SAN DIEGO, CA - JULY 22: Actress Naomi Scott attends the IMDb Yacht Party, Presented By TCL at on July 22, 2016 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images for IMDb)
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After a long search, Disney has finally cast Jasmine and Aladdin for their live-action adaptation of Aladdin. There is no doubt that Mena Massoud aka Aladdin is swoon-worthy, but let’s see what Naomi Scott portraying Jasmine is all about.
Scott was born in London to a Gujarati Indian mother and a British father.
She actually got started singing with the Bridge Church Youth Group when she was discovered by a British pop singer. She has since released two EPs, Invisible Division and Promises.
If you are anything like me and had already started shipping Scott and Massoud to become a beautiful couple in real life, that’s not going to happen. Even though Scott is only 24, she is already married to soccer player Jordan Spence.
Scott also is not a stranger to the small or big screen. She played “Mo” in the Disney Channel original movie Lemonade Mouth and this year she starred as the Pink Ranger in the new Power Rangers movie.
Scott’s casting hasn’t been without controversy, though. While many originally feared that a white actor would be cast in both roles, as has been the pattern with movies and TV shows including Aloha with Emma Stone as an Asian-American, Death Note with all white actors portraying Japanese characters and too many more to count, people are still not satisfied with Scott’s casting. People were especially afraid of potential white washing when Tom Hardy was rumored to be up for the role of Jafar.
After all, Scott is half Indian and is not Arab. Many are arguing that it would have been a great time for an Arab actress to be cast because the movie is set in a presumably Arab country and Jasmine is an Arabian princess.
All these Arab actresses on the planet and they cast half-white, half-Indian Naomi Scott as Jasmine. Indian isn't middle-eastern, Hollywood.
— Sarah Khatami (@SarahKhatami) July 15, 2017
i love naomi scott but i don't love the "brown ppl are interchangeable" idea that hollywood believes in so it's a no from me lmao
— 🦄🦄🦄 (@dirzacksnyder) July 15, 2017
https://twitter.com/LiIyJames/status/886704515814117376?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.digitalspy.com%2Fmovies%2Fnews%2Fa833387%2Faladdin-live-action-remake-princess-jasmine-naomi-scott-disney-criticised%2F
Even with the controversy, we hope that Aladdin can do our beloved childhood story justice.
