Note that Geoff has made his group The Legend of Billy Sing group private now, but I still have a copy of his reply.
Geoff writes:
"In actual fact I wrote this ... and your anger seems directed at a script that you have not read and a movie you haven't seen.
Can I at least give you some information to consider.
One purpose of the original script was to attack Australia's century old tendency to go off and fight foreign wars on behalf of foreign leaders who do not have Australia's interest at heart. We have done it in World War 1, we did it in Korea, in Vietnam and again in Iraq.
When Australia returns from these dubious wars the first people we seem to forget are our soldiers. These soldiers have historically been left to deal with their pain and injury with very little assistance or recognition. The typical complaint by returnees is that they have been abandoned.
It was my intention, with the original script, to make a commercial movie that highlighted the sadness I felt for these soldiers. It is not a script that was meant to criticize any other nation, neither Britain, Germany or Turkey and certainly not Asia. It is a script written by me, an Australian, that criticizes Australia's slavish devotion to other countries agendas. It was my opinion wrapped in a hopefully commercial story."
All OK up to here.
In researching the history of Australia in the years leading up to the war I found some very real characters, including Billy, who fit the story I wanted to tell.
The only problem in using parts of Billy's remarkable story was (as one of your posters correctly pointed out) finding a Chinese actor to play Billy's dad, John Sing.
Now it is interesting that you say we are no "Band of Brothers". I couldn't agree more. The budget for that wonderful show was $125 million US dollars ... that is over $US10,000,000 per episode.
When I said you were no Band of Brothers I was alluding to the fact that you disposed of historical accuracy, for what exactly?
We were a zero budget movie with no broadcaster and no government funding. We had a script and a world class cinematographer who had agreed to shoot our movie for us, probably because he wanted to help out a family member who was part of our team, and maybe because he liked the story we were trying to tell. He was available for five weeks in March 2008.
By then, as well as no money we still had no John Sing.
We advertised in all of the online film communities in this country for actors willing to participate for either no payment or at least a deferred payment contract. We received a response from over 250 actors who offered their services under those conditions. We did not receive any response from any Asian actor who would work under any condition.
In March 2008 we decided to defer the home scenes that would involve John Sing's character and went ahead with the war section of the movie. We had hoped that by showing what we could do with the action sequences we might attract some investment and enable us to shoot the home scenes later with some money to work with.
That worked to a small extent. We still have no broadcaster but we did attract some smaller (passionate) investors who contributed around $190,000 to allow us to continue.
In February 2009 our Cinematographer was available, again, for four weeks, we also had our little bit of money.
By February 2009 we had been looking for over 15 months for an Asian actor willing to play John on (at least) a deferred payment contract.
You had that much time and you couldn't find an Asian actor between the ages of 40-70? Where were you looking and advertising? If after a few months your casting agency had put forward zero candidates, did you not think it would be good to think outside of the box and go looking at various Chinese organisations or at the very least other Asian organisations? Put an ad in Chinese newspapers? There are quite a few Old Chinese families (as in 3rd/4th generation Australians) in the area where you were filming, did you ever think to ask them?
For this particular case, you didn't need a professional actor. I believe it would have been a minor role anyway. How many Australian films have we had where the actors weren't professional actors? Take a look at Samson and Delilah, top notch performances by people with no acting experience. The grandma acted quite well too hey? Oh and just like this series, the film had "zero budget".
When Tony Bonner, made himself available for two weeks, we gave up the search. Now asking Tony to play it as Chinese would not only have been racist and demeaning. It was also financially irrelevant, we could not have afforded the make-up.
How thoughful of you. Wait a sec, first you say that you didn't want Tony playing as a Chinese because it was racist and demeaning, but then you mention that it would be too expensive? So you did consider yellowface but decided against it because it was too expensive and not because it was racist and demeaning?
That is the history behind the decision on the role of John Sing. I believe if I had not accepted Tony's very generous offer to participate I would still be waiting for an actor for John. The fact is Tony was brilliant in the story and might help get us a broadcast deal.
Now we're getting somewhere closer to the truth.
