If you're a fan of Avatar, don't read the following.

I already posted that they're making a live-action Avatar movie, but what I didn't get into is the fact that, so far, the actors picked to play the main characters are all lily white and not a single Asian. This has understandably caused more than a few fans to go "WTF?" at Hollywood, but I think what Jackson Rathbone said of playing Sokka takes the proverbial cake:

Due in theaters in summer 2010, “Airbender” has already begun to face a bit of controversy over the casting of white actors like Rathbone, Ringer and McCartney to play Asian characters - a concern the actor was quick to dismiss. “I think it’s one of those things where I pull my hair up, shave the sides, and I definitely need a tan,” he said of the transformation he’ll go through to look more like Sokka. “It’s one of those things where, hopefully, the audience will suspend disbelief a little bit.” [Emphasis Mine]

Because all that I need to be Asian is a tan. Riiiiiiiight. (I really shouldn't be surprised that Jackson Rathbone starred in Twilight, should I?)

If you want information on a letter-writing protest started by fans, read this guest article by Angry Asian Man on Racialicious (where I got the quote from).