Here’s the reason why casting directors never cast non-white actors for lead roles.
In an interesting interview with some of the biggest casting directors in Hollywood, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg’s top choice for choosing actors to appear in the movies revealed some of the biggest secrets behind casting actors.
During the 23rd Hamptons International Film Festival, three of the industry’s biggest casting directors shared secrets and offered tips during a panel called “The Art of Casting: Casting Society of America.”
The panelists included Ellen Lewis, who has worked with Martin Scorsese for the past 25 years as well as several other major casting directors.
During the hour-long discussion, casting directors shared several casting stories but, also revealed some of Hollywood’s biggest secrets behind casting.
One of the topics casting directors discussed was the lack of diversity in movies and TV shows. Casting directors were asked why so few non-white actors appear in front of the screen and this is what they said:
“If they’ve written an all white cast, you can usually open their minds to some of the roles. It’s getting easier now but it’s always been hard to have a blended family or interracial romance because the producers or directors may think that drives the story some way and that’s not the way they want to go. You end up getting the doctors, the shrink and the nurse with color. It’s a struggle we all work on all the time.”
Ultimately, producers and directors believe that by casting non-white actors for movie roles it will distract the audience from the movie’s storyline.
According to , the number of non-white actors appearing in TV shows and movies has “flat lined” and lead to non-white actors playing stereotypical roles.
If you’re a black man, you are allowed to be a rapper, a bouncer, a drug dealer, a convict, a gang member, a rapist or a wife-beater. You can be a noble slave, the normcore best friend, a duplicitous merchant or space-pirate. You also get to die first. If you’re a black or Hispanic woman, you can be a prostitute, a maid, a nanny, a crack addict, a stripper or a dead body. If you’re an east-Asian woman you can be a geisha, a witch, a concubine, a submissive wife, a waitress in your father’s restaurant or a kidnap victim. Middle Eastern men can be terrorists or local peasants, and east-Asian men can be sadistic enforcers with martial arts skills.
In fact, in a study by the University of Southern California, examining over 700 movies in the past seven years, 75% of all movie characters were white. In addition, only 17% of the top 100 films featured a lead or co-star as a non-white actor.
In the words of Viola Davis, winner of an Emmys earlier this year: “The only thing that separates a woman of colour from anything else is opportunity.”
It is important to highlight the fact that a study concluded a diverse cast actually improves TV ratings and leads to a bigger box office. For example, “films with casts about 30 percent diverse did best at the worldwide box office.”
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What do you think? Can casting directors do more? Share with us your thoughts in the comments below!
