Why the Casting Process is One Cloaked in Privilege

A few years ago, one of my first critical pieces was published by Popmatters.com. In this piece, I took issue with the idea of non-gay actors playing gay actors in TV and film. My argument lies in the fact that 1.) straight actors were in essence acting out what they assumed was “gay” behavior, 2.) they marginalized the number of roles available for “gay” actors, and 3.) that this falls under a cloud of privilege that has played out in various capacities in the History of the casting process in American Hollywood theatre, film, and television.

I realize that there were many things that I left out, over-emphasized and under-emphasized in one of the first public, published essays of my career (so please forgive me of these errors) but overall I think the question I raised is indeed a legitimate one — when an actor is given a role where they are to “play” a person who happens to be gay, disabled, Black, etc. and said actor is not, does this present a problem that links to privilege or should a “challenging” role like this just be given to a talented actor?

Currently there is quite a brouhaha brewing in New York over the casting of Abigail Breslin to play Helen Keller in an off Broadway production of The Miracle Worker, which is set to open later this Winter. The 13 year old star is already an Academy Award nominated actress of some note, having appeared in films such as Little Miss Sunshine. The concern comes from a number of deaf and blind actors who have objected to Miss Breslin’s casting because she is not deaf or blind. According to Executive Director of The Alliance for Inclusion of in the Arts Sharon Jensen, by excluding a deaf or blind actor from these roles, they are being marginalized in the casting process for roles that speak to their particular experience, not to mention the larger artistic and ethical issues at stake here. Most notably, is it offensive, unethical, an example of the inner workings of privilege for a hearing, seeing actor to play “deaf/blind” Helen Keller?

I explored this issue in my prior essay around the topic of sexuality but this subject can certainly take on any number of identities. Privilege is generally a said advantage (by advantage I mean social advantage by way of gender, race/ethnicity, color, sexuality, class, etc.) that engenders you with exemptions from certain social liabilities and uncomfortable and/or painful experiences. In the world of casting, these privileges are often played out vigorously. Blackface (and Yellowface) were frequent forms of entertainment and to this day, diversity along the lines of race and ethnicity is still a problem in Hollywood. In Restoration theater, women were forbidden to become actors and their roles were assumed by men.

And the contemporary examples of this are endless: Felicity Huffman in her Academy Award nominated performance as a transgender person in Transamerica, Jessica Alba playing a Black woman in Honey, Sean Penn playing a developmentally disabled adult in I am Sam, etc. etc. etc. Some time ago I told a colleague how much I enjoyed the film Milk, particularly Sean Penn’s performance of the gay-rights activist and politician. After I finished my praise of the film, she told me that her professor, an openly gay man, had many issues with the film, most notably that he felt as if Sean Penn was parodying/mimicking a common stereotype of gay behavior and lifestyles. Needless to say, I fell silent.

The person behind the casting of Breslin publicly stated that he was looking for a star, someone whose star power would comfort the investors behind this project and he didn’t know of any deaf/blind pre-teen actors who fit this bill. Prior to this casting, the Alliance had problems with the same company when they cast a hearing actor in the role of a deaf character in a production of Carson McCullers‘ The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. The producers claimed to have auditioned a number of deaf actors but in the end went with a hearing actor because he was the best actor overall.

I think this Abigail Breslin fiasco introduces important questions into the casting process. Surely the folks on the other side of the debate have a sound argument: shouldn’t the best person for the job be chosen? If money is the issue and fiscal concerns are paramount, does the weight of a mega-star (or at least a well-known actor) take precedence over broader artistic concerns and ethics?

Ideally this should not be a concern, but this doesn’t work both ways. How many times do you see a Black woman cast in a role written for a a White woman? Perhaps sometimes but you certainly could see this the reverse. In fact, Renee Zellwegger’s latest film New in Town was written by a Black man who had Gabrielle Union specifically in mind for the part (and even wrote the character as a Black woman) but the part was given to Renee. I have very strong, often unpopular ideas about the topic but I would love to hear what others think….

Deconstructing Underworld: Rise of the Lycans

So anyone who knows me knows that I am a horror, action, thriller, suspense flick kind of girl. I love a good comedy, drama, or foreign flick (I must confess, I’m not a big fan of romance) any day but my preferences lean towards those movies that involve great fighting moves, action sequences and above all strong, independent, leading female characters. The last installment of the franchise, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans is now in heavy rotation on my Time Warner Cable. I’ve seen it several times as well as the prior installments in the trilogy (see Underworld and Underworld: Revolution). To paraphrase, the film is a prequel to the other two films in the trilogy, though it is the most of the recent films. It tells story of the genesis of the centuries long war between the vampires and the lycans.

