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.

We’re not talking about the things you’ve just mentioned though. Maybe read the thread?

James Bond is like Doctor Who and absolutely can be played by actors of different colours, these characters are modern mythological characters and the story can be changed to reflect modern concerns and issues. I also think with a good script a female James Bond could be an interesting twist.

Could a white actor play Shaka Zulu then, given his race had no impact on his life?

We all know we live in a racist world where there is a long history of white actors using blackface when playing characters of different races. That historic baggage means that kind of 'colourblind' casting is not acceptable because we all recognise it is rooted in racism.

Sometimes colour blind casting works. Sometimes it doesn't (when kids don't match parents etc) .

What Id like to see is more writing which naturally includes characters of all races, so there are good parts available for good actors of whatever ethnicity.
I'd like to see celebration of history which includes the POC who were there; are their stories never told?

By your accuracy standards only a black haired albino could play her, if you think about it. Not just any white woman.

The problem is a lot closer to home than the change of skin colour...

Ah yes, we must have historical accuracy. That’s why I only watch period dramas where the actors have bad teeth, the woman have body hair, and they speak in the exact same way as they would have done back then

ooor I can just enjoy a fictional work for what it is.

an interesting case of race swapping was the adaptation of ‘the girl with all the gifts’ in the book the little girl was white and her teacher was black. In the film, the little girl was black and the teacher was white. After all the fans revived themselves after fainting in horror, we all just carried on with our lives

An Asian actress playing a police woman during a period it would have been unlikely to see an Asian I don't think is a problem. She's notnplaying a white person. She's playing a policewoman.

Someone playing a character facing race specific issues is obviously stupid. A while person couldn't play Martin Luthur King. A black person couldn't play Hitler.

We are talking about whether tv dramas need to be accurate or whether people can cope with inaccuracy.

My point is they are all very inaccurate in a million different ways- if you don’t demand accuracy in clothes/colours/language/structural, class or gender representations etc, but do about whether people are the ‘right’ colour, then that does not cast you in a good light.

“it’s jarring to see a black person there, but not at all to see a maid in a pink dress answer back to the family” is just stupid.

I'm not suggesting anyone 'blacks up'. 🙄

Yes, dissonance is a good word. I don't care what colour people are but if you have as mentioned, two white actors and an Asian child, I start to wonder whether this is part of the story. Historical mistakes make the programme irritating to watch. Period dramas where the women are not wearing hats, my partner struggles with films that get the type of aircraft wrong. You stop believing in the magic.

I don't think we can really cite Brigerton as an example of an accurate historical drama. The whole thing is a fantasy.

I would like to see more historical dramas about the 19th - 20th century experiences of black and asian Britons. Steve McQueen's Small Axe TV series was incredibly good and told me histories of my own country that I am ashamed to admit I did not fully know.

This is a terrible example.

Snow White is a fictional character. The "point" of her is her beauty and her kindness.

I wouldn't find it jarring for her to be played by a black actor. I would expect her skin to be flawless, like unblemished freshly fallen snow.

From a purely practical point of view, acting is a job. To exclude different racial groups from taking those jobs would surely be illegal.

Your absolutist approach isn't helping and is clearly designed to deflect from the issue.

If they cast Sydney Sweeney as Snow White I'd have similar complaint.

I'm mixed-race and struggled a bit with Wicked Little Letters. One of the main themes was racism: the accused woman was Irish and there was a lot of anti-Irish sentiment which added to the unfair judgment against her. When I saw the policewoman was Asian, I felt on edge, dreading the racist comments she might get from her sexist, boorish superiors - but none came. At that point I thought, Oh, OK. I'm meant to notice that Rose is Irish, but I'm meant to "Not See Race" when it comes to the PC. Got it.

Not really. If you were making a film about Nelson Mandela you can't have a white actor playing him, any more than you could have a man playing Thatcher or a Will Smith playing Churchill.

Apparently not as the entire film has been pulled. 🙄

Well said.

I can understand the issue if it's a real life depiction of a person. But otherwise it's refreshing to see the best person in the role.

I have more of an issue that female actors have to be beautiful, pert of breast and flat of stomach to be considered for a lead role.

If you feel this way you may want to skip 'six' at the theatre. The queen's are incredible so you would be missing out but it is not historically accurate

The interesting thing is cultural and historic accuracy in plays and books is a very modern concern. In centuries gone by people simply fitted stories to their culture and times.

Medieval biblical plays simply assumed the setting, cutural references and dress of the play would be their world not 1st Centural Judea.

Similarly Shakespears plays, despite being set in locations like Classical Rome, Roman Britain, Egypt, Venice, Verona, 11th century Scotland, Denmark etc.. just assumed that the actors, their dress, cultural references and setting were the same as their own time and location of Elizabethan England.

The fun one is Midsummer Night's Dream where the setting veers between Classical Athens and a pastoral English village.

I was thoughtful about the Wicked Little Letters casting - it simply lies about the opportunities open to black and Asian people in the UK in the early 20s.

The care taken over authentic costume, hair & makeup, cars, locations, etc etc isn't reflected in the casting.

Those who don't know the UK's true history may now believe it was a possibility for members of ethnic minorities to become a police officer, a post mistress or a judge back then.

Is erasing the true history of the ethnic minority experience in this country with unrealistic casting choices a positive move?

Are we in danger of taking away understanding of how things came to be, by pretending they were other than how they were - promoting the lie that the UK has always been a model of race equality?

I don't think you could have a black James Bond. He's a spy, he sometimes has to go undercover in majority white societies where a black man (or a white working class man for that matter) would still be conspicuous in some situations. Plus the whole point of that character is that he's from a very stereotypical upper crust British background, which generally involves being white, albeit less so nowadays than in Ian Fleming's day. Better start a new franchise about a handsome black spy rather than trying to contort an existing, very non-woke character to accommodate diversity. Bond is naff and dated anyway, good riddance to it.

Maybe they should come with a public service announcement at the beginning

”This is a made up story- it does not represent reality of X era Britain- for historical accuracy please see a good quality documentary”

@Brexile I mean that theory would hold water if Bond hadn't been played by a working class Scot, an Irish man and an Australian.

Wicked Little Letters...I only saw the trailer, but it's been a long time since I saw something that embarrassing. I didn't really notice any of the ethnicity stuff being mentioned here, I just mean all the twee swearing, it was just beyond cringey