Chin Han 47

Our Man in Hollywood, back on the big screen with the cyberpunk thriller Ghost in the Shell, on dealing with the film’s whitewashing controversy and what bionic body parts he’d love to have.

- Douglas Tseng

8 DAYS: How did you get involved in Ghost in the Shell? You play Togusa, a member of Section 9, the anti-cyber-terrorism unit led by Scarlett Johansson’s The Major.

CHIN HAN: I think there was a discussion as to who should play Togusa. He’s such an important character in the Ghost in the Shell canon, and by canon I mean the manga, anime, movies and TV shows. There was a lot of discussion early on about casting me, but they [also] had to decide on who would play the rest of the team. Casting is such an interesting process, because you have to get everyone to fit with everyone else. So we went through all of that, and the pieces slowly came together. Finally, when they had the group, [I was offered] the part.

The casting of Scarlett Johansson as The Major, originally a Japanese character, proved to be very controversial. Did all the talk of whitewashing affect the morale of the other actors?

Ultimately with any movie you do, the focus should be on the work — everything else is noise. I’ve been through that once before with