Colour Blind casting

[ThinWomansBrain]

I know any statement that starts "I'm not racist but..." is usually exactly that, but I find colour blind casting in period drama really distracting.
I've seen two films and a play in the last week where it's been really off - why go to all of the effort of period costume and make up, and then have really implausible actors?

Wicked little letters - first Asian police woman was 1970s. not 1920s
National Theatre production - 1930s play - white couple with an inexplicably Asian Child
Catherine Booth (co founder of Salvation Army) was not black

It's particularly jarring when they are supposed to be portraying real characters.

In contrast, I saw some contemporary dance/theatre this evening, I don't even race or gender of most of the dancers.

You can't tell if someone is Jewish by looking at them. Phrenology and nose-measuring died out with the Nazis. Well, it didn't but you get my drift.

Why don't we apply the same logic to age? Let's have Judi Dench playing a teenager. Or us ageism acceptable in a way that racism is not?

Well that has been done with some Shakespeare productions - Derek Jacobi played Mercutio in Kenneth Branagh’s version of Romeo and Juliet a few years ago. And by all accounts it worked brilliantly!

Age blind casting www.theguardian.com/stage/article/2024/aug/14/age-blind-casting-geraldine-james

There are times when culture/skin colour is vital to the role. And times when it isn't. So it really doesn't matter who plays the role are long as they are good at it. And if it gives a wider representation to ethnic minorities all the better.

Strange you never hear anyone complaining when say for example the Les Mis cast is mostly Americans and British. As apposed to French. Many many films made with a ton of white people but set in eastern locations.

Agreed @NonsuchCastle but in a time when some say only trans actors should play trans, only gay people should play gay people, etc. I’m merely pointing out the double standard.

But Yul Brynner was wonderful in The King and I! Isn't the argument that the most talented should get the part?

Write new plays. Do the plays with all black casts. Put black characters where colour does not matter? Lots of WS's plays (and most of Marlowe's) are set abroad, Italy, fictional places, the Middle East. Plenty of room there for non-white actors e.g. Italians could well be played by Arab or Indian actors; Tamburlaine the Great could have an entirely non-white cast.

Yes, that would work. Mercutio's age is not suggested and he could be an older man re-living his youth with the young set, quite easily. We only know two things about him, in fact: he is witty in the Elizabethan sense and he is a kinsman of the Prince.

Why don’t script writers create films/TV about real historical people? Ira Aldridge, for example: Victorian Shakespearean actor. Black. This would be great to watch especially knowing that it was based on fact.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ira_Aldridge

I've not read the whole thread, has anyone discussed Sanditon? That seemed like a good idea - expanding on the sketch of a black character Jane Austen had introduced. While it's probably unlikely she'd have developed the character of Miss Lambe in anything like the same way as the TV series did it, this wasn't an ahistorical shoehorning in - clearly there were black people accepted into Georgian society, if they had enough money.

Of course there isn't a great supply of unfinished works by great novelists featuring black characters waiting to be developed, unfortunately!

Wow... I'd never heard of him. It's surprising no one has done this yet.

It's not really surprising, TV companies don't seem to want to touch real Black history.

John Kent for example, victorian black policeman. A fantastic idea for a police series.

I don’t think OP needs to reflect on this.

Historical inaccuracies in drama can be jarring. Seeing different-colour faces doesn’t bother me, but I don’t believe everyone expressing 21st century opinions that they would not have had hundreds of years ago.

The worst, for me, is sex-blind casting, if it’s implausible. I saw a production of Henry V where the king was played by a woman, and that was great, it worked. I imagined a powerful monarch like Elizabeth I. But the French princess was played by a bearded man, which was just ridiculous!

They have. Lolita Chakrabati wrote a very successful play called Red Velvet with Adrian Lester playing Ira Aldridge.

They have. Lolita Chakrabati wrote a very successful play called Red Velvet with Adrian Lester playing Ira Aldridge.

Thanks. Sounds like someone should do it on film (maybe there's a recording somewhere...)

This is a Zombie thread. Is it a slow day for you lot in the Royal family section?

What rattled your cage?

Oh! I think I'm thread title blind... there's a current thread which I (and possibly others) have confused this one with.

Can we talk about colourblind casting... www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/5275572-can-we-talk-about-colourblind-casting