What Hollywood’s Problematic Casting Choices Say About White Liberals.
For the last few years, social media has been pushing back hard against the common practice of white actors playing non-white roles. So, why are we still having the same conversation so many years later?
In Jan of 2015, the entire internet was temporarily blinded by the glare of the light bouncing off of the lily white skin of that year’s crop of Oscar nominees. After their eyes readjusted, some took to twitter to send out the very first #OscarsSoWhite tweets which would go on to spark a conversation, which would lead to a movement, forcing the Academy to do its part in acknowledging Hollywood’s unfair bias towards white actors. However, as the conversation evolved, many began to bring up that part of the issue was the incredibly common practice of white actors being selected to play non-white roles, i.e. whitewashing.
Since then, the conversation has branched out, finding several actors and productions in the crosshairs of a public who has grown increasingly aware of Hollywood’s casting biases when it comes to identity markers like race, skin color, gender, sexual orientation and even family ties. So, nearly a decade later, why oh why are we talking about fucking James Franco being cast as a Cuban?
For context, it was announced earlier this summer that embattled actor, James Franco, who has been out of the spotlight since several credible sexual assault allegations were made against him, will be making his return to the screen playing Fidel Castro. The bell was first rung when actor and comedian, John Leguizamo, spoke out in an Instagram post.
How is this still going on? How is Hollywood excluding us but stealing our narratives as well? No more appropriation Hollywood and streamers! Boycott! This F’d up! Plus seriously difficult story to tell without aggrandizement which would b wrong! I don’t got a prob with Franco but he ain’t Latino!
The View co-host, Ana Navarro, chimed in underneath Leguizamo’s post, echoing his sentiment.
I’d like to think no Latino actor worth their salt would sign up to play and aggrandize a murderous dictator who terrorized the people of Cuba for six decades…for both reasons you articulated, I join you in the boycott.
One of the film’s producers, John Martinez O’Felan, seemed to see the controversy coming, because during the casting news he released a very…interesting statement laying out why Franco was cast.
Because our director’s original order was to find an actor who holds a close physical resemblance to the real Castro to build from…to get there on such a tough look to cast, we used Fidel Castro’s ancient Galician heraldry as our focal compass, and then combed through the entire ranks of actors with Latin roots in Hollywood to find someone who has a similar facial structure. In executing a close search into our hopefuls through the eye of Spanish and Portuguese genealogy which the Galicians held, we found that James, by far, had the closest facial likeness of our Industry’s leading actors…
So, if I’m reading that statement right, O’Felan’s excuse is based in…race science?
Did he do a fuckin’ ancestry.com survey on every actor in Hollywood? Also, his description of James Franco as one of the “industry’s leading actors” is charitable, at best. Especially considering he mentioned nothing about his acting ability or his box office track record, which, spoiler alert: has been garbage since those Spider-Man movies ended. Ya know, it’s not until just now that I truly understand the persuasiveness of the tried and true “we chose the best actor for the job” excuse, because that just sounded like a term paper on eugenics took a ride around a blender with bad excuses.
Look, to be fair, there’s a lot at play here, more than usual when it comes to bizarre casting choices — and its because unlike most Asian or Black Americans (races which are usually centered in casting debates), it is possible for some Latinx folks to be, and have access to, whiteness while still being Latin. However, not all white people are Latin, and Franco, who has only ever self described as Jewish, certainly isn’t recognized as part of the Latinx community in, or outside of Hollywood. Where as Fidel Castro, for worse, is probably the single most significant figure in recent Latin History.
In short, this casting makes about as much sense as Cameron Diaz playing Shakira.
But I don’t want to get too bogged down in this part of the conversation, there’s not much new ground here to cover.
What fascinated me most during this most recent flare up of outrage — and the inevitable conservative pushback — was how much of it does not matter. And I’m not speaking in the abstract here. Very specifically, the conversation about Hollywood’s problematic casting does not typically involve the people who matter most in this process.
BIPOC people, and most queers who aren’t white men, are in one corner (largely on the outside looking in, thanks to racist/sexist hiring practices in the industry) calling for increased representation and authentic casting to reflect our stories. Conservatives are in the other corner, making up the loudest segment of those pushing back against calls for inclusion because, who else will? And in the seat of Hollywood power, you have white liberals, the actual decision makers. Even though I’m painting with a broad brush here, I don’t think I’m wrong in characterizing most of Hollywoood as liberal — its kind of the thing showbiz is most well-known for. So why are so many #BlackLivesMatter posting, democrat donating, liberal leaning white folks continuing to make and allow these problematic casting choices?
