Woody Allenhas long been one of Hollywood’s most distinctive voices. But over the years, one controversy after another has marred his professional career, to the point where he has largely fallen off the Hollywood map in recent times. In his new memoir,Apropos of Nothing, Allen addresses one glaring issue critics have raised about his work: the lack of black actors in his films.
“I’ve taken some criticism over the years that Ididn’t use African-Americans in my movies. And while affirmative action can be a fine solution in many instances, it does not work when it comes to casting. I always cast the person who fits the part most believably in my mind’s eye. When it comes to the politics of race, I have always been a typical liberal and sometimes maybe even radical.”
“Imarched in Washington with Martin Luther King, donated heavily to the ACLU when they needed extra to push the Voting Rights Act, named my children after my African-American heroes and said publicly in the 1960s that I was in favor of African-Americans achieving their goals by any means necessary. Anyhow, when it comes to casting, I do not go by politics but by what feels dramatically correct to me.”
Allen’s assertion is one that has been made by many other filmmakers of his time when they are asked about why their films featurepredominantly white casts. Essentially, what it boils down to is that they did not cast black actors simply because they thought they did not ‘feel right’ for the roles.
That is a strange stance to take in terms of casting, that acharacter’s skin colorsomehow dictates whether they will or will not fit a particular role. And yet it is a school of thought that finds great purchase in Hollywood. It is the same issue that Idris Elba encountered when fans were demanding he be cast as James Bond, when he was deemed ‘too street’ to play the role by an author of a Bond novel.
Similarly, Michael B. Jordan kicked up a firestorm for daring to be black while playing the role of Johnny Storm aka The Human Torch in theFantastic Fourreboot. For a long time, black actors, and other actors of color have been raising the complaint that Hollywood only sees them fit to be offered a specific set of roles based on a general perception of their race and culture.
Allen’s explanation is hardly going to satisfy his critics as to why there are so few black characters in his films. But it is his prerogative as a filmmaker to cast whom he wants to in a role. Fortunately, many of the newer filmmakers are taking it upon themselves to offer leading roles to minority actors, and proving in the process that movies likeBlack Panther,Crazy Rich AsiansandParasitecan make a killing at the box office and garner critical acclaim with non-white faces front and center of the story. This story comes fromVulture.
