Wolf Hall director defends colour-blind casting...

[Nearly Sane]

... after Hilary Mantel approved changes

https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/wolf-hall-colour-blind-casting-newsupdate/


I'm not bothered much by this but again, as it's a hardy perennial of the board, feel that the move to this with the push for 'authentic casring' in such roles as gay roles by some like Russell Davies are bound to combine in some jolly stramash on some programme sometime

[Aruntraveller]

Authentic casting is a nonsense.

We wouldn't have had John Hurt in "The Naked Civil Servant" if we'd had that, and I can't think of any other gay or straight actor who could have played Crisp so well. He got damn near everything spot on.

[Nearly Sane]

I think the article is a trifle unclear I'm that it might be taken to imply that Jack Lowden was dropped for not being a good enough actor rather than as I suspect being busy on Slow Horses. I think there would be more issue had they done this in The Crown.

[Nearly Sane]

Authentic casting is a nonsense.

We wouldn't have had John Hurt in "The Naked Civil Servant" if we'd had that, and I can't think of any other gay or straight actor who could have played Crisp so well. He got damn near everything spot on.

I can remember watching that utterly amazed. He's mesmerising in it but it was breathtaking all round.

[jeremyp]

Authentic casting is a nonsense.

I think it's more nuanced than that. Context matters. Having a gay actor playing a straight roll or a straight actor playing a gay role is different from skin colour because you can't see gayness or straightness. That said, in this case I'd say "meh, I don't care" but there are cases where skin colour matters. For example, the actor who plays Nelson Mandela or Martin Luther King has to be black because their colour is central to their stories.

[Nearly Sane]

I think it's more nuanced than that. Context matters. Having a gay actor playing a straight roll or a straight actor playing a gay role is different from skin colour because you can't see gayness or straightness. That said, in this case I'd say "meh, I don't care" but there are cases where skin colour matters. For example, the actor who plays Nelson Mandela or Martin Luther King has to be black because their colour is central to their stories.

Agree but I can conceive of times when a play based around the life of Mandela showing him as an everyman figure could have a number of different actors playing him of different colours and sex playing Mandela, or a play with black actors playing the white roles, and vice versa.

One reason for a more 'authentic casting' position on colour is opportunity. If in the the case of Wolf Hall it was all authentic casting of colour then there would be almost certainly no roles that could be played by someone of colour. This doesn't apply as you note to sexuality. And while colour might once and still mean thar you have less chances of being cast, being gay has had much less effect.

[jeremyp]

Agree but I can conceive of times when a play based around the life of Mandela showing him as an everyman figure could have a number of different actors playing him of different colours and sex playing Mandela, or a play with black actors playing the white roles, and vice versa.

True. I guess when we are talking about the arts, there's always a case for breaking the "rules" if it is interesting.

One reason for a more 'authentic casting' position on colour is opportunity. If in the the case of Wolf Hall it was all authentic casting of colour then there would be almost certainly no roles that could be played by someone of colour. This doesn't apply as you note to sexuality. And while colour might once and still mean thar you have less chances of being cast, being gay has had much less effect.

I think this problem is better answered by commissioning more material that relates to the history of other cultures. I can't believe sub-Saharan Africa does not have historical dramas that match up to the life of Thomas Cromwell.