Well, to answer this question I do think there is one casting incident in particular which continues to be very telling in its candidness, even years later. A moment of such naked privilege, and caucasity, that it lives rent free in my mind.
In 2018, it was announced that film star, and cis, white woman, Scarlett Johansson, who had previously been embroiled in controversy after portraying what was essentially a Japanese woman in the critical and commercial flop, Ghost in The Shell, was set to play Dante “Tex” Gill, a transgender man who became infamous in 1970s Pittsburgh for operating massage parlors that served as fronts for sex work. The project, which Johansson was developing with director Rupert Sanders, was dragged by the queer interwebs for obvious reasons. However, initially anyways, Ms. Johansson decided she had had enough of this PC bullshit and was having no more of it, and went on a rant that would become infamous.
She began with a statement on the heels of the outrage to Bustle, name checking other cis actors who had recently been rewarded for playing trans parts.
Tell them that they can be directed to Jeffrey Tambor, Jared Leto, and Felicity Huffman’s reps for comment.
Oh but miss thang was not done yet. After the project’s inevitable collapse, she went on to state what she felt was her right as a thespian.
You know, as an actor I should be allowed to play any person, or any tree, or any animal because that is my job and the requirements of my job…I feel like it’s a trend in my business and it needs to happen for various social reasons, yet there are times it does get uncomfortable when it affects the art because I feel art should be free of restrictions. I think society would be more connected if we just allowed others to have their own feelings and not expect everyone to feel the way we do.
I should mention here that Scarlett did later backtrack on all of this foolishness. However, she does still support Woody Allen, so do with that what you will.
So, what’s so interesting about this white woman threatening to call the cops on the internet?
Well, there’s always been something in Scarlett’s statements that seemed to elude to a deeper truth for white liberals at large to me (and fyi, Scarlett is a self-identified democrat). See, while Scarlett would later go on to acknowledge the uneven playing field trans actors, and actors of color have to navigate in subsequent statements and interviews, in her initial comments what she’s essentially suggesting is that she, a person with an abundance of privilege, should not have to sacrifice anything to level it out.
If you need another example, in October of 2021, an episode of the long running series, Project Runway, aired that for me, came close to examining the same truth about white liberals that Scarlett Johannsson unintentionally exhibited. I won’t go into a full synopsis of the episode, but it involved a white contestant named Meg Ferguson, a white liberal who was very “outspoken” when it came to her views on race and ally ship. And when I say outspoken, I mean she legit cornered a Black man who was busy sewing his garment and talked his ear off about how important it is to point out racism when you see it.
Let’s just say, later in the episode, Meg’s ally ship was put to the test when she was asked to switch models with a contestant of color, and this woman’s temper tantrum made ScarJo look like Angela Fucking Davis. The episode is available with a free Peacock subscription, and you can read a breakdown of its events here, it will change your life.
All of these online discussions about Hollywood’s casting choices aren’t really a conversation, not in a traditional sense. Without access to equal levers of power for BIPOC individuals within the industry, those discussions aren’t really discussions. At best, they’re just distractions — at worst, they’re free advertising. And conservatives weighing in, supporting wealthy liberal celebrities they have literally nothing in common with just to “own the libs” are best ignored as well.
The real conversation, and by this I mean the one that matters in most spaces where racism is at play, not just Hollywood, is the one between white liberals bargaining with themselves — and sometimes one another — about the cost of equality and how much of their privilege they’re actually willing to give up to make it a reality. And to be clear, much like the one percent needs to be taxed to provide everyone with fair economic opportunities, white people having their privilege taxed is literally the only way equality happens in non political spaces. Yet, you don’t see many “tax whiteness” hashtags trending on twitter, do you?
The work of anti-racism is to fight racism wherever you see it… even in yourself. The struggle cannot be found in the pages of a book. You can’t read yourself into activism. Sooner or later, you’ll have to make a choice… Do what is safe or do what is right.
— Dr. Muna Abdi
