An anonymous executive on the film “Matilda” has apparently said that “The best gender to play a woman, should be a woman”. Emma Thompson is to play the role of Miss Trunchbull.
“The best gender to play a woman, should be a woman”.
It might be a clever bit of arse covering. The GC will read it as “only actual women should play women”, while the woke brigade will read it as “anyone identifying as female gender can play women”.
I'm an actor, primarily Shakespearean. I actually get cast in quite a few male roles - I'm tall, with broad shoulders and narrow hips in proportion to my frame, and quite a low voice.
I'm happy about that, as there are so few good female roles, even in Shakespeare, especially for older women (and my build and voice meant I never got the good younger female roles when I was young - I've never played Juliet or Ophelia, for example).
But for the same reason I'm against completely gender-blind casting. Men have so many brilliant roles to chose from, so they can keep their grubby mitts off Gertrude and Lady Macbeth!
I realise this may not seem very equal, but I think it is nonetheless fair - in the same way that I have no problem with black actors playing Lear or Hamlet, but white actors shouldn't play Othello.
Emma Thompson can play any role she likes, IMHO. She's great.
The problem that I noted with gender blind casting when I saw Wise Children at the Old Vic in 2018 was that two great roles for women had gone to men which considering the dearth of great roles for women seemed wrong and a little sad.
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