SF and People of Color

[ancient]

Re: Have We Overcome? Not if TV Casting is an Indicator

Sorry about the whole Jesus subplot, Neroon. I never bought that Joesph never did his own wife, that seems to have been tacked on after the fact, but it's not really all that big a deal which translation you use, so it's not even worth getting into a big discussion over anyway.

And sorry to go off topic--but now that the thread's been merged, I think my last post in the older one is now stuck way upthread somewhere. I was wondering if anybody else noticed/had a problem with the way Broca's character was cast and handled? Seriously, had the makeup been off, I think it would've been insulting for him to be the first representative of the Cardassian race to be played by an African-American. Broca's behavior is just...just...servile, and insulting!

Broca...or Legit Brooklyn as me and my brother called him, was a complete toady. Or, given the actor, a total Uncle Tom. Then again, that's probably why Weyoun chose him. It's just unfortunate they got a black guy to play him.

 

[Barbados Slim]

Re: Have We Overcome? Not if TV Casting is an Indicator

Pages ago I said writers have to create diversity to achieve it. Here's why. A friend of mine is casting for a film and we did auditions yesterday. The breakdown asked for all ethnicities. It's a comedy with a main cast of six friends. Although he's not specific about race, the voice of the characters are more white than anything else, alhough one character is modeled after our friend who is black.

With the call for any ethnicity, we saw 46 people yesterday. Of that, there were only 4 brothas, two Asians and about three Latinos. So part of the issue is that minority actors tend to book auditions for race-specific roles. This is the same issue we had with our last film.

I came in at the halfway point to read with the actors. Me being black, I was rooting the brothas to do well. One brought this thuggish energy that wasn't in the sides at all but he was engaging and he had a professional look so we was put in contention for a villainous FBI agent.

The second one was awful. The producer and director (a Jewish woman and a gay white male) couldn't figure out the problem but I knew right away: he did a Mike Epps impersonation. "Who?" they asked. I started listing his credits and they joked "We don't watch your movies." I quipped that I'm contractually obligated to watch Ice Cube movies to keep my ghetto pass and they said "Even those Perry Tyler movies? I don't understand what you're saying." So after that funny exchange (my group of friends are multi-demographic and we joke about each other's ethnicities all the time) we knew guy two wasn't bringing his own take.

The third brotha we saw didn't wow is at first but then once we started he came to life. Those jokes that had a white voice to them he put his own spin on them. At one point he did a read on a joke that had all three of us rewriting the character in our hears to suit the actor.

I could be wrong but I think producers are open to diversity but actors/agents don't go for those jobs. What would help would be writing specific minorities into the story.

Funny Trek anecdote. I was talking to another friend about Trek and he doesn't watch it at all and somehow the conversation lead to his question: "There was a black captain?" "Yeah, Captain Sisko." I was as surprised that he didn't know that as he was that there was one. He recaps, "Wait. There's Kirk. Baldy. The woman, Janeway and that's it." "And Sisko, the black one. Played by Avery Brooks." "Who?"

Yeah they didn't market DS9 like the others. Weirdly, Bakula never came up in conversation.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Re: Have We Overcome? Not if TV Casting is an Indicator

And sorry to go off topic--but now that the thread's been merged, I think my last post in the older one is now stuck way upthread somewhere. I was wondering if anybody else noticed/had a problem with the way Broca's character was cast and handled? Seriously, had the makeup been off, I think it would've been insulting for him to be the first representative of the Cardassian race to be played by an African-American. Broca's behavior is just...just...servile, and insulting!

Broca...or Legit Brooklyn as me and my brother called him, was a complete toady. Or, given the actor, a total Uncle Tom. Then again, that's probably why Weyoun chose him. It's just unfortunate they got a black guy to play him.

It wouldn't have irked me if we'd seen some Cardassians of much stronger character played by black actors. Some dissidents, maybe even just a strong gul with a good speaking role--any of that would've helped.

But it was kinda like...NOW they decide to be diverse?

 

[RoJoHen]

As to the discussion on the genetic breakdown of Jesus and Mary and their associated family, that's not exactly an SFF topic nor does it have any relation to the topic of this thread. Best to let it be assumed bodily into the TNZ forum right now.

What if God is an alien and Jesus was actually purple with tentacles?

 

[Neroon]

As to the discussion on the genetic breakdown of Jesus and Mary and their associated family, that's not exactly an SFF topic nor does it have any relation to the topic of this thread. Best to let it be assumed bodily into the TNZ forum right now.

What if God is an alien and Jesus was actually purple with tentacles?

Then find a hentai board with forums for tentacle porn. All kinds of places out there for that kind of fantasy.

 

[Marie1]

Re: Have We Overcome? Not if TV Casting is an Indicator

With the call for any ethnicity, we saw 46 people yesterday. Of that, there were only 4 brothas, two Asians and about three Latinos. So part of the issue is that minority actors tend to book auditions for race-specific roles. This is the same issue we had with our last film.

The reason that I have a bit of trouble with thinking that it was just a matter of few black actors showing up to auditions in the case of Cardassian auditions is both how huge Star Trek is, how much work it gives many actors, and how many black actors appear in ST in general- humans, Vulcans, Jem'Hadar etc. So I find it sketchy that black people just didn't show up, that only 2 of those who did were ever cast. I'm not sure they meant anything by it, but its... weird. Because its not as if every Cardassian was perfectly cast by these white guys...

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Re: Have We Overcome? Not if TV Casting is an Indicator

With the call for any ethnicity, we saw 46 people yesterday. Of that, there were only 4 brothas, two Asians and about three Latinos. So part of the issue is that minority actors tend to book auditions for race-specific roles. This is the same issue we had with our last film.

