Casting for the Public Good: BAME Casting in British Film and Television in the 2010s

Abstract

This article examines changes in casting practices which have begun to put black, Asian, and minority ethnic actors more regularly on British screens and in more significant parts. In the context of calls for improving BAME involvement at all levels of the film and television industry, I look in particular at how colour-blind casting has begun to have an impact on British cinema. The article looks initially at how calls for the campaign for changes entwine with the British tradition of public service broadcasting and examines the socially conscious criteria for casting introduced by the BBC and the BFI in 2016. I suggest that some of the ambiguous expectations of audiences in relation to colour-blind casting are similar to the potentially contradictory aspirations placed on institutions which receive public funding. In order to examine these issues in some detail, I draw on textual and paratextual analysis to demonstrate how frames of reference for understanding new approaches to casting can be found in recent period adaptations, a British genre strongly associated with whiteness by actors and critics. The examples discussed span the decade: Wuthering Heights (Arnold, 2011), Lady Macbeth (Oldroyd, 2016), and Mary Queen of Scots (Rourke, 2018). The analysis demonstrates that while casting for the public good is becoming more common it nevertheless remains a complicated and controversial strategy.

Diversity and data: an ontology of race and ethnicity in the British Film Institute’s Diversity Standards

“…Moreover, a more granular inspection of Drama may posit a conceptual contradiction within Standard A that cannot be resolved by the decrees of criterion A6. Its reference to challenging tropes and stereotypes (BFI 2019c) actively encourages the incidental casting of racial difference but, as Geraghty (2020) observes in her analysis of the phenomenon of colour blind or ‘social good casting’ in recent UK period drama films, heightened attention to diversity within narrational approaches which are less germane to the depiction of blackness, such as period drama, may be at odds with the potential of the standards not simply to alter expectations from genres but to establish a new set of expectations on how characters are racially constructed.…”

Interracial romances and colorblindness in Shondaland’s Bridgerton

“…Previously, colorblind casting was specifically used for smaller parts in theater, like extras and ensemble characters (Rogers, 2013). These practices were adapted for television production in Britain and the United States (Geraghty, 2021). Previous literature has condemned the colorblind casting technique in theater (Banks, 2013;Hopkins, 2018;Rogers, 2013) and television productions (Geraghty, 2021;Warner, 2015).…”

“…These practices were adapted for television production in Britain and the United States (Geraghty, 2021). Previous literature has condemned the colorblind casting technique in theater (Banks, 2013;Hopkins, 2018;Rogers, 2013) and television productions (Geraghty, 2021;Warner, 2015). Rogers (2013) identified the colorblind casting "glass ceiling" effect, where people/actors of colors, while more integrated into the cast, were still not achieving and performing in major lead roles in the ways that colorblind casting should have encouraged.…”

An Ode to Black British Girls

“…Since 2016 colour-blind or "rainbow casting" has become a norm across British publicly-funded film and television projects, especially in period dramas, as it directly responds to critiques of public funding not being equitably applied to support BAME actors and projects, and meets the BFI and BBC's recently implemented socially-conscious criteria for casting. 12 As Christine Geraghty argues, while casting for the public good is becoming more common, the contradictions still remain." 13 By simply ignoring race and adopting colour-blind casting, British television will never fully be able to substantively grapple with the material realities and complex experiences of people of color in the U.K.…”