Identifying Problematic Cross-Cultural Casting
Explain to students that any example of cross-cultural casting can be analyzed using these four questions:
- Does the portrayal dehumanize the group? For example, makeup that makes White actors look like a caricature of a particular race rather than representing them realistically.
- Is the portrayal based on stereotypes about the group?
- Does the portrayal critique or comment on blackface or similar issues? Even if it’s done without using stereotypes, “face” casting always happens in a historical context. Does the portrayal recognize and confront that context?
- Does the portrayal acknowledge the limited opportunities for minority-group actors? Even after blackface became unacceptable, Hispanic, Indigenous and Asian characters were typically played by White actors, leading to a situation where those groups remain underrepresented in film and TV today.
This can help students understand why some casting decisions that seem superficially similar – for example, having White characters played by minority-group actors (as in some productions of Shakespeare, or the casting of Idris Elba as the Norse god Heimdall in Thor) – are fundamentally different from blackface and similar practices: they do not dehumanize White people, are not based on stereotypes of White people, do not reflect a historical practice of casting other groups as White characters and do not make a significant difference in the number of roles available for White actors.
If students still have trouble understanding the difference between the two kinds of cross-casting, take a few minutes to do the Unpacking Privilege mini-lesson to demonstrate how taking roles away from groups that are disadvantaged in a media context is different from taking roles from groups that are privileged.