10 Movies That Ruined Perfect Casts With One Bad Choice

Starring Audrey Hepburn in her most iconic role and George Peppard as her brooding love interest, Breakfast at Tiffany’s is widely regarded as a classic. Bar, that is, one very conspicuous problem: Mickey Rooney’s (who, you’ll remember, was an obviously white actor) ‘yellowface’ portrayal of Mr. Yunioshi, Holly Golightly’s Japanese neighbour.

Decked out with buck teeth, squinted eyes and an affected ‘Asian’ accent, Rooney’s role is an embarrassing racially stereotyped smear on an otherwise charming film and though his performance didn’t cause too much of stir during the film’s release in 1961. In fact, one New York Times reviewer called Rooney’s performance ‘broadly exotic’ – more recently it’s come under scrutiny, presumably because nowadays it isn’t so PC or actually amusing to take the mickey (pun intended) out of people based on their ethnicity.

To their credit, Paramount Pictures have since released DVD re-issues of the film complete with a documentary, Mr Yunioshi: An Asian Perspective, featuring commentary from Asian American performers and media activists that recognises Rooney’s role as racially offensive. Plus, Rooney himself expressed his regret of the role before his death in 2014.

Overdue apologies aside, it still goes down as one of the most cringeworthy performances in cinema history.