According to legend, two human brothers, who had a fractured relationship, were bitten by two different yet equally vicious creatures, one a bat and the other a wolf. The brother bitten by the bat went on to become and create a legion of vampires; the latter brother bitten by the wolf, became and created a legion of lycans. The vampires, believing themselves to be superior in intellect, moral rectitude, and sheer “humanity”, enslaved the lycans. They put collars on their necks, which included inward pointing spikes designed to pierce their necks should they change into lycans without permission, and subjected them to daily drudgeries, forcing them all the while to keep watch over their castle during the day while the vampires would hibernate from the sun.

The time period is the Middle Ages and our hero is Lucian, a lycan, who is the only one who can take human form with or without the collar. Saved by Viktor, the ruthless elder and leader of the vampires after he kills his werewolf mother, Lucian is the only lycan that Viktor somewhat trusts. Viktor believes Lucian owes him given that he saved his life when he was a baby and lets him know so at every juncture. Little does Viktor know, Lucian and his daughter Sonja fall in love. Sonja gets pregnant and the action really picks up. Viktor inevitably finds out and is infuriated that the baby will be half vampire and half lycan, in his mind an abomination. Lycans are considered animals, beneath the vampire race and are swiftly and immediately kept in check at all times. Viktor puts Sonja to death for her betrayal and the “abomination” inside her and makes Lucian watch as he exposes her to the sunlight, killing her in an absolutely painful, tortuous way. Lucian goes mad with rage and grief and declares war against the vampires. He becomes a rogue, proselytizing to the enslaved lycans imploring them to rise up and come together to fight against their slavery and ultimately kill the vampire race. The film ends with the battle between the lycans and vampires fully forged with deaths on both sides.

Now at the onset, this just seems to be a mundane fantasy film, with great cinematography, effects and costuming but as I watched it, I couldn’t help but make a connection between lycans and vampires and the violent history and turbulent relationship between Blacks and Whites in this country. Comparatively speaking, whites would of course be analogous to the vampires, Blacks to the lycans. The idea of a miscegenated (such an ugly word) child drove Viktor to a violent rage, the mixing of the races could not be tolerated in the world he had created. So committed was he to this idea that he killed his beloved daughter in the most gruesome way a vampire could imagine to hold her up as an example to others. Surely this has parallels to the history of interracial intimacies and relationships in America. Fears of miscegenation were based in the notion that it was a transgressive practice that would threaten the very body of the American racial politic, and it informed the political, social, public, and private lives of all Americans. Even today, there are some that quiver at the idea of the product of such a union.

Buttressed by spurious science, a perversion of religious doctrine, and racist/sexist ideologies, anti-miscegenation laws were strictly enforced. Furthermore, Blacks were considered animals, to be precise only 3/5ths a person. Lucian’s evolution from the “favorite” slave of Viktor to leader of the revolting lycans, was of course preempted by the death of his true love but was a long time brewing. Lucian’s politicization took place way before Sonja’s death. He’d always thought differently about the doctrine of the vampires, disregarding their assertions that his race was somehow beneath theirs. Unlike many of the other lycans, Lucian entertained the possibility of a world outside of slavery. This was perhaps because Lucian was a part-time “castle” slave. Because of Viktor’s history with Lucian, he trusted Lucian more than any other lycan. He allowed him to perform some of his duties in the castle and permitted him to have some albeit very restricted privileges. Lucian had experiences and insight into what “could be” that the other slaves/lycans did not have, which surely informed his thinking outside of the slave dynamic. In otherwords, he was able to see outside of the bullshit that the vampires, led by Viktor, were feeding his people and created the possibilities necessary to challenge the confines of his existence as well as the existence of his community.

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans is by no means a classic piece of cinema. If anything, its something to watch that will take your mind off real life for at least an hour and a half but I wonder if these parallels to real life issues — interracial intimacies, “miscegenation” (again I hate that word)/race mixing/interracial-multiracial people, social hierarchies, slavery, uncritical acceptance of social ideologies/hierarchies, etc. — are in fact intentional or merely coincidental?

