Jane Austen News - Enero de 2018

I’d love to see Idris Alba as Colonel Brandon. Or as Darcy, for that matter. If Shakespeare’s plays can be performed by diverse actors, I don’t see why costume dramas can’t.

Actually Thandie Newton could perfectly well be in Call the Midwife, which has featured several non-white characters and is about to add its first Afro-Caribbean midwife. This is entirely in keeping with the ethnic origins of the population of the London docklands in the 1960s, though it has obviously got even more diverse since. She chose that example rather badly. But I wonder how we would take to them casting a non-white Elizabeth or Darcy in the new version of P&P?

“Cinderella” being a fairy tale doesn’t require historical accuracy so much, I think. For a realistic story, things are a bit different. I’m 100% in favor of being color blind when it’s a contemporary story and the character’s color and origin have no special meaning, or when it’s a theater performance, because the stage is not a realistic place. But in a period movie, I don’t see the point of casting someone who doesn’t correspond to the character. It would be as stupid as to cast a Black as Colonel Brandon as to cast a White as an african slave in “Roots”.

Re historical accuracy: be color blind, cast the best actor for the part and ignore everything else. Years ago Whitney Houston produced a version of Cinderella which did just this, as I recall Prince Charming was Asian, Cinderella was black. It was wonderful.

On Historical Accuracy vs. Diversity: This should not be an ‘either or’. As an degreed historian and an actor, I am perfectly aware that I am not suitable for all roles, nor am I willing to rupture historical authenticity simply to give myself (however tempted I am) a job. Likewise, I don’t wish to, by appearing in an historically unlikely role, to distract the audience from the real point of any history-based theatrical endeavour: immersion into a distrant but credible time and place. Further, there are more diversity-based roles in theatre today than ever before, so I don’t see the popularity of properties displaying the white upper class as somehow replacing those displaying racial, ethnic, and economic diversity. The historian in me is thrilled to see the public’s interest in history-based drama of any sort, while the actor in me is equally thrilled to see the growth of diversity-focused offerings.