Deprioritizing White Actors and Whiteness in Casting Is a Part of Parity

A few days ago, Oscar winner Jordan Peele made the following comment about casting in his movies: “I don’t see myself casting a white dude as the lead in my movie.” So, of course, there were thoughts about that.

For context, here was the whole passage from THR, with Peele’s statements leading up to and following that quote:

“The way I look at it,” he explained, “I get to cast black people in my movies. I feel fortunate to be in this position where I can say to Universal, ‘I want to make a $20 million horror movie with a black family.’ And they say yes.”

It’s a formula he’s not interested in messing with.

“