Posted on 08/10/2019 3:38:49 AM PDT by NorseViking
Scarlett Johansson is only half right. Even the best actors can’t credibly represent every character.
Hardly a week goes by without attempts to police which actors can play certain roles. There is fierce debate over what kinds of parts should be played by what sort of person. Should Bryan Cranston play a disabled person? Can 007 be a black woman? The underlying question is always: can any actor play any role?
A few weeks ago, Hollywood actress Scarlett Johansson was interviewed by artist David Salle in As If magazine. In the interview, they discuss trends in acting and how art changes when it is judged primarily on a moral basis. Johansson says that ‘as an actor, I should be allowed to play any person, or any tree, or any animal because that is my job and the requirements of my job’.
This statement caused outrage among the Twitterati and self-selected cultural gatekeepers. Johansson had already aroused suspicion after playing an Asian character in the science-fiction drama Ghost in the Shell. And last year, after public pressure, she stepped down from a role as a transgender man in the film Rub & Tug. Her critics disagreed very strongly that she should ‘be allowed’ to play characters with a racial or gender identity different to her own. Following the interview, Johansson quickly put out a statement, saying that her words had been taken out of context and that she unequivocally supports the need for more diversity in Hollywood casting.
(Excerpt) Read more at spiked-online.com ...
Although I’m actually a white, able-bodied, Christian male, I self identify as a black, disabled, Muslim female. I should be allowed to play any role according to how I feel about myself when I get out of bed each day.
The modern rule seems to be that any “person of color” can play any role. White people should stick to the white roles they are allowed. Evidence? Hamilton.
I want to re-make ‘12 Years a Slave’ and switch the race of all the players. Black masters lording over white slaves. That would be freak show.
Casting matters.
Imagine the Rock cast as Mary Poppins.
Netflex movies and TV prove that actors cannot play any role anymore than a script writer can write any script.
Netflex movies and TV prove that actors cannot play any role anymore than a script writer can write any script.
but some actors would do a better job and be more believable in a particular role than others.
Sure. Tom Cruise can play any role as long as it is based upon all his previous roles.
If being a tree is beyond their range, they can at least be a stump. Quite a few are mentally equal to the task.
Yes, actors can play any role.
However, the real question is “Will anyone want to see them portray that role?”
Sure. I could play Bo Derek running down the beach but the movie wouldn’t make it out of the editing room.
That was true of John Wayne; but, I still loved him in any movie.
It got lousy reviews at the time and I never saw it but there was a movie with that sort of premise called White Mans Burden (1995). It starred John Travolta and Harry Belafonte.
Hamilton's casting is a gimmick. If there are imitators it might prove your rule, but in itself, one show doesn't.
Scarlett Johansen is mostly right. There are a few characters, however, who are defined in such a way that not jut anybody can play them. Porgy and Bess, for example, or, say, Eliza Doolittle.
Or Samuel L. Jackson.
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