When I was in college, I performed in (probably) 15 (or so) plays (give or take) with a really talented group of people. Or maybe I just believed we were talented at the time, and memory is more powerful than reality. Certainly some were more talented than others, but I do believe that when we were good, we were really, really good (he said, modestly).
But, as good as we were, the plays that we performed together weren't exactly "hot tickets" in the medium-sized city of Spokane, Washington. And for a city of 350,000 (or so) people, there weren't a lot of options. One professional theatre company, one well-regarded community theatre group, a couple of ragtag volunteer companies, and two colleges. And yet, no one who wasn't already affiliated with our college really ever came to see our shows.
In retrospect, the reason is pretty clear: we were a bunch of kids, aged 18 to 23, playing everything from Shakespeare to Arthur Miller to Eugene O'Neill. We played each other's fathers and mothers (in some cases, grandfathers and grandmothers) all the time, with the help of lots of white goop in our hair and inexpertly drawn lines on our faces. Luckily, my face didn't "age well" and I only rarely had to dip into the white hair goop, but when I played a scene with someone who was supposed to be my mother, more often than not she was younger than I.
In the "real world," we supposed, we wouldn't be asked to do this, and the thought both relieved us (no more white goop!) and disappointed us. After all, this very limited casting pool had allowed us to play some pretty phenomenal roles, and some of us actually did a decent job with them. And we were right -- in the "real world," you don't often see people playing characters of a different generation without a pretty good reason for it. And yet, the notion of "non-traditional casting" happens all the time.
For instance, S. Epatha Merkerson is currently getting rave reviews for her performance in Come Back Little Sheba on Broadway. She plays Lola, the quietly suffering wife of an alcoholic in uber-repressed 1950. Merkerson is African-American. Lola (a role originally played by Shirley Booth) is not.
That Merkerson is playing Lola on Broadway, and doing so brilliantly, is not a surprise to me. First of all, this kind of non-traditional casting has been done in the theatre for years, and is so commonplace that it often goes unnoticed. Secondly, Merkerson is a brilliant actor, much more talented than you'd be able to glean from her best-known work, as the all-business police lieutenant on Law & Order.
However, I will admit that I was surprised to learn, from a friend of mine who caught the play during its previews, that the rest of the cast of Come Back, Little Sheba is uniformly white. When I heard that Merkerson would be starring in a new Broadway production of William Inge's well-made, one-set play, I guess I just assumed that someone was mounting the show with an all-black cast (the way that Debbie Allen is doing with her upcoming Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, starring Terrence Howard, Anika Noni Rose, Phylicia Rashad, and James Earl Jones), or that the show would be wholly "non-traditional," with cast members of every ethnicity on stage together.
Instead, it's one African-American woman in the lead, surrounded by an all-white supporting cast. And, according to my friend, who's done a fair amount of anti-racist work in his time (suddenly I feel the need to defend him, though I'm not quite sure why), it was sort of distracting. He knew that Lola wasn't written as a black woman, but nontheless wondered if this production was going to address the issue of race in some way. It never did, and before long he settled in to watch the play. She was wonderful, he said -- perhaps not as glorious as some of the reviews suggested, but on the other hand, it was an early preview, and perhaps the show hit its stride later on.
I think it's wonderful that Merkerson is playing this role. As I said before, she's brilliant and is clearly doing a wonderful job. She shouldn't have been denied the chance to play Lola because of her race, especially when she has so much to offer an audience. And not having seen the play myself, perhaps I really shouldn't comment.
But I've been thinking about Merkerson and Come Back, Little Sheba for the past few days, and all because of a conversation I had with my office mate about a movie I had rented for Thursday night.
Because it's Oscar season, I'm on my annual mission to see every movie that's been nominated for anything, as well as all of the films and performances that critics claim were "snubbed" this year. And one snub that pretty much everyone I've read has agreed on was Angelina Jolie's performance in A Mighty Heart.
In the film, Jolie plays Mariane Pearl, the real-life wife of Daniel Pearl, the real-life journalist who was kidnapped by terrorists and savagely killed in Pakistan in 2002.
Mariane Pearl is a French woman of Afro-Cuban/Dutch heritage. In more common parlance, she is either bi-racial or a fair-skinned black woman. Angelina Jolie, on the other hand, is typically categorized as white (although she also apparently claims some Native American heritage as well). Not surprisingly, her decision to play Mariane stirred up a fair amount of controversy when the film was announced.
By the way, Angelina's performance in the movie (which I did see on Thursday as planned) is impeccable. Having now seen the film, I too am surprised that she wasn't nominated for an Oscar. But back to the discussion at hand: Angelina Jolie isn't the only woman who could have delivered a wonderful performance, and would a woman of color been a better choice?
