Strange but true

[Steve]

An actor can portray a president, a doctor, a super-hero from another planet, but not someone from India??? Bull excrement!!! Actors are supposed to impersonate others.

But it's OK for a fully equipped "MAN" (pretending to be female) to use the restroom with your 12 year old daughter! Liberals be damned!!!

Because it was posted with tongue firmly in cheek, just like Robert Downey Jr playing a black sergeant. Tit for tat. My avatar represents a mind-set, but I guess you had to be there.

 

[JamieM]

Historical inaccuracies when casting people of a certain race or colour in period dramas is unforgivable, I wouldn't want to see a film about Nelson Mandela If Brad Pitt was playing him, and I don't want to see Idris Elba playing a major character in a Dickens period drama, it's just wrong not racist just wrong.

 

[R181]

It is not a perfect world and so long as an honest effort has been made to cast an ethnically/gender correct actor for the role then that is all that is reasonably required. If you can't, for some reason find one, then either you postpone production or go with the closest reasonable facsimile. I don't know what all the fuss is about on either side of the debate. The more polarised you get the worse it gets.

Bob

 

[Francorelli]

My point is that once you start along the road that dictates true veracity is the overriding factor in selection - you get to a point that says it’s not possible for a Jew to play an Indian. I am questioning why that should be.

I see your point. And in the context of your question, agree that the examples I gave are too basic to address the more subtle aspects of the issue.

It is an interesting issue. I consider the trend of casting roles more authentically in terms of the actor's cultural and ethnic background generally a positive thing (for actors and the audience). However I recognise that if the quest for ultimate authenticity overrides all other casting criteria, it can become counter-productive.

It is complicated. I don't recall anyone getting offended over Idris Elba and Dominic West playing American characters in The Wire. Many British actors work regularly in US roles, and do an excellent job of it. That said, I can imagine how the credibility of a show like The Sopranos would have been diminished if it had not drawn so heavily on Italian-American actors for its main cast.

 

[Steve]

I see your point. And in the context of your question, agree that the examples I gave are too basic to address the more subtle aspects of the issue.

It is an interesting issue. I consider the trend of casting roles more authentically in terms of the actor's cultural and ethnic background generally a positive thing (for actors and the audience). However I recognise that if the quest for ultimate authenticity overrides all other casting criteria, it can become counter-productive.

It is complicated. I don't recall anyone getting offended over Idris Elba and Dominic West playing American characters in The Wire. Many British actors work regularly in US roles, and do an excellent job of it. That said, I can imagine how the credibility of a show like The Sopranos would have been diminished if it had not drawn so heavily on Italian-American actors for its main cast.

The reason a Jew can't play an Indian is because instead of verbalizing the standard 'How', a Jew would be reduced to 'Oi Vey'.

 

[UKRob]

The reason a Jew can't play an Indian is because instead of verbalizing the standard 'How', a Jew would be reduced to 'Oi Vey'.

Look at post #1.