Bill Maher on casting decisions and appropriation
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Anonymous
ROFL. And you're impressed by that? |
Anonymous
I'd assume the resemblance was a big factor. |
Anonymous
Yes, resemblance is obviously a big part of casting for a biopic. |
Anonymous
| Google images of young Fidel Castro demonstrate that Franco looks just like him. It’s perfect casting. |
Anonymous
Lol they did not go a casting call for the lead in this movie where they brought in a bunch of Latino actors as well as Franco and then decided who to cast based on who had the best audition. This is honestly a charmingly naive understanding of how movies get made. A few clarifications: - There is virtually never a casting call for a title or lead character in a movie like this, where that person basically carries the film. The exception would be something like Harry Potter where you have to cast an unknown (child actor) into a role people are very familiar with. - Sometimes big name actors are cast in films before directors are attached, sometimes even before their is a script. They literally get shopped around as “James Franco Castro project” or whatever. Many actors, including Franco, have production companies to help them get projects like that sold to enable them to play certain roles (a role like this is Oscar bait so would be highly desirable for someone like Franco looking to raise his profile). Francis involvement would then be used to get studio interest snd sign on directors, producers, screenwriters, and other actors. - Even if the project was not built around Franco from the start, the casting process would not involve a regular casting call. Instead, they look at a list of known actors and figure out too choices based on their familiarity with their work, maybe looking at their reel (a highlights package agents use to sell clients by highlighting their range). For someone with as much star power and credits as Franco, that could be enough. At most, they’d narrow it down to a few actors, and have them come in and read. But there is no guarantee this would include Latino actors, even for this role. Remember, they want someone with name recognition. That might not include an actual Latino because there so few latino actors who have that. - Even if people come in to read, the casting decision is never based solely on who is best for the role. Franco could be middling in his read, and they might still cast him because of the combination of star power and look. They are thinking about what the press packet looks like, how they get attention at festivals, how they sell it. Franco in Castro drag is an easy sell. A less recognizable actor is not, even if they would be phenomenal. The system is about money and star power. It is not about getting the best actor for any given role. And that’s where Maher’s argument falls apart. The reason white, straight, cis actors are so often cast in POC and LGBTQ roles is not that they are the best actors. It’s that people know who they are already. There are not enough well known POC and LGBTQ actors to get movies made off them. It’s literally a self perpetuating system that consolidates power and access in people who already have it, because it’s deemed financially risky to branch out. It’s not artistic vision. Maher knows all this. But he also knows this is the sort of hit button issue that tiles people up, and that if he sounds off on it, he’ll get lots of YouTube views and retweets. He’s in business too. |
Anonymous
| ^ sorry for all the typos, on phone still in bed! |
Anonymous
What's wrong with that? |
Anonymous
But how do you really know? There are plenty of Latino actors who could have done the job. Just because we know him doesn't mean he is the best. |
Anonymous
It sucks the joy out of life. |
Anonymous
Spot on. |
Anonymous
satisfy PP's curiosity. There are distinctive cohorts of adults who are like single-issue voters when it comes to Maher. The group above reflexively dismisses him and any of his positions on any/every topic because he refutes some tenets of trans activist orthodoxy. |
Anonymous
Are you trying to demonstrate that Maher’s fans are, well, kind of dim? |
Anonymous
| People in this thread talk about Latinos like they're a monolith. Go to any Latin American country and you'll see that they have their own racial hierarchies based on how much African, European, or Indigenous ancestry you have. It's subtler than in the US, but it's there. Ana De Armas and John Leguizamo are both from relatively well-off families with long, mostly European lineages (Leguizamo's ancestors include a former Mayor of Bogota and a Spanish Conquistador, with some distant indigenous heritage thrown in). If they were to visit their home countries they'd be considered "white" for all intents and purposes. But come to the US and people who would cause racist, rich old ladies in Columbia to clutch their purses get treated the same as those racist old ladies' coddled grandchildren. |
Anonymous
I should also add that Fidel Castro's father was an immigrant to Cuba from Spain and his mother was of primarily Canary Islands descent. So for a country with as much racial admixture as Cuba (where it's commonly said that almost everyone has at least one African ancestor), this is about as lily-white as it gets. |
Anonymous
LOL. Soul Man and Barbershop never brought joy into life to begin with, so their absence would not suck the joy out. |