On Tue, Mar 23, 2021 at 6:24 AM 'Dave Sikula' via TVorNotTV < [email protected]> wrote:
> I was talking about this with a director colleague of mine. For a long > time, I admit I had issues with some aspects of cross-racial or color-blind > casting -- especially if actors of different races were playing members of > the same family. I eventually got over it and no longer care, and actually > look forward to it now. > > My own feeling is that, if the issues raised in the play/movie/television > series aren't dealing with specifically racial issues (as "Othello" does, > among other things), there's no reason to not cast anyone in any role. I > wouldn't cast white people in an August Wilson play than I'd cast a Black > actor in a David Henry Hwang play that was about the Chinese experience. > About a decade ago, I saw a production of "West Side Story" that had a > black Tony. I have no doubt the director was sincere in casting > color-blind, but it made no sense in that there was no mention of it. The > racial conflict at the heart of the play was rendered nonsensical. (It > didn't help that the actor wasn't very good.) > > I could barely get through one episode of "The Great," but not because of > the casting; I couldn't stand the tone and writing. It was great to see > actors of color get those opportunities. If I could abide "Bridgerton," I'd > probably feel the same way. > > And don't even get me started on Brits and Australians being cast as > Americans. > I want to express my appreciation to everybody who participated in this discussion. It went deeper than I expected and I feel I walk away enlightened about the issue. I had a tough time trying to reconcile condemning blackface/yellowface while encouraging actors of color to take on clearly white roles like founding fathers or Russian courtiers. Now it makes sense to me. While I know it's the right thing to do and over the long term will make for better comedies and dramas, it's jarring how quickly it seems to have come into the mainstream. I can certainly trace a history of "no miscegenation" in the Hollywood Production Code meaning any hint of interracial romance was impossible and scenes where Black performers in white musicals did their scenes apart and not part of the plot so southern theater owners could cut out those scenes. And then there were Norman Lear shows where race/ethnic relations in his sitcoms became deadly dull because each actor of color had to represent his whole group and self-righteousness buried any hope for comedy. The current situation still seems avant garde to me but if the shows aren't controversial or attacked on casting I can easily get used to it. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAJE-FiFx6giiu1edmPRmpzjOqkC05beM3RP_-5XTzEPNxGPbKA%40mail.gmail.com.
