To think that racial diversity in film casting has gone slightly bonkers...

[AngeloMysterioso]

When you have an Asian actress playing Bess of Hardwick?

I just can’t see why anyone thought it was appropriate to have such a prominent woman in English history being played by somebody who is Chinese- can you imagine the outcry if an important black woman was being played in a film by someone who isn’t black, or indeed a significant Asian character being played by a white woman? There’d be uproar, and rightly so. And yet, in the new Mary Queen of Scots film we have a white Englishwoman being played by Gemma Chan.

This Chinese author/blogger said pretty much the same thing, pointing out that when Ed Skrein was cast as a fictional Japanese character in Hellboy the public response was so furious that he ended up quitting. And Bess of Hardwick isn’t even a fictional character, she was a very real woman, an ancestor of our current Queen, whose life and legacy are quite remarkable.

I don’t want anyone to think that there is any racism behind this post at all. I think Gemma Chan is a fantastic actress, but I don’t know, there’s just something about it that reeks of tokenism.

I was never, ever represented or saw my own likeness in the media and i did not expect to.

The situation you describe makes it seem as if there were absolutely minute numbers of white people where you were living. That is completely different to the situations of myself and other POC in the UK. Did you experience racism e.g. people telling you that you don't belong in the country you were raised in? Can you relate to the aspects of racism and how that affects our want for representation that I detailed in my previous post?

If it's fiction, I don't think it matters. Yes, it might be noticeable at first but it's hardly going to spoil the film. In some cases it matters with real people but not always. I think it depends.

Sorry if this is slightly off topic but I'd really like some opinions from POC on this:

I have just cast a production of Hairspray in a school which is approx 70% white, 20% Asian and 10% black. Obviously the cast should be 50% white, 0% Asian and 50% black. I couldn't do this. The majority of the ethnic minority children in the school are in the younger year groups and my cast of around 70 children only has 6 black children in it.

Putting those 6 children into parts intended to be black and making up the numbers with white children felt wrong. So instead, I have equal numbers of all races spread across the whole show and am going to give a nod towards intended ethnicity by dressing half the cast in coloured bottom halves and white shirts/tops and the other half in coloured bottom halves and black shirts/tops.

A lot of the schools/junior version of the script is amended in terms of racist language etc and I do get a letter to send out with the scripts that says something like 'you will be aware that Hairspray is a show with major themes around segregation and racism in 1960s America. However, please be aware that we are a school in the UK and, as such, we can only work with the children we have.' But my casting does mean that I will have white children saying lines like 'If we get any more white people in here it's gonna be a suburb' and black children singing lines like 'we're nice white kids who like to lead the way'.

Sorry, posted too soon. Meant to add - if you were a POC with a child in this production, would that approach upset you? Would you think there was a better way to have done it?

i.pinimg.com/originals/4f/70/1e/4f701eabf1439392186165827fb7e031.jpg

Queen Charlotte.

Phillips of Hainault was considered to be of African descent , too.

Phillipa

Geez.

White people have played non-white characters for a long time.

Historical dramas are often full of inaccuracies, and not just in terms of the physical appearance of characters, but the incredibly common use of th English language in movies set in non-English speaking countries.

Funny how historical accuracy only matters when it comes to PoC being seen on screen.

*Geez.

White people have played non-white characters for a long time.*

And that was wrong too. Does that mean we have to go down the tit for tat route?

It’s not tit for tat, it’s creating a balance, it’s morally correct, it’s reflecting society, it’s actors doing what they’re paid to do.

And that was wrong too. Does that mean we have to go down the tit for tat route?
You say 'was' as if it doesn't remain common practice.

"Phillips of Hainault was considered to be of African descent , too."

Err, source?

Just be historically accurate, only two men of Chinese descent ever arrived into London in the eighteenth century (one was called Whang Atong or Whang-tong - nttreasurehunt.wordpress.com/2011/05/13/a-chinese-celebrity-at-knole/)

This was about 200 years after the events depicted in this drama.

Chinese immigration began in the 19th century. What might be much more interesting and historically accurate would be a dramatisation of the lives of the Chinese merchants and others in London in the 19th c. It would be really engaging to explore what life was like for that group of immigrants, instead of just using Chinese immigrants as opium dealing proto-gangsters who make for lazy stereotyped baddies in opposition to Sherlock Holmes and his ilk.

What @TacoLover said

Funny how we never seem to get any of these long, pearl clutchy threads when a white actor is cast as a POC.

I'm not sure.

The best Othellos have been black am I being stupid, was he black in the original script?. I think Idris would make an amazing bond although 007 was clearly, originally white.

It's shoehorning women into male roles that I don't like. Ghostbusters and Oceans xxx. Bollocks to that.

Funny how we never seem to get any of these long, pearl clutchy threads when a white actor is cast as a POC.

You do.
The OP made a point of comparing both cases.

But it's widely considered wrong these days, which is why you don't see many.

The best Othellos have been black am I being stupid, was he black in the original script?

Yes, he was. The whole play sort of revolves around the issue. (And jealousy)

@Lweji

It's been a few decades since I read it for O Levels.

Othello was a moor. That could mean black like a sub-Saharan black person or it could also mean something like an Arab north-African, there are differing views, but the character is not white European anyway.

Ah. Is it whitewashing to have a white Othello?