My son and I were just discussing the the topic of who should play which roles. He is interested in pursuing a career in acting and is a half Asian straight man. We talked about white washing, representation of diversity, should trans play trans, differently abled playing differently abled. Our “conclusion” was that talent within the trans or differently abled should be rigorously sought out first, but if the right actor isn’t found, talent could come from other venues. As for straights playing gay roles: it’s called acting...that’s the point. Hollywood’s biggest problem is reflecting the actual diversity of society...I want to see stories about things/people NOT straight and white...how that happens can be a whole lot of gray.

My opinions on this are convoluted at best. Casting is already rife with hiring problems that would, were it any other job, be buried under discrimination suits of every kind. No-where else can one get away with being vocal about not hiring someone because they're 'too fat/tall/short/young/old/ugly/etc.' Which is bullshit because I can tell you any one of those things can be fixed with clever costuming and/or makeup or just an open fucking mind.

Why, no, I'm not bitter, why d'you ask? ?

My point is, I'm all for diverse casting, but I worry that they're going to do what they always do and only cast the 'pretty' ones, with no regard to singing/acting/etc ability, which will make the production suffer and end up hurting the cause of diversity in casting.