Colour-blind casting

Colour-blind casting, non-traditional casting or integrated casting is the practice of casting a role without considering the actor's ethnicity. It derives its name from the medical condition of colour blindness. A representative of Actors Equity has disputed the use of the term "color blind", preferring the definition "non-traditional casting is defined as the casting of ethnic minority and female actors in roles where race, ethnicity, or sex is not germane."^[1]

Examples include:

• I, Claudius cast Darien Angadi and Sam Dastor in key roles with Renu Setna and Roy Stewart in smaller speaking roles.
• Will Smith's portrayal of Jim West in 1999's movie Wild Wild West based upon the 1960's television series of the same name where the main character was played by white actor Robert Conrad.
• A musical adaptation of Neil Gaiman's book, Coraline, with an adult playing the child.
• David Oyelowo's playing of Henry VI of England in the RSC's This England: The Histories cycle in 2000. Oyelowo was the first black actor to play an English king in a major production of Shakespeare^[2][3][4] and his performance won the Ian Charleson Award.^[5]
• Josette Simon playing Maggie in Arthur Miller's After the Fall at the London National Theatre in 1990. The role is widely supposed to have been based on Miller's former wife, Marilyn Monroe.^[6] Simon's performance gained the Evening Standard's Best Actress award.^[7]
• The Batman film series, where Billy Dee Williams was cast as Harvey Dent in Batman (however, the character was later portrayed by Tommy Lee Jones and Aaron Eckhart), and Colin McFarlane was cast as Gillian B. Loeb in the Christopher Nolan films.
• Grey's Anatomy, during the creation of which none of the characters was assigned a race and the best actors were chosen, leading to a racially diverse cast.^[8]
• Smallville, which has African American actor Sam Jones III portraying Clark Kent's childhood friend Pete Ross, that, in the comic books, was Caucasian; Kristin Kreuk, from Dutch and Chinese descent, cast for the originally red-headed character Lana Lang; and Allison Mack, whose character Chloe Sullivan was intended to have an ethnic background, before casting.
• The 2008 BBC television series Merlin, which employs several actors of colour in roles traditionally described in the legends as white, most notably Guinevere and Lancelot. Africans were not unheard of in Medieval Britain and that indeed, a Moorish knight, Morien was even written of in the original legends.^[9]
• The 1973 film version of "Jesus Christ Superstar" had African American actor Carl Anderson cast as the lead role of Judas Iscariot, successive to Ben Vereen essaying the role in the original 1971 Broadway production.
• Pippa Bennett-Warner played Cordelia in the 2010 Donmar Warehouse production of King Lear starring Derek Jacobi in the title role. Her performance earned her a Ian Charleson Award nomination.

The Non-Traditional Casting Project was founded in 1986 to examine problems of racial discrimination in theatre, film and television.^[10] Actors Equity is a co-founder.^[11]

References

1. ^ Eisenberg, Alan (1988-10-23). "NONTRADITIONAL CASTING; When Race and Sex Don't Matter". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1988/10/23/theater/l-nontraditional-casting-when-race-and-sex-don-t-matter-486788.html 
2. ^ RSC casts black actor as English king for first time, 19th September 2000, Guardian
3. ^ Black kings are old hat, Guardian, September 20, 2000
4. ^ My Kingdom for a part
5. ^ The latest British Theatre news for 04/01/01
6. ^ 'Colour-blind casting finds new stars for Billy Elliott', Louise Jury, The Independent
7. ^ Evening Standard Theatre Awards, 1990
8. ^ Grey's Anatomy goes colorblind, New York Times, May 8th 2005
9. ^ Morien
10. ^ Jensen, Sharon. "The Non-Traditional Casting Project". National Endowment for the Arts. http://www.arts.gov/resources/Accessibility/NTCP.html. Retrieved 2009-07-01. 
11. ^ "Actors' Equity Association Benefits: EEO & Diversity". Actors' Equity. http://www.actorsequity.org/Benefits/diversity.asp. Retrieved 2009-07-01. 

Further reading

• Berry is top candidate to play white Democrat, 10 October 2006, Guardian
• I'm ready for a black Miss Marple, AN Wilson, Telegraph, 21/04/2002