Quick Review of Antichrist/Lars von Trier

This afternoon I ordered Lars von Trier’s Antichrist from my Time Warner Cable On Demand. I consider myself a fan and connossieur of popular culture, film in particular and though I had heard that this film had pissed off a ton of people at Cannes this year, I remained largely ignorant of the specific details of the film (though I did hear that the chief critique from most were accusations of misogyny) because these past few months I have been assiduously working on finishing my book, thus, I have really been out of the loop. Given the title of the film, I could rightly speculate that the film would deal, at least tangentially, with religion — Christianity specifically.  I had a bit of down time this afternoon so I ordered it so that I could catch up on the films generating the most buzz this season, good or bad. The verdict: Don’t waste your time.

Antichrist is a film separated into four chapters. It deals with two characters, played by Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg, who are simply named He and She. The basic premise of the film lies with He and She whose son accidently kills himself at the point at which She experiences an intense orgasm during sex with He, her husband. The two travel to their secluded cabin named “Eden” to cope with the loss of their son. At the cabin, they briefly discuss She’s university thesis on gynocide, specifically the history of women being deemed inherently evil and, in effect, being killed for this falsity. The film progresses into violence too intense to describe in this blog and ends promptly with a litany of faceless women surrounding and then passing by He while he stands amidst the forest of the wilderness.

Perhaps the best thing about this film is that it is wonderously shot, the cinematographer being Anthony Dod Mantel whose last film was Slumdog Millionaire. Shot in the wilderness of Seattle, the wooded scenes are indeed beautiful as is much of the film. The score also has moments of beauty, particularly one of Handel’s arias. But the violence, the politics, the humiliation of the two primary actors seemed gratuitous, complicated and highly problematic. I’ve seen plenty of films that have really disturbed me, hence I have seen them once and only once (i.e. Irreversible, Dans Ma Peau, Trouble Every Day, The Last House on the Left (1972), I Spit on Your Grave, etc.) and I believe Antichrist is now in that category. I am totally not opposed to seeing films that push the envelope, that speak to and go towards difficult, uncomfortable places but in this film I felt that much of the violence, sexism and misogyny was put there for shock value alone, leaving nothing to be gained or discussed only voyeuristically consumed and I, in the end, felt guilty for watching it. In addition, though I understood some of the themes — the link between sex and death/sex and violence, parental grief at the death of a child, etc. most of the movie made up of oblique references and esoteric scenes. In essence, its so hard to follow and at times is relentlessly laborious. Really, the misogyny in this film is so blatant that its beyond offensive.

But I shouldn’t be surprised that something like this has come from the Danish director. Lars has never been kind to his female protagonists (think The Idiots, Dancer in the Dark, Dogville, Manderlay) but this one is definitely a doozy. No need for anyone else to see this film. In fact, today I pitched a particular magazine with this idea that has been brewing in my head for a couple of months. And Antichrist is indeed part of this trend that I’ve been thinking of which I call “hysterical mothering” but more on that later….

Tyra Banks’ Race Problem

Tyra, Tyra, Tyra. With each new venture, new show, I am becoming increasing more disappointed with Miss Banks. Last week’s episode of ANTM cinched the deal. Putting some of the models in Blackface and then simulating “biracial” looks, Tyra has officially fell over the deep end. Tyra’s problems with race politics and color go deep and can be seen in any number of episodes on her show and on ANTM. A few years ago, a writer at Slate Magazine posed the question, Is Tyra Banks a Racist? Indeed, Tyra is much harder on Black women than anyone else and the quality of her programming is indeed troubling.

I have no doubt at all that Tyra Banks has good intentions but how does that saying go… the road to hell is paved with…

Perhaps the most troubling element of Tyra Banks’ Race Problem is that her demographic is the 18-34 segment. In other words, young women. Young people are consuming her media in droves and her politics around race particularly are so skewed that you can’t help but to prepare for the worse. A while back, I actually wrote an article for Popmatters about Tyra and some of her insanity. Tyra has been increasingly irresponsible in dealing with issues of race, gender, color, size and sexuality. This is not the first time that Tyra has used Blackface as a fashion idea on ANTM and I’m sure it won’t be the last but I think Tyra needs to take a page out of Bill Cosby’s book and hire someone (Dr. Alvin Pouissant) who would actually tell her when she is being foolish. If you’re reading Tyra, I’m available!

