How Movie Casting can Fight Against Discrimination
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Let’s start with a thought experiment. Imagine the 1977 classic Star Wars: A New Hope with a Black Han Solo, Luke Skywalker as an Asian woman, and Princess Leia as a man. Would the movie still be as good?
The answer is a clear yes. The themes, the fun, the excitement of that movie would not be changed one jot by different races or genders for any of its main or secondary characters. It would still be Star Wars, and it would still be fantastic.
But here’s a second one. Imagine the 1991 Boyz n the Hood where the two main characters are white. Does it still work? Obviously not.
The difference here is that Star Wars is only interested in the personalities of its characters, and the roles they fulfill in the story. Whereas Boyz n the Hood is a film about the experience of those characters, what it means to be who they are and live their lives. An essential part of that character and that experience is that they are Black Americans.
Boyz n the Hood is an extreme example though. The entire essence of the story is that it is about young Black Americans, after all. The title makes that clear. So here’s one more example. Take the 1997 film Men in Black. You could replace Will Smith with an Asian or Native American or Iranian actor and the film would be just as good. But if you made him white, it would lose so much of its punch. This is because a key theme of the story here is the character of J as a minority figure, breaking into an old established order and shaking it up with his fresh perspective (it has been argued that the entire film is a metaphor for a white system and how it does not consider the minority experience, but that’s another story). The key is that J cannot be part of a white majority without losing something essential to the character, and therefore something essential to the film.
These examples highlight what I call Narrative Essentials. These are aspects of character which are essential to the themes or the plot points of the movie. They can be anything, from race, as noted above, to hair colour (Reese Witherspoon really had to be blonde in Legally Blonde). These are things about a character which are predetermined by the story itself. In contrast, there are Narrative Incidentals. These are aspects of a character which might be very important in the way the character impacts the audience and might inform the way the character is portrayed, but has no bearing on the impact of the story. Examples here are the gender identity of Princess Leia, or the age of Han Solo. You can change these, and deeply change the character, but not change the story. Things which are Narrative Essentials in one movie, for one character, may well be Narrative Incidentals in a different context.
What does all of this have to do with casting and discrimination?
We have become much better in the last few decades at making films which express the experience of being a minority. Films like Boyz n the Hood or A Fantastic Woman or, to take an Australian example, Mystery Road, do this by looking at a character in depth. Showing us their experience, their perspectives, their stories. These are powerful films that move beyond stereotypes
But they are not enough.
If the only time we see an Indigenous Australian actor on screen is as a victim, or a detective struggling against racism, it is not enough. If we only see Middle Eastern actors playing terrorists or a Muslim facing discrimination, it is not enough. These stories happen, and they are important to tell, but they are also stories which people respond to by ‘Othering’.
‘Othering’ is when you take a person or a group of people and you separate them from yourself. You say ‘They are not like me. We are essentially different. They are the others.’
But we are not essentially different. We all share in one humanity.
We should continue to tell the stories, the experiences, of minorities. We should do it even more than we currently are. But we should also tell stories that include minorities not as the ‘Other’ but as people who experience the universal nature of what it means to be a person and to be alive. If Princess Leia was played by a an Asian actor, the story would remain powerful and engaging, and we would see an Asian actor not just as the ‘Other’, the immigrant or smart kid stereotype, but as a fierce leader of the Rebel Alliance, fighting against injustice.
As filmmakers, we need to identify what about our characters are Narrative Essentials and what are Narrative Incidentals, and then cast accordingly. Ask for anyone, regardless of looks or gender identity or ethnicity. If we do this, while continuing to make powerful stories about the experience of minorities, we will be working towards a society that recognises the different experience of different societal groups, but without ‘Othering’. We will be taking steps towards an understanding, deep within the assumptions of our psyche, that all lives truly matter.
One final point. If we cast in this way, looking first for the actors to fit our roles rather than incidental characteristics, that does not preclude us from showing the diverse experiences of diverse cast members. If I write a standard Jock character, and cast an Indian actor to play him, I can then work with that actor to add nuance to the character drawing on that actor’s own life experience. Film is, after all, a collaborative art form, and this gives the opportunity for better stories and deeper collaboration.
Thinking about Narrative Essentials and Narrative Incidentals won’t solve any of the big problems, any of the inequality we see now being played out in the global Black Lives Matter movement. But it will, I hope, help foster a deeper understanding. And isn’t that, after all, the point of stories?
