Colour-blind casting
Colour-blind casting in the British film industry compromises the integrity of fact-based drama when it’s applied unfaithfully against the historical record.
I didn’t know this policy existed until recently watching Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light, and Wicked Little Letters.
Wicked Little Letters is based on actual events that occurred in 1920. In the movie, a woman police officer is portrayed by a Tamil Indian, while people of West Indian and Nigerian descent act in roles of an Irish woman’s partner and the judge at her trial.
None of these castings are historically accurate.
While the desire for diverse representation in film is laudable, colour-blind casting in historical dramas, when it disregards historical reality, undermines the power of historical storytelling.
Productions like Wolf Hall and Wicked Little Letters, while featuring talented actors, deviate significantly from the racial makeup of the societies they portray.
Superimposing contemporary ideals of diversity onto the past distort our understanding of that past.
Where do we draw the line? Would audiences accept a film about the transatlantic slave trade where white actors played enslaved Africans? The outrage would be justified.
I recently watched Hotel Rwanda and The Last King of Scotland, which is set in Uganda.
Imagine white actors portraying Paul Rusesabagina or Idi Amin. The very idea is absurd and offensive.
These stories are rooted in specific historical realities of racial oppression, and recasting them with white actors would be a gross misrepresentation, minimising the very real suffering and injustice experienced by black people and particular ethnic groups.
Why then is it considered acceptable to do the reverse? The arguments that “it’s just acting” or equal opportunity, or “it’s about the best person for the role” fall flat.
Historical dramas are not pure fiction; they are rooted in real events and real people. To ignore the racial makeup of past societies is to ignore a crucial element of that history.
It’s a disservice to the historical record and a disservice to the very communities whose stories these films purport to tell.
The producers are also deceiving younger generations into believing that past societies were multiracial, when they weren’t.
True representation means telling these stories authentically, acknowledging the complexities of race and identity within their historical context.
While creative licence is important, it shouldn’t come at the cost of historical accuracy.