Tyler Perry’s 60 Minutes Debut

Tyler Perry was featured on 60 Minutes tonight and while I will save much of my analysis and critique of him for the book I am writing (and so painfully behind on), I will say that this interview was quite interesting, particularly as Tyler talked about his critics. One of the things that bothers me about Mr. Perry is his total unwillingness to entertain any sort of criticism regardless of how respectful and nuanced it may be. In fact, he seemed quite dismissive of all critics, including but surely not limited to Spike Lee. In fact, he seems to be making a statement on working class Blacks vs. middle/upper class (or in his estimation, high falutin’) Blacks — perhaps a statement on authenticity? What do you think?

The Virgin Suicides — Loving It

Its my dream to write a novel one day in the first person plural. I think its a genius technique that only a few people have managed to do well (Jeffrey Eugenides and William Faulkner to start). Over the past few weeks I have been vigorously reading as if to make up for the lack of time that I have had to do so this year. One of those books was the Virgin Suicides and I must say that it was a glorious experience reading such a work. The book is narrated by a group of boys who fell in love with the five blonde, beautiful Lisbon daughters. Their collective suicide impacted them deeply into their adulthood, coinciding with the deterioration of the Michigan automobile industry and the changing demographics of the city.

Every now and then I have the pleasure to read a book that really takes me to a different place, that makes the experience of reading so substantive and filling that I will skip lunch or perhaps dinner because I am so sustained by the piece in my hands. The Virgin Suicides was that sort of experience for me. Though I have yet to read Middlesex, I think Eugenides has a wonderful manipulation of language, beautifully articulating the simultaneous cruelty and tenderness of a group of teenage boys as they follow the Lisbon sisters up until their death. Eugenides actually worked on this novel at the MacDowell Colony, which is where he also met his wife. I applied to MacDowell this year and while I certainly don’t profess to be anywhere near as good a writer as Eugenides, I certainly hope that this residency or any one of the four that I have applied to this year accept me for admission. The opportunity to write unencumbered and with a community of other talented artists is one that I wouldn’t take lightly.  I would suggest this book to anyone and am curious to hear anyone’s thoughts on the book provided he or she has read it?

The Wonder of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of attending The New Yorker Festival, as I have for the past two years. The festival attracts heavyweights in medicine, politics & literature particularly, with other disciplines in the arts (such as filmmaking, music, and even magic) tangentially represented. Staff writers and editors sit down in conversation with people such as Oliver Stone, Donna Brazile, Salman Rushdie & pick their brains about their particular rise to the upper echelons of public thought, their opinion about current events, and their general oeuvre. This year, I had the honor of seeing the writers Junot Diaz & Edwidge Danticat, Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie & YiYun Li. In particular, Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie was quite impressive. She read from her recently published collection of short stories, The Thing Around Your Neck, and answered questions, along with YiYun Li, from the audience.

Chimamanda’s poise and command of the stand was impressive to virtually everyone in the audience. A couple of days before I heard her speak at the festival, I found the above reading of her incredibly important essay, “The Danger of a Single Story”. The gist of this essay is the danger in having one story to define an experience or a reality, i.e. whiteness as normative, Africa as one country, one experience (the experience which is usually poverty, war, rape, and destruction), etc. The danger in a single story is indeed having one narrative, one experience, one look, etc. as privileged. This essay’s thematic principles complement nicely with something Junot Diaz said, “Fiction is an exercise in compassion”. Diaz explained that if you have to imagine yourself as a 15th century vampire, or a destitute, abused 15 year old girl in 1970s South Carolina you, in turn, develop compassion for that character, i.e. that type of person. The danger in one single story is that compassion and identification only happens with those who most closely resemble that single story, that singular experience. The solution? Creating, reading, immersing in a complex set of multiple stories that embody the wealth and diversity of the human experience.

The Spunky Ntosake

Tonight I saw a Cave Canem sponsored event “Legacy Conversation with Ntosake Shange” at the New School. Spunky, smart and unbossed, Shange illuminated the audience with her politics, (future) projects and pleasures, particularly those that she derives from cooking. Unfortunately, I had to leave early for a writing workshop but Ntosake was totally without airs as she spoke. Like many African American women, I have read and am familiar with For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide when the Rainbow is Not Enuf. On my list of books to read soon are Liliane, Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo and Betsey Brown. I’ve recently been engorging myself with books (mostly fiction) and during this process I’ve realized that I’ve missed seeing new literature by African American women whether by emerging or established writers. I’d love to see something new by ZZ Packer, Alice Walker, Gayl Jones, Toni Morrison or Gloria Naylor. Thankfully, Ntosake has something coming out in 2010!

