Casting to type – an interesting aspect of modern sensitivities
In these modern times of saturation-coverage of fashionable issues such as “levelling up”, diversity, equality, transgender rights versus those who argue these affect “women born as women” (if I’m even allowed to use that phrase) – just “wokedom” generally – it’s sometimes difficult to keep up with the latest developments.
For example, I learned from my copy of The Times yesterday that over 60% of all solicitors are now female.
Recently the issue of “casting to type” in the arts – not least in dance, movie, theatre and television productions and whether this be a matter of race, nationality, able-bodied versus disabled, sexual orientation or whatever – has returned to public attention.
It’s a fascinating subject irrespective of the walk of life and/or the context in which it raises its head.
It brought to mind such issues such as the following:-
“Can white men sing the blues?”
The 1992 comedy movie White Men Can’t Jump starring Woody Harrelson, who first came to prominence playing a junior barman in the TV sit-com Cheers …
Laurence Olivier playing Othello on stage and in the 1965 movie …
The able-bodied Daniel Day-Lewis starring as Christy Brown in the 1989 biopic My Left Foot …
I have little doubt that our readers would be able to think of – or even supply this organ with – other examples that occur to them.
Most recently the issue has come to public notice via the 2021 movie Golda – a biopic of sometime Israeli premier Golda Meir set during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, written by Nicholas Martin, directed by Israeli filmmaker Guy Nattiv and starring Dame Helen Mirren as Golda Meir.
Last month fellow Dame Maureen Lipman made known her misgivings at Helen Mirren playing the part of Golda Meir because she is not Jewish.
See here for a link to an interview with Lipman conducted by Andrew Pulver on the subject, as appeared in – THE GUARDIAN
Now Mirren has given her side of the controversy – see here for a link to her interview given to showbiz reporter Baz Bamigboye, as appears today upon the website of the – DAILY MAIL
I don’t purport to have strong views on the subject generally – still less any answers – but as I began composing this post this morning I felt that its various complexities might provide some of our readers with a reason to pause for reflection and/or comment.
Simultaneously, for some reason, a famous story about an incident during the filming of the 1976 movie Marathon Man starring Laurence Olivier and Dustin Hoffman occurred to me.
It concerned a memorable scene of torture in a dentist’s chair for which – possibly prompted by the challenge of performing with Olivier, Hoffman apparently kept himself awake for nights at a time and then continued to cause delays to the shooting as he “sought his motivation” for his character’s lines.
The version of the tale I heard went that – eventually becoming frustrated at the lack of progress – Lord Olivier finally suggested to Hoffman “Dear boy, why don’t you try acting it?”
There may be a lesson in there somewhere.