The reason that I have a bit of trouble with thinking that it was just a matter of few black actors showing up to auditions in the case of Cardassian auditions is both how huge Star Trek is, how much work it gives many actors, and how many black actors appear in ST in general- humans, Vulcans, Jem'Hadar etc. So I find it sketchy that black people just didn't show up, that only 2 of those who did were ever cast. I'm not sure they meant anything by it, but its... weird. Because its not as if every Cardassian was perfectly cast by these white guys...

Maybe the guy was just the person who best portrayed the role they wrote so the cast him?

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Re: Have We Overcome? Not if TV Casting is an Indicator

Oh, the actor did well, no doubt. I just wish that the CONTEXT had been different--if there had been other black actors prior to him (or seen after him) in better Cardassian roles, I don't think it would've thrown me quite so badly as it did.

 

[RoJoHen]

As to the discussion on the genetic breakdown of Jesus and Mary and their associated family, that's not exactly an SFF topic nor does it have any relation to the topic of this thread. Best to let it be assumed bodily into the TNZ forum right now.

What if God is an alien and Jesus was actually purple with tentacles?

Then find a hentai board with forums for tentacle porn. All kinds of places out there for that kind of fantasy.

My religion is NOT fantasy!

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

Wait a minute... Broca was black??

EDIT: *looks* him up... oh, he was that cab driver in "Total Recall".

 

[Trent Roman]

JohnnyCab? Huh, ol' Johnny actually looks *more* realistic with the make-up on.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Lookingglassman]

I just want to see at least one horror movie where the black guy lives at the end.

 

[DonIago]

Predator 2?

 

[Anwar]

I just want to see at least one horror movie where the black guy lives at the end.

Deep Blue Sea.

 

[cylkoth]

I just want to see at least one horror movie where the black guy lives at the end.

...And gets the girl.

 

[Praetorian]

JohnnyCab? Huh, ol' Johnny actually looks *more* realistic with the make-up on.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

Don't know if you're joking, but the character in question is the black martian cab driver..."I've got 5 kids to feed!"

JohnnyCab was voiced by Robert Picardo btw...
And Alaimo plays the chief of police or something like that...

 

[Hoshi_Mayweather]

I just want to see at least one horror movie where the black guy lives at the end.

I just want to see at least one horror movie where the black guy lives at the end.

...And gets the girl.

Well, I guess 'the black guy gets the girl' is up to speculation, but I recall a few movies where the black male lead survives (some of which that were listed in another thread):

*Dawn of the Dead (the original)....
*House on Haunted Hill (the remake)
*Jeepers Creepers 2
*Halloween: Ressurection (I haven't seen the film, but I think the character portrayed by Busta Rhymes lives).
*Halloween: H20
*Deep Blue Sea (As aforementioned)
*Alien Vs. Predator (The 'black girl' and lead character lives)
*Somebody Help Me (Majority of the black cast lives)...
*The Thing
*Anaconda
*Ghosts of Mars (I assume)
*Event Horizon

 

[rramarr]

And as mentioned before, Trek is really the only scifi show(s) that cast in LA. Most of the others are actually produced in Canada. With Canada giving fairly large financial benefits for casting canadians.

I remember how they had a devil of a time on DS9 casting for Bashir's mother. They had to use someone with no television or film experience, because they couldn't find anyone.

That may be the case for casting background actors. Most main roles are auditioned for in LA/NY.

If you ever seen an open auditions line in NY or LA you will know minorities are out there for ANY type of show. Can’t find them is laughable and I’m LMAO. There is also agents for predominately experienced minority actors and theatre houses. Hmmm... is there a wonder why they had trouble finding someone with experience - seeding what you sow?

I don't think there's any overt racism in the decision making in most sci-fi, it's just people casting and writing what they're familiar with... which isn't to say it isn't racist, especially in Stargate where they give a disporportionate amount of alien roles to black actors, but no harm is meant.

Writers need to say "I'm going to make the leader of this team a Puerto Rican female" and do some research on what it means to grow up Puerto Rican.

Saying these things are not done intentionally is part of the problem because racism is not overt today its subtle and subconscious. You cannot work in Hollywood or New York today and not see the brown around you. You are not in Opie land and neither are your viewers. It’s a shame if you have to think about being diverse and not allow it to happen naturally. African-Americans and other minorities don’t have the possibility of unintentionally forgetting to add Whites. We have to start with diversity and purposely not include Whites when expressing a point about minority lifestyles and even then it’s not real for us.

In defense of writers (a group I like to include myself in). Writers are not casting agents. If a script is written for a black character it can still be cast by a white actor and white actors can audition for a part or be chosen for a part intended for a black character at the producers discretion. Even real life dramas – let’s say the film Twin Towers – some of the roles of port authority officers were played by white actors when the real life person was black and a black actor for in a part that was an Asian officer. That happens even when fiction writers write something for a race or a gender.

By the way grabmygoblin I agree with most everything you said.

 

[Professor Zoom]

I see it here so often, I just have to say it...it's cast. Not casted. Cast is the correct past tense. There is no such word as casted. And pet peeve done.

If a script is written for a black character it can still be casted by a white actor and white actors can audition for a part or be chosen for a part intended for a black character at the producers discretion.

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

Incidentally this thread reminds me of something I heard from Neil Gaiman... he said the main reason why he won't let Hollywood make movies of American Gods or Anansi Boys, is that Hollywood studios told him they wanted to make the black lead white because they were convinced black people won't go see sci-fi/fantasy.