Re: Chromatic Casting

[dealan311]

So a meme has been floating around the Internet. It's called the Chromatic Casting meme, wherein people take popular shows/comics/movies etc and cast them with minorities. And, um. It's kind of awesome. Here are some examples:

Harry Potter
X-Men
DC Comics
Buffy
Lord of the Rings

It should be noted that the idea is not to see how they'd do it better or worse than the originals, but to imagine how they'd play it differently (if at all). And things like this make me really like fandom because aside from the joy of seeing all the shiny, pretty people, they point out a couple things about blind-casting (and the lackthereof) in Hollywood.

On one hand, there is the point that ethnicity really doesn't have to be the big obstacle that everyone makes it out to be. If you look at the links above, a LOT of those suggestions still work without losing the essence of the character. (Case in point: Gina Torres as Wonder Woman. HELL. YES.). It reminds me of that time in high school when Othello was playing at the Shakespeare Theatre, starring Patrick Stewart as Othello. Of course it's different when you swap black and white, but the story still worked. Another example are the people in the Harry Potter fandom who point out that Hermione could have very well been black, especially given her curly hair woes (which is a big issue for black women).

The picspams also rather effectively show that there are a lot of really really attractive and talented non-white actors out there, so the excuse that you can't find them doesn't really hold much water. Just fire up imdb.com and have at it.

On the other hand, though, this meme came about from all the flailing about the rumors of Will Smith being a lead contender for Captain America. Would it matter if Captain America was black? Or Asian or Hispanic or American Indian for that matter? Well, yeah, it kind of does. Because much like Superman, he's so iconic and has been such a big part of the American pop culture identity for such a long time that any deviation from the traditional image is bound to set off the fans who grew up with him and identified with him. It's the exact reason why Racefail 2009 (fandom implosion over the controversial whitewashing of the Avatar: the Last Airbender movie) happened. Changing the ethnicity doesn't mean it *can't* work, but it does add or subtract certain nuances and flavors.

And with so few minorities as leading actors, so few stories featuring predominantly non-white casts, it's understandable why some people might get upset at casting all white actors for characters who are very clearly not. The problem has less to do with a question of talent (well, except for Jesse McCartney as Zuko. Not even I could defend that), and more to do with the idea of losing one of *their* stories.

Anyway, it's something to think about in the ongoing Cultural Appropriation Discussion of Doom that the Internet seems intent on carrying on. At least this time there's less wank and more pretty pictures of hot people.

What show/fandom would you try to recast and whom would you cast?

Comments

[lauratan.livejournal.com]

Wow, that was really cool! Thanks for the share. I really like the LotR one... fully believable, and boy, those elves are HOOOOOT. Legolas?? Maree would STILL be screaming at the screen and hitting whosoever had the sad luck to be sitting beside her.

[lauratan.livejournal.com]

And PS - Gina Torres as WW? WOW. That would be awesome. She's such an amazon, wow.

[leigh57.livejournal.com]

Woah that was fascinating. Save the part where I don't know most fandoms so sometimes it's like, I don't even know the actor who plays the original character, which obviously makes it hard for me to tell the difference. Um good story!

But Naveen Andrews as Sirius? Hell YES. Also Gina Torres as Wonder Woman would be effing awesome.

Blah. All this does is remind me how much work I have to do in terms of all this stuff when I'm raising my kids in Aryan Nation. Blergh!

[marinw.livejournal.com]

Third the HELL YES of Gina Torres as WW.

Not so much a casting choice as a general comment: Why so little interracial dating on 24? There are two pairings I can think of offhand: POTUS David Palmer and Anne Packard in Day 3, and Hassan/Reporter Lady in Day 8.

Yes, we all love Annie, but maybe a Black!Renee?

One thing that irritated me about TV Star Trek: Black Vulcans married other black vulcans, etc. In one AU Deep Space Nine ep, Jake Sisco married a Black Bajoran, so he could marry out side his species but not his race. Not a problem for Klingons, who were burried under so much makeup you couldn't tell the ethnicity of the actor.

[lithoglyphic.livejournal.com]

Great post.

[cybertoothtiger.livejournal.com]

Ben Kingsley as Dumbledore! Yes!

I can also see the whole cast of LOTR this way, because the story creates an alternative universe. (The choice for Legolas is hot.) Same deal for something like The Wizard of Oz. A black or Asian Dorothy would not affect the story.

For stories that are set in cultures and universes that are diverse, that diversity should be reflected in the casting. So any of superheroes are fair game, especially the American ones. Captain America represents a perennial now (or slightly future) America, and that is going to change as the face of America changes. Crime shows, romances, medical dramas and comedies should all have diversity.

OTOH, If the writer is writing about a specific culture, I think it is respectful to cast a movie with people from that culture. Eat, Drink, Man, Woman would not have worked with a white cast. That is, it would have been a good movie, but it wouldn't have been the same story. Agatha Christie was writing about uptight middle-class English people. Casting a Hispanic as Miss Marple would change the whole psychology of the story.

Which naturally leads to the consideration that perhaps the problem is not merely about casting. Maybe also there need to be more roles written for Hispanic female detectives in England. It's like Joss Whedon's discussion of strong female characters. Why aren't more people writing them? As we've seen with Dana, casting a strong female actress in a weak role does nothing to promote equality.