Clearly, there are differences between casting Jolie as Mariane Pearl in a film and casting Merkerson in a revival of a 1950 play.
Firstly, Mariane Pearl (unlike Lola) is a real person. The film paints her as a brave heroine who endures tragedy and retains hope for the future and the desire for people with differences to connect and understand each other. In a culture that (still!) casts white people in the role of "hero" and people of color in the roles of crackhead, criminal, illegal alien, drug runner, rapist, scumbag, and miscreant, it's a little disappointing that the real-life heroism of a woman of color is being displayed to America with the "of color" bit taken out -- because people really do need to see that.
Secondly, this is a film and not a play. Others have played Lola before Merkerson took the role, and others will likely play Lola in years to come. I imagine that it will be a long time before anyone plays Mariane Pearl again. A Mighty Heart is a good film, but not one that's likely to be remade anytime soon, if ever.
Thirdly, and (of course) most importantly, there are issues of power and privilege at play here. Like it or not, it's different when a white person plays a person of color on stage or in a movie than when a person of color does the same with a white role. S. Epatha Merkerson won wide acclaim for her work in August Wilson's The Piano Lesson in 1990, and if anyone but a black woman ever plays Berniece again, there will be a howl of protest, as well there ought to be. In Hollywood and on Broadway, people of color have been historically underrepresented, and when white actors take roles that seem to be written for people of color, it seems to most people to be a continuation of that injustice.
And yet, I go back to what I said before: Angelina Jolie is wonderful in this film. For what it's worth (and it may not be worth a whole lot, depending on your perspective), Mariane Pearl was reportedly "thrilled" to learn that Angelina Jolie would be playing her, as she greatly "admires her work." Rolling Stone magazine calls it "her best performance, strong and true in every detail from Mariane’s accent ... to the strength she shows under fire."
When discussing the film with my office mate, she could accept the premise that Anglelina bought the rights to Mariane Pearl's memoir and could do with it what she wants. But she was also fairly adamant that there were a number of fair-skinned black women who could have played the role just as effectively -- and because of that, she wasn't going to seek out the film anytime soon.
Obviously, I did seek out the movie. I watched it. I didn't enjoy it, per se; it's a difficult film to watch for all the reasons you'd suspect, but I appreciated it immensely, and I appreciated Angelina Jolie's work most of all.
And still, I'm left with an ambiguous uneasiness about the whole thing. And that, as they say ... is that.
February 02, 2008
On Non-Traditional Casting
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8 Told Me a Secret:
I think that maybe you and your office mate are too well informed!
I had no idea that the part in Come Back Little Sheba was written for a white person. As an audience member, I'm sure I would have noticed that Merkerson was the only African-American on stage but I probably would have incorporated that into my thinking about the character...how does being the only black person play into what's happening to her character in the play? Or doesn't it factor at all? (I don't know the story, so I suppose if her parents are on stage at any point and they are white I'd question things.)
Same for Angelina Jolie. I had no idea what Daniel Pearl's wife looked like. (Him, however, woof!) My point being I'm not sure who is cast in a role makes a difference to those of us who don't know any better. I want to see awesome performances that are believable.
Who gets what part seems to be equal parts being in the right place at the right time, networking, availability, and serendipity. In your other example, I'm sure Debbie Allen's casting of Phylicia Rashad has more to do with the fact that they are sisters than anything. Would we say a different African-American actress would be better cast because one is available and would do better, or do we accept that she got the part for a number of reasons? If we set the standard that only the best actress could ever get any part within a certain race, Meryl Streep would have to be in every white leading role!
Realistically, race played a part in the casting of Merkerson and Jolie. Hopefully it was acknowledged then dismissed in favor of talent. After all, isn't that what we've been striving for? By the sounds of your write up, if the performances are award worthy, the best actresses were hired for their respective parts.
BTW, I allow for the fact that I am completely naive in this!
Wow Red, it is funny you are bringing this up. A while ago I read someone's blog review on the Golden Compass (sorry I forgot who wrote it) At the end they mentioned something about how the filmed was full of white people. ( I forgot the actual quote, sorry again) But it made me think about it. And it woke me up. The blogger was right, the film cast was all white. Why? I find it hard to believe Hollywood would not see that and say ...hey this isn't what the world looks like. So it has been in the back of my mind a lot. I am an avid movie -goer. I like seeing all faces, it makes it normal for me. Not that all movies are normal...but to see a Black super hero should be the norm. We shouldn't aways have to see white guys kill the bad guys. I wish it wasn't even a subject matter. It just goes to show that we still have a long way to go.
Very interesting post. The extent of my acting experience is a few bit parts in some high school plays lol.