Just a few more things I would like to point out
Firstly, with regards to Billy and the other dozen or so very real characters from that period whose stories we have borrowed, we have always tried to make it clear that this story is a combination of fact and fiction and is not a literal telling of Billy's life. This is a convention both legal and acceptable in literature and film. It has been employed by writers and film makers from the birth of Hollywood. How many "Legends of Wyatt Earp" has there been, how many "Legends of Robin Hood"? Not one of the last three Hollywood Robin Hoods was English born.
You sir are a douche. A relic of the White Australia days. Do you remember the White Australia days? How was it for you, good/normal? Now try to imagine, or if you have no imagination do some research on the real life experiences of Asians and half-Asians during those times. The eurasians of those days were treated just as poorly as their Chinese fathers, so what if their mother was white. Do you know that if Billy had tried to enlist in his hometown, where everyone knew of his heritage that he may have not have had the chance to fight in the war at all? You seem to have no problems white-washing an Australian of Asian heritage, which luckily for you means you don't have to look at the implications of the White Australia Policy. Cherrypick from history and make it white.
The example you have given above is crap. All the actors playing Robin Hood are WHITE. Are you saying that because you have a creative license you can take the character of Billy and do whatever you like? You can, at the expense of historical accuracy and credibility. But it means we as a community can criticise and give you shit about it.
Second with regards to the incredible man Billy Sing. I personally see him as first and foremost an Australian. He was no more English (as was his very English mother) than he was Chinese (as was his very Chinese father).
We (Asian Australians) all see ourselves as Australians. When you say "Australian" you really mean "white Australian". Go look up the White Australia Policy to see why we don't use terms like English-Australian, Irish-Australian, Welsh-Australian etc. In fact John Simpson, the guy with the donkey, was born overseas and grew up overseas and had only lived in Australia for 4 years before signing up for the war because he HATED Australia and thought he'd get a free trip back to his beloved England. Even Simpson would have been considered more Australian than Billy.
He was born in Clermont and raised around Proserpine, he played cricket and hunted kangaroo, he spoke only English with a very broad Australian accent. Whatever racism he may have confronted in his life he defeated with the resilience, the toughness and the tolerance he took to Gallipoli.
Conveniently omitted as a non-event from the series.
He was, like many of us whose predecessors arrived here in the last two hundred years, someone who only knew this country as his home. I would disagree with anyone who suggested that he saw himself as anything other than Australian.
Most importantly, I see Billy as a true hero that was abandoned, even betrayed. by his own country. I have done my best to honor him. He deserves it.
Thanks for reading.
Regards
Geoff"
Note also that Geoff Davis gave the role of Billy Sing to.....his own son Josh Davis! Fair enough, his son's an actor but it does lead me to ask was this nepotism? Did Geoff audition any other actors to play Billy? Did Geoff audition any eurasian actors to play Billy? Did Geoff give the role of Billy's father to Tony Bonner because of nepotism?
Below are my replies to various reader comments posted on the news.com.au article.
Weiry of Melbourne Posted at 11:30 AM Today
Have any of the people complaining about this ever seen a picture of Billy Sing? He didn't exactly look like he was of Chinese origin. He looked more caucasian than anything else. Had they cast an asian looking actor it would have been a misrepresentation as well.Comment 5 of 235
I don't have a problem with a white actor playing Billy, though I would prefer an eurasian. Regardless of whether he looked of Chinese origin, he is of Chinese origin. No I don't think he looks caucasian, he looks mixed.
I agree with this comment posted on another forum:
"The fact of that matter is if you want to highlight Australia's century long habit of sending troops to wars that ostensibly (naively) have nothing to do with Australia, then you didn't need to pick Billy Sing's story. You could have picked any of a number of famous rags to warriors tales from our military past. And with so much production downtime, you had plenty of opportunity to rewrite. But then you'd miss the sucker punch of Billy Sing.
The problem is it becomes a blatant attempt to use the inspiring and popular story of an Australian war hero for a cause that although worthy, overlooks events that could have equally as much, if not more impact for the storyline, had it retained more of the true Sing story. "
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