[post_page_title]Mackenzie Davis – Mindy Park (The Martian)[/post_page_title]
Based on the similarly-named best-seller, 2015’s The Martian was an excellent sci-fi thriller about an astronaut being stranded on Mars. The supporting characters were mostly astronauts themselves, as well as other NASA personnel, but one casting decision elicited controversy. In the book, satellite planner Mindy Park was “perceived” as Korean, author Andy Weir said.
In the movie, she was played by white Canadian Mackenzie Davis. Since her supervisor’s Asian origin was also changed, the president of an Asian-American watchdog group wondered, “Was (director) Ridley Scott not comfortable having two Asian-Americans talking to each other?” Davis, to be fair, claimed she had no idea Park was originally Korean.