The Color of Feminism

Sometime ago, I had a brief albeit memorable conversation with someone about women of color and feminism. She stated that she always felt at odds with feminism (though she espoused many of the same beliefs and values that feminism dictates) because she felt that there was no room for the particularly nuanced experiences and issues of women of color. That conversation led me to remember the debate between Melissa Harris Lacewell and Gloria Steinem. On January 14, 2008, Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman interviewed both women. The topic? Issues surrounding the democratic presidential nomination race between a Black man and a White woman. Above, I have included 1/5th of the interview ( the remainder of it can be found on YouTube). I think that interview embodied for me the problems that many women of color have with feminism. At points, the interview was painful to watch. A pioneer in feminism and surely a leader in women rights movements, Gloria Steinem seemed to be missing many of the nuances and complexities of people and women of color. She seemed to virtually be stuck in the prism of her own experience. Dr. Harris-Lacewell assertively articulated many of the falsehoods that were circulating at the time that rested upon the idea that Black men seem to have a litany of privileges that disadvantage White women in the public sphere. She also called Steinem to task on many of the statements she was making. In short, it was really a live debate that articulated the wide divide between feminism’s start amidst the lives of liberal middle class white women and the failure of the movement’s ability to expand into the complexity, diversity, and nuances of a more expansive group of women (which includes race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, etc.). Still, it seems that the inability of feminism to branch out of its myopia stems from deep-seated feelings of mistrust, misjudgments and a lack of desire to challenge one’s role in power relationships. In order to truly command equality and desire to implement it into the feminist movement, these challenges must be addressed. This debate was just a crack in the veneer of the shade or the color of feminism.

Rihanna Topless and Muzzled?

Apparently the R & B Diva is gracing the cover of Italian Vogue this month. Some of the pictures in the magazine feature the star semi-nude and muzzled.For sure, the pop star has had quite a tumultuous year — chart topping singles and collaborations, her highly publicized relationship with Chris Brown defined by domestic abuse, and her short lived self-imposed break outside of the public eye.

With the advent of this new photo spread in Italian Vogue, I am compelled to question not only its timing but Rihanna’s choices in deciding to pose for this magazine. During the entire Chris Brown/Rihanna fiasco, disturbing pictures emerged of the damage done to Rihanna’s face as well as a barage of troubling commentary defending the actions of Brown. Recently, Brown appeared on Larry King with his mother and defense attorney Mark Geragos to speak about the infamous incident. His tepid interview belied a total lack of awareness to the enormity of his actions. Irrespective of Brown, I have always been more concerned about Rihanna. Anytime, I would see her Cover Girl commercials, I would be reminded of this motif of covering up, a mask to hide the bruises to her face and perhaps her body.

The statuesque Barbadian beauty had always seemed light years more mature than her former boyfriend Brown. She is quite avant-garde in her coif and styling choices and this permeates the bevy of her musical choices. In effect, Rihanna takes risk. After the February assault, it seems that she sort of retreated into herself, which is understandable. Only in her early twenties, she was perhaps trying to process what had been done to her by a man I could only presume that she had loved. Still, I wish I could hear from Rihanna and see what I perceived as the strong, young woman who defined her own brand of femininity. Instead, I am looking at a copy of Italian Vogue where Rihanna is in varying states of bondage, semi-nude and in one case muzzled. These images are troubling to me, for reasons not the least of which involve images of the Black female body in photographic and media history. More concretely, these “fashion” photos further duplicate and exacerbate Rihanna’s silencing, humiliation, and battery once again in another public space, this time by the spread’s photographer Steven Klein.

Where is Rihanna’s agency? This is the true tragedy. A photoshoot of this caliber on the heels of such a painful assault is indeed at best puzzling at worst psychically dangerous. Italian Vogue famously featured an issue that exclusively used Black models in the summer of 2008. The magazine seems to be making an effort to use deliberately use Black models/women within its pages. This is hardly a something to cry about but I must question this usage of Rihanna. Like it or not public figures such as entertainers, athletes, etc. wield influence over many. The subtle and not so subtle acts of violence enacted over Rihanna’s body are continuing to breathe life in the popular culture sphere. Hmmmmm…. There is indeed a lot of work that needs to be done…