A fascinating new behind-the-scenes revelation sheds light on the decision to portray Psylocke as Betsy Braddock in X-Men '97. During an interview with the Solving for X-Men podcast, director Emmett Yonemura revealed that the subject was debated among the show's staff.
Ultimately, Betsy's portrayal received strong support from Yonemura and assistant director David Maximo, both Asian members of the production team, who stood up for the character and recognized the narrative importance of remaining faithful to Psylocke's history during the period in which the series is set.
Solving for X-Men Podcast: Speaking of a little show called X-Men '97, I wanted to know: when you were directing Psylocke, did you know who you were directing? Did you know if it was Betsy or if it was Kwannon? Did they tell you that, or...? 'Cause there's the whole controversy.
Emmett Yonemura: Yeah, you know, there is. And at one point, the showrunner was almost making me feel a little bit token-like: "Well, how do you feel about this 'cause you're half Japanese?" And I'm like, "Oh God, I'm not that close to this character. I'm not that close to this character." But I was like, "Yeah, it does feel a little weird to have, I guess, a bit of cultural appropriation." It was also the way it was phrased to me, just, "It's offensive, right?" And I was like, "Yes, it's offensive. I'm [laughter] totally offended."
But then I asked [David] Maximo, one of Chase [Conley]'s assistant directors for his episodes, and he's a huge Psylocke fan. And as soon as he heard that there was even a debate going on, he was like, "How dare you? This is totally a part of her character. It doesn't—no one's looking at it from some sort of racist standpoint. It's just—it's what happened to these two women, and this is what's going on. And it's she's trapped in her—that it's not meant to be appropriation."
And so he was so firm about it that I was like, "No, no, no, no. This is the guy you ask. And if he says it's fine because he's the huge fan and Asian and he just—he gets it." I was like, "No, no, no. We can do it this way."
So yes, English woman trapped inside a Japanese woman's body, but it does actually matter for content and story and where you're going to take characters. So, yeah, it was a debate, but I'm glad that we just kind of stuck to the character, at least for where she is at this time period, because it just—it makes sense.
And also, who doesn't want more drama? Look, if we can add her bag of issues to the pile, let's do it. [laughter]
Solving for X-Men Podcast: I agree. I like that decision.
Emmett Yonemura: Yeah, me too. I felt comfortable once we had a fan—you know, [David] Maximo is just so close to these characters. But when he was just like, "No, no, no, no, no. To change it would be actually offensive," I was like, "Okay, cool. I like that. I dig that."
“For so long, my life has been out of control. Chaos and serendipity, wrapped in insanity. I have suffered, I have lost. Not just my life, but my very soul, my self. But no more. Now I know who I am.” – Elizabeth ‘Betsy’ Braddock, daughter of Otherworld, mutant, telepath, telekinetic, defender of the realm and, above all, X-Man.
7 comments:
It’s always telling that Asian people seem to be the least offended by Asian Psylocke. And I agree with the team here, to change it would actually be offensive and untrue to the character.
It's always the white/black people worried something would be offensive, the Asian people be like 'lol not it's not a big deal' lol
Anytime I’ve seen accounts ride so hard against Betsy, from MY EXPERIENCE they’re already black gay guys lol
I’ve yet to see actual Asian fans ever complain about this ever.
As a Black person, I'll speak to why I think many Black people are affronted. Blackface was a very real part of American History and entertainment and its purpose was to dehumanize Black people to justify anti-Black laws and systemic racism and to reinforce sentiment that white Americans should feel no guilt about Black people's subjugation as we were "cartoonist" and thus sub-human. So many Black people feel stung when we see any hint of things like this, and want to call it out. It is empathy on a basic level and that is something to find humanity in. That being said... If Asian people are not offended, then I am not as neither iteration of the character is representative of anyone from my background. My issue with her being stuck for so long was about the lore and relating to a character (as I do when I read fiction and get engrossed), thinking of the dissonance a person would feel being trapped in another person's body, including if they were the same "race." I actually didn't mind as much when it actually was "Yellowface" in the original story as it was never written as derogatory dehumanization of Asian people. I still wanted her to get her original face back, due to the dissonance, but that's about it. I'm fine with her being "Asian" in the show as it's part of her story and I'd be cool with them incorporating her true origins if she becomes a main character. I have always thought that the introduction of Kwannon has served no one or the larger story. And that's no shade to Kwannon or her fans. I think the character is superfluous and would have been fine with her staying dead and it being a full circle moment if her body had died at the end of Mystery in Madripoor over the retcon of her being a silent passenger. It would have been a touching moment if Elizabeth took her body to be buried in Japan as was her plan with her own before Matsu'o destroyed it (though it was kinda shitty that the X-Men who were in that story just left what they thought were her remains unaccounted for).
And to be clear, this is my assumption. Black people aren't a monolith, so I don't speak for every other Black comic book reader.
Thanks for the history lesson, but like you said you can't speak for anyone and to me the ones that are witch hunting Betsy are just doing it to allow themselves to love Psylocke but to make it clear they aren't associated with the fabricated racism attached to the character.
Again, this is my experience and observation. It's not meant to rile anyone up, it's just what I have seen and one of the reasons I can't take Betsy/Psylocke as "racially sensitive" backstory when it's all just fucking comic books. Literally no one alive and who will live will ever be, will ever truly be deeply, seriously hurt by the body swap story.
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