Character Identity and Diversity
The casting process draws talent from around and beyond the greater Philadelphia area. As student-producers expand their production teams by casting actors, paying attention to character identity and diversity in many forms helps to guide the process. Here, author Jahz Branch discusses her team’s casting process and the article The Racial Logic of Gray’s Anatomy: Shonda Rhimes and her “Post-Civil Rights, Post-Feminist” Series by Kristin J. Warner.
Casting Dad Named Donor
by Jahz Branch
The Racial Logic of Grey’s Anatomy: Shonda Rhimes and Her “Post-Civil Rights, Post-Feminist” (Warner, 2014) had an impact on the method used to cast for Dad Named Donor, as well as inspired a few of the production choices made throughout our pre-production and filming phases. Overall, this article discussed blindcasting, which is an approach done by producers as a way to include ethnically diverse actors into their projects. Blindcasting consists of casting an actor without considering certain attributes, such as skin color, ethnicity or body shape. Warner finds this to be problematic as it acknowledges race in a way that does not make White audiences feel uncomfortable. Warner argues that Shonda Rhimes practices this method, and uses the popular show, Grey’s Anatomy, to further prove this point.
Dad Named Donor is a coming-of-age/drama pilot episode. This episode is about a teenager, who was raised with two moms, that is obsessed with finding his donor dad. Because this project is centered around a family, our crew made sure to carefully cast actors who can pass as genetically-related, which can be tricky. Warner’s research further validates our selection process because although race is not embedded in our storyline, we still made sure to include culturally-relevant language and gestures in our scriptwriting and overall production phase to acknowledge the race of our actors. For example, there is a moment between Daniel, and his mother Mary, where he uses a curse word and she acts as though she is going to tap in the mouth for using such language, even though she does not do so. These sorts of gestures can be common in households of color.
Finally, yet importantly, future makers should consider inclusivity prior to casting and throughout the entire process. If a script is written without including the identity of a character, or multiple characters, then the crew can practice blindcasting. Once the casting process is done, then I would recommend discussing what attributes are going to be added to the production to make it relevant to the identities of their actors.
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References:
Warner, K. J. (2015). The Racial Logic of Grey’s Anatomy: Shonda Rhimes and her “Post-Civil Rights, Post-Feminist” Series. Television & New Media, 16(7), 631–647.
Image credit:
Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko, courtesy of Pexels