Changing the race of a character has frequently been on my mind too. For instance, what if they changed the race of the characters in Rent and Mark was black, Roger was Asian, Maureen was Latino, and Joanne was white? Would it be too distracting or would the audience go along with it?
As barriers for PoC break down I expect there will be more awkwardness and debate on things like this.
Y.O.Y.: I think that a large portion of the audience who sees Merkerson perform in Come Back, Little Sheba will know that the character was originally written for and played by a white woman. And if not, I think it would probably be confusing; the play takes place in 1950, where interracial marriages were not the norm -- if the playwright intended Lola to be black, he would have dealt with the issue in some way. And yet, most theatregoers are used to seeing non-traditional casting that crosses racial borders, and they'll deal with it. In the case of Angelina Jolie, I do see a downside -- it's important for all oppressed groups to see themselves represented in their culture (watch The Celluloid Closet to see the lengths that gay people used to go to find themselves on screen before gay characters appeared more frequently), and if I were black or bi-racial, and knew that a hero who looked like me was being played by a white person, it would sting.
Sageweb: It's amazing how we white folks won't even recognize an all-white cast until it's pointed out to us, isn't it?
Antonio: Well, there's a difference between casting an actor of a different race and changing the race of a character, right? It'll be interesting to see how this new Cat on a Hot Tin Roof plays; I imagine that these will not be black actors playing white roles as much as characters that have been reimagined as black for the sake of this production. Fascinating stuff.
I think the crux of it for me was in the portrayal of Marianne Pearl. To use an imperfect analogy, when Hollywood says they can't find any out gay actors to play out gay characters, they usually have a point. While there are some, the pickings are slim, and usually not of the same talent as the actors that are then cast. Until gay male actors that are moderately successful and well known come out of the closet, that is unlikely to change.
But in the case of talented African American actresses, the pool is huge! There is no need to hire a white actress to "sort of" play the part (I say sort of because if you didn't know the race of the character she was playing, there was no way to tell in that portrayal that Marianne Pearl was black). And when you are recounting an actual event in dramatic narrative, yes, that is a large detail that shouldn't be avoided or rewritten for the screen.
In Hollywood and on Broadway, people of color have been historically underrepresented, and when white actors take roles that seem to be written for people of color, it seems to most people to be a continuation of that injustice. Yep.
My first reaction, upon hearing that Angelina was going to play this part was, hello, you mean to tell me that there was no Black female actor who could've played this lead representing an actual Black person, not a fictional character? Please. And I am a member of the Love Angelina crowd, it's ntohing to do with her acting ability. I liked what you said about how still today, white people tend to play the heroes, and yes: ...it's a little disappointing that the real-life heroism of a woman of color is being displayed to America with the "of color" bit taken out -- because people really do need to see that.
There are lots and lots of White roles that Angelina has played and will continue to play. But there are far fewer films depicting the lives of real Black women in positive ways, and it's just a shame that Hollywood chose to see that as an unimportant part of Mariane's person.
As you said, this character was a REAL person, who IS Black, and it's a shame that part was not represented.
All that said, I can see what your friend was saying about the role in the play being distracting. If you're only casting that single role that way, yes, I would wonder is the CHARACTER black, or just the actress? Is this supposed to be an interracial marriage in the 50s? If so, why isn't anything being brought up about that, because that was an issue in those times.
Movies are different though. Just my personal opinion, but it rubbed me the wrong way to have Angelina play this part.
Al/Cowbell: I'm playing both sides of the fence here because I really am torn about this issue. I agree with everything you say, and would also point out that there are financial considerations to this question as well. Like it or not, A Mighty Heart would likely not have been made without a bankable star in the lead. Al, I agree that there are tons of talented fair-skinned black female actors out there, but the only other person I can think of who remotely looks like Mariane Pearl and was bankable enough to draw a crowd would be Halle Berry. Having seen the film, Al, I think you'll agree that this isn't a role I would have given to Beyoncé. There are thousands of unknown actors with oodles of talent (in both the "fair skinned black female" and "openly gay adult male" categories) who could play anything, but films are expensive to make, and unknowns won't sell tickets. Of course, that there's one bankable African-American star for this project and fifty white female actors for any other biopic you'd want to make is further proof that we live in a racist society. It's wrong and should be changed, but it's also the current reality. And ... I agree with everything you both said; I really do.
Eric,
In the specific case of Jolie, and after seeing the film, I would agree in so far that she has played one of the best roles I have seen her in. The fact that the person the character was based on supported the role and actress choice is something that, to me, does make a difference.
So yes, in this case I agree that there were factors at play that make the choice understandable. Though I am concerned about the, as you allude to, nine out of ten other films where the same thing occurs for far less noble reasons.
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