{"id":2668,"date":"2014-12-18T03:32:33","date_gmt":"2014-12-18T03:32:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=2668"},"modified":"2016-08-12T15:51:57","modified_gmt":"2016-08-12T15:51:57","slug":"ridley-scotts-casting-of-white-actors-is-symptomatic-of-larger-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/ridley-scotts-casting-of-white-actors-is-symptomatic-of-larger-problems\/","title":{"rendered":"Ridley Scott’s casting of white actors is symptomatic of larger problems"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Charlotte M. Canning<\/a>, University of Texas at Austin<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Director Ridley Scott recently set off a firestorm when he dismissed those who criticized him for casting white actors as every major character in the recently released Exodus: Gods and Kings, while reserving roles like \u201cEgyptian thief, “royal servant,\u201d and \u201cEgyptian lower class civilian\u201d for actors of color.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t mount a film of this budget, where I have to rely on tax rebates in Spain, and say that my lead actor is Mohammad so-and-so from such-and-such,\u201d he told Variety<\/a>. At the film\u2019s premiere, he scoffed at the idea of a boycott and recommended that those threatening to stay away from the film should \u201cget a life.\u201d<\/p>\n

It would be terrific if the problem were isolated to Scott or Hollywood. But it\u2019s an issue in the entertainment industry as a whole.<\/p>\n

A 2014 UCLA study<\/a> about casting in Hollywood concluded that for films in theatrical release, lead actors were 89.5 percent white. For Broadway and not-for-profit theaters the results were almost as dismal: white actors made up 79 percent of the lead roles.<\/p>\n

Just last week highly respected British\/South African actress Dame Janet Suzman claimed that<\/a> \u201cwhite people go to the theatre, it\u2019s in their DNA\u201d and that theater is \u201ca white invention, a European invention and white people go to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suzman\u2019s remarks were greeted with much the same anger as Scott\u2019s had been.<\/p>\n

\u201cLudicrous,\u201d said Dawn Walton, artistic director of Eclipse, Britain\u2019s leading black-led national touring company.<\/p>\n

Artists of African and Asian descent around the world pointed to the diverse, millennia-old theater traditions on those continents.<\/p>\n

Suzman didn\u2019t simply refuse to apologize \u2013 she doubled down, identifying the origins of theater with playwright William Shakespeare.<\/p>\n

When I bring up the topic of casting with my students, I often ask:
\nCan women play roles written for men? Can white performers play characters of color? Can people of color play characters of a \u201ccolor\u201d other than their own?<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, it seems as though there are few positive real world precedents; examples of prejudice or willful ignorance are far easier to find.<\/p>\n

Like Mary Zimmerman, director of The Jungle Book at Chicago\u2019s Goodman Theatre. When asked about the racism of Kipling\u2019s work, she responded<\/a>, \u201cI\u2019ve decided to make it not a concern.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRacism is in the eye of the beholder, you know?\u201d She added. \u201cIf you look at that as racist, doesn\u2019t that say more about what you\u2019re projecting on to the character?\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the casting of white actors as Japanese characters in a Seattle Gilbert & Sullivan Society production of The Mikado made national news this past summer<\/a>. The actors were made up to look like they were Japanese, leading critics to level charges of \u201cyellow-face\u201d at the production.<\/p>\n

And Erin Quill, an actress of Chinese and European descent, wrote a blog post<\/a> about a Broadway-bound musical in development at the La Jolla Playhouse.<\/p>\n

The show, The Nightingale, based on a Hans Christian Anderson story about China, cast white actors in all the lead roles<\/a>. Quill listed all the Broadway-caliber actresses of Asian descent who could have played the lead in lieu of the white actress who was cast.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s often said that a good actor can play any role; all the time, actors offer brilliant performances of characters with whom they share little in common. Ordinary people play royalty and nobility, those who grew up with nothing play the wealthy, and actors innocent of any crime can play felons to great effect.<\/p>\n

Why, then, does race matter in casting?<\/p>\n

One answer is that the entertainment business \u2013 like many aspects of our society \u2013 is not a level playing field. White actors get cast far more often that performers of any other race, and there\u2019s no single reason for this. In some cases it may be individuals \u2013 directors and producers who fear that actors of color aren\u2019t marketable or appeal to too limited an audience. But more likely it is a system that positions whiteness as the norm, as a neutral casting choice that doesn\u2019t carry any racial meanings.<\/p>\n

Defenders of the status quo often take refuge in \u201cthe best person for the role\u201d argument. However, this line of reasoning usually plays out not as the best person for the role, but as the \u201csafest\u201d choice for the role: a white, known commodity.<\/p>\n

Just look at Ridley Scott \u2013 and while he may brush aside criticism of his casting decisions, his most recent film is, unfortunately, a microcosm of a much larger issue within the entertainment business. It\u2019s up to audiences to resist the industry\u2019s attempts to whitewash its products, to demand that casting choices reflect what our world actually looks like.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on The Conversation<\/a>.
\nRead the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Charlotte M. Canning, University of Texas at Austin Director Ridley Scott recently set off a firestorm when he dismissed those who criticized him for casting white actors as every major character in the recently released Exodus: Gods and Kings, while reserving roles like \u201cEgyptian thief, “royal servant,\u201d and \u201cEgyptian lower class civilian\u201d for actors […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":5636,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2668"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2668"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5637,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2668\/revisions\/5637"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}