 20 of us will be along the riverbank. The women will wash clothing, the children will play, and the men will fish with their spears. No words are to be spoken as we are just to act our parts and nothing else. Seems easy enough as we are then instructed to change into our out- fits.

As I look in the mirror, I see myself for the first time in full costume. My long deerskin dress, hair free from any products and allowed to flow freely in the breeze with moccasins on my feet. But that moment was disrupted when I was called to makeup. Sitting in the makeup chair I felt like a star, but then I see the makeup artist grab foundation that is about two shades darker than my own natural skin and being a full-blooded Navajo, I did not have a light complexion. “Go ahead and close your eyes, I’m going to apply some bronzer.”

“Are you sure that is necessary? It seems a little dark for my complexion.” “Well this is only going to make you appear more

Native.” I thought to myself, how does one appear more Native than a full-blooded Native? However, when I looked to my left and right it wasn’t only me, but all of us getting bronzed, which felt weird and unsettling. It was like we weren’t good enough to portray ourselves, but then I noticed two white women in Native costume getting bronzed as well, I felt confused, but not wanting to make a big deal of it, I just sat in the chair while she did my makeup. As I walked out on set, there was a lot of standing around and waiting. Amongst the chatter between all the extras, I found out that two of the main Native characters were to be portrayed by the two white women and had the character names of “Beaver Breath” and “Wears No Bra.” I

am then standing on the side, watching them film a scene with the character “Wears No Bra”. The producer calls “Action!”

As she steps out of the teepee with a white see through, long sleeve, thigh high linen top and stretches as if she had just woken up. “Good morning boys.” Adam Sandler’s character then says, “Good Morning Never Wears Bra.” She then says in a stereotypical attempt to sound Native with broken English. “I have dream of you last night White Knife. Not nice dream. In dream you naughty. You naughty white knife.” She then proceeds to walk behind the teepee, squat to imitate that she is peeing, while lighting a peace pipe. I stood in shock and felt my chin to make sure it wasn’t lying on the ground. I knew this was supposed to be an Adam Sandler film, the guy who is known to make comedies, who always makes fun of Jewish people because he, himself is a Jew. But the last time I checked, he was not a Native American. Blackface. That’s the word that came to

my mind in that moment. You hear it on social media and in the news when people, who are not black, make an offensive attempt to mimic a black person by changing the color of his or her skin and imitating a black person based off stereotypes. Portraying someone of any colored-face other than their own is not funny, it’s offensive, and these people are not just portraying a character, they are using someone else’s skin tone as a costume.

I stood in silence and shock as the producer ap- proached me. “Allison, right?” “Yes, that’s me.” “We would like you to do some acting in a scene.” “Ok, um, what do I have to do?” “It’s simple, there is no dialogue, so you don’t have to memorize any lines. All you must do is act like your drunk and fall as if you have passed out. There will be five men (white men) around you on horses and they are going to pour alcohol on you and then you will jump up on your feet and start dancing around.” I stared in silence, giving him that seriously look. “Don’t worry, it is not real alcohol, only water. I’ll give you a few minutes to think about it. If not, I will have to go with someone else.” Which did end up being the white lady who played Beaver Breath.

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE >

‘THE HOLLYWOOD INJUN’ CONTINUED >

He walks off, calling other actors to set, as they prepare to shoot another scene. Everything started to become clear to me as I stood there looking at the set; feeling my skin become hotter with anger. Over 4,000 films and 100 years, Hollywood has shaped the image of Native Americans. As I stood there thinking about movies of the past, it was always the same. The main characters always portrayed by white people such as Burt Lancaster, Charles Bronson, Elvis, and Burt Reynolds with real Native Americans always in the background as props. Our image was to be that of the fearless, stoic warrior of the plains, wearing a headdress or headband, buckskin clothing, and living in teepees. This is not how all tribes lived and this was a prime example on set as we portrayed the Apache tribe who did not wear headbands and they did not live in teepees. Thomas said it best in the movie Smoke Signals, “But our tribe never hunted buffalo, we were fishermen.” Our Native nations are being robbed of their identities as they are being grouped into one with the birth of a new Native nation, the Hollywood Injun.

I had been talking to four of my fellow castmates and the cultural advisor about what we were seeing when we decided as a group to approach the director to express our concerns. It was about to be a Cowboys vs. Indians moment.

“We would like to express some concern about this movie, and we feel it is becoming disrespectful to our people.”

“This is a comedy and it is not disrespectful” “You’re trying to tell a Native what is disrespectful to them? Names such as Beaver Breath and Wears No Bra

is degrading to women, and we don’t need to sell out our people.”

“I understand completely…But we’re not going to change Beaver Breath. It’s not meant to be disrespectful.” “But it is! A comedy is meant to be funny to everybody, but when the people you are trying to portray are not laughing, it’s not funny, it’s discriminating”. “Ok, we hear what you’re saying but here’s the thing, if you are overly sensitive about it, then you should probably leave. That’s the most important thing. “Too late!”

The cultural advisor was the first to leave and it

does say a lot when the cultural advisor, who was specifically hired to avoid moments like this, walks off set. Not far behind him, I followed, along with about ten other cast members. This was our moment to take a stand, like in 1973 when Sacheen Littlefeather, an unknown actress, was asked by Marlon Brando to make a speech in his place at the Academy Awards, “ He regretfully cannot accept this very generous award and the reason for this being are the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry”. The academy award stage was her platform and social media would be ours.

It didn’t take long to capture the media’s attention as I was approached by local and national news stations to share my side of the story. This was not a publicity stunt, nor did I want the media attention. I just wanted my story to be heard and to protect my identity of being a Native American and to remind others that we still exist, and we are human beings too. Envisioning myself as Allison changed my perspective. I remember hearing about this on the news and was one of the many people who thought these actors and actresses were trying to gain attention, that they knew what they were getting into when they signed up for this movie. But, being human, feelings began to change as I began to put the pieces together. To this day, I am told, “Wow, you’re Indian? I never met a real Indian before. Do you own horses or have a teepee?” Or the bold ones will ask: “Are Natives really just a bunch of alcoholics?” In those moments I would laugh, but now it all makes sense, they don’t see me as a human, but as this stereotypical Hollywood Injun.