It’s a debate that
won’t die as again and again we see cishet white, able bodied actors cast in
minority roles. (And yes I
had to use that meme). And every single time it happens there’s always a legion of
supporters jumping out to say why it’s completely ok.
It is not. It really
really isn’t. There are a large number of POC, gay, bi, trans, disabled actors
out there who can perform these roles. And cishet, white able bodied actors
will be ok folks - 90% of the roles out there are already tailor made for them.
They don’t have to have the last 10% as well!
But beyond the fact
that cishet, white, able bodied actors already grossly dominate the entertainment
industry, casting them in these roles has severely damaging implications with a
whole lot of terrible history behind them
We cannot separate
what privileged people playing marginalised characters means and has meant, no
matter what creators current intention is. Both collectively and for individual
minorities. Casting white characters in POC roles cannot be separated from a
context of deeply racist abominations and minstral shows. Casting cis people as
trans characters cannot be separated from the context of people claiming trans
people aren’t REAL men/women and that a trans woman is not distinguishable from
a cis man or a that a trans man is not distinguishable from a cis woman.
Casting an able bodied actor for a disabled role cannot be separated from the
context of people believing disabled actors don’t exist and disabled people
cannot actually act at all
You cannot separate
these contexts from your casting.
And all of these
share a common context of mockery - of privileged people putting on these
identities and turning them into clowns, caricatures, something for everyone to
savagely laugh at and regard in contempt. POC, disabled, LGBTQ people, all have
been worn by cishet white able bodied people to portray something worthy of
nothing but revulsion and hilarity. We can all think of numerous examples (and
don’t tell me you can’t. You’re lying. You really are).
And all of these
share another common assumption of, well, every industry but certainly the
entertainment industry, that there is a complete lack of minority actors to
fill these roles. This is an excuse trotted out constantly and it’s so
blatantly not true. You had to cast Scarlett Johansson because you can’t find a
talented Asian actor? Really? Out of the billions of Asian people in the world,
you couldn’t find one with a modicum of acting talent? REAAAALY? You cast Jack
Whitehall as a gay man because he’s the best actor for the job? Really? A stand
up comedian is literally the best actor you could find?
How long did you
look? WHERE did you look?
You cannot divorce
your acting, your portrayal, from this context. You cannot pretend that your
casting exists in isolation, that they do not carry these messages and aren’t
perpetuating these issues. Every time we get this privileged casting we have
these messages repeated and invoked.
Especially since we
also have to remember how much minority actors struggle to get roles. The
number of roles for POC is vanishingly small. LGBTQ actors repeatedly have
spoken about having to be closeted to get roles and how much being out has
harmed their careers. Disabled actors are almost invisible entirely and many
people argue they don’t even exist.
Contrast that to how
a straight, able bodied actor playing gay or disabled role is almost guaranteed
to be award bait. Actors will be hailed for their “courage” and acting like
they’ve somehow achieved something impressive by acting this role. They’ll get
to gush in numerous interviews about how Important it was and how Hard it was
or, even more nauseating, how they are doing such a wonderful service for the
minority in question by taking this role, appropriating the story of
marginalised people and profiting at it
Bonus points if they
make a big speech about why these issues are so important - while they’re
marketing the role. And then going oh-so-silent once the movie’s finished and
they don’t have something to advertise any more (remember Benedict
Cumberbatch’s really selling it when cast as Alan Turing).
This is also a
growing part of the whole problematic element of this casting: the
appropriation of marginalised movements, of minority’s fight for equality and
using it to make money. Through biopics and issue films, taking these vital
stories and histories, removing the actual people involved and using it for
privileged profit and exploitation. These films are going to extra mile and
exploiting a minority’s struggle of equality, dignity, even existence for
profit without any respect and regard for the community in question
Let’s also be clear what
privileged casting means - it does mean having a privileged actor pretending to
be marginalised, straight playing gay, white playing POC, ect. But it also
means changing the character itself - both in adapting fictional work and
doubly so when creating biopics of actual people. If a character is canonically
a minority and you decide to re-write them to be privileged, when you decide to
cast a whole set of blindingly white Egyptian gods, or trot out a Shakespeare
who is straighter than a laser beam. You’re replacing marginalised actors - AND
marginalised roles - with privileged people, doubling down on the erasure and
the insistence that these identities don’t matter and can be discarded;
that they’re irrelevant.
Note again the
context here - so all you people running to the comments to say “what about gay
actors playing straight roles!” or “this character was white in the original
and they made her Black!”; stop. Stop you are not acting or arguing in good
faith. Look at the above context - NONE of that applies to privileged roles. On
top of that, we must consider the ongoing role of erasure in our media -
minority actors have very very very few roles open to them. And what roles
there are are inevitably less prominent and less important than the roles open
to cishet white able bodied actors. This erasure, on top of well documented
prejudice, is career limiting to say the least. I say again, anyone claiming
there is an equivalency here between a gay actor playing a straight role or a
white character being turned Asian is not arguing in good faith. They simply
are not - they cannot be ignorant on the lack of opportunities, the lack of
roles and the prejudice in the industry to think these are equivalent.
A cishet, white, able
bodied actor’s career is not going to be limited or harmed by them only taking
cishet, white, able bodied roles. Scarlett Johansson will find roles as a cis,
straight, white woman. Johnny Depp and Matt Damon’s careers will not end if he
is limited to taking roles for cishet white able bodied men or only roles that
were always white and not whitened for them. Also a really really good rule of
thumb is: if someone is talking about how something affects minorities,
responding with “BUT WHAT ABOUT CISHET WHITE ABLE BODIED MEN!” is not a good
response. Really.
