{"id":501349,"date":"2021-05-12T17:51:17","date_gmt":"2021-05-12T21:51:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=501349"},"modified":"2021-05-12T17:51:19","modified_gmt":"2021-05-12T21:51:19","slug":"fisher-stevens-regrets-playing-an-indian-man-in-short-circuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fisher-stevens-regrets-playing-an-indian-man-in-short-circuit\/","title":{"rendered":"Fisher Stevens Regrets Playing An Indian Man In \u2018Short Circuit\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffisher-stevens-regrets-playing-an-indian-man-in-short-circuit%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=501349&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/FisherStevens.jpg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"  style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p>In the 1986 science-fiction comedy \u201cShort Circuit\u201d \u2013 one of the many \u201cE.T.\u201d knockoffs that permeated throughout the go-go decade \u2013 actor Fisher Stevens played Ben Jabituya, an eccentric Indian man with a thick, stereotypical accent. Over the years, the role has been criticized as a work of \u201cbrown face,\u201d being that Stevens darkened his skin for the role and has no Indian ancestry.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/entertainment\/fisher-stevens-regrets-controversial-short-circuit-role-191051910.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Yahoo Entertainment<\/a>, Stevens said he often feels guilt for the role and agrees with those who feel offended by it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt definitely haunts me,\u201d he told the outlet. \u201cI still think it\u2019s a really good movie, but I would never do that part again. The world was a different place in 1986, obviously.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In fairness to Stevens, the role he initially signed on for was written as a white man until the filmmakers decided to change the character\u2019s ethnicity after he had been cast. He was 21 at the time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey rewrote it, and were like, \u2018Can you play it?\u2019 I said, \u2018Yeah, I can do it. Let me learn.\u2019 It\u2019s a weird thing when you\u2019re 21 and you\u2019re trying to get a job,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n<p>Stevens reprised the role in 1998\u2019s \u201cShort Circuit 2.\u201d Yahoo Entertainment noted that Stevens did commit to learning more about Indian culture prior to filming and apparently gave such a convincing portrayal that comedian Aziz Ansari actually believed Ben Jabituya was played by a real Indian man:<\/p>\n<blockquote readability=\"27.475898334794\">\n<p><i>Stevens did commit himself to learning about India, a place he had never visited prior to shooting\u00a0Short Circuit.\u00a0<a class=\"link rapid-noclick-resp\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/11\/15\/arts\/television\/aziz-ansari-on-acting-race-and-hollywood.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-ylk=\"slk:As he told Indian-American comedian and actor, Aziz Ansari, in a 2015 New York Times interview\" data-rapid_p=\"38\" data-v9y=\"1\">As he told Indian-American comedian and actor, Aziz Ansari, in a 2015\u00a0New York Times\u00a0interview<\/a>, Stevens worked with a dialect coach and read multiple books about the country\u2019s history and culture. Later on, he moved to India for a month before traveling to the Toronto set of\u00a0Short Circuit 2.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>All that preparation apparently came across in the performance: in his\u00a0New York Times\u00a0article, Ansari remembers thinking that Ben was played by an Indian actor when he saw the film as a child. \u201cI rarely saw any Indians on TV or film, except for brief appearances as a cabdriver or convenience store worker,\u201d Ansari writes. \u201cThis made\u00a0Short Circuit 2\u00a0special.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>It was only later on in college that the\u00a0Master of None\u00a0creator learned that the character was actually played by Stevens in \u201cbrownface,\u201d and experienced a profound sense of disillusionment. \u201cAs a child, I thought the villain of the film was Oscar Baldwin. \u2026 As an adult, I thought the bad guy was actually Mr. Stevens, who mocked my ethnicity.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Stevens said that he still gets heat from Indian friends for taking on the role and that his wife will occassionally guilt-trip him.\u00a0\u201cI have friends who are Indian, and they\u2019re still mad at me. They\u2019re like, \u2018What were you thinking?\u2019 My wife isn\u2019t happy about it either. She keeps telling me, \u2018Look what you did!&#8217;\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Best of Ben Jabituya \/ Short Circuit\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/K6TLYwelOPk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/hank-azaria-apologizes-to-every-indian-for-voicing-apu-the-character-is-practically-a-slur\">Hank Azaria Apologizes To Every Indian For Voicing Apu: The Character \u2018Is Practically A\u00a0Slur\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\">member<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the 1986 science-fiction comedy \u201cShort Circuit\u201d \u2013 one of the many \u201cE.T.\u201d knockoffs that permeated throughout the go-go decade \u2013 actor Fisher Stevens played Ben Jabituya, an eccentric Indian &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2277983,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/FisherStevens.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Fisher Stevens Regrets Playing An Indian Man In \u2018Short Circuit\u2019","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-501349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/FisherStevens.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Fisher Stevens Regrets Playing An Indian Man In \u2018Short Circuit\u2019","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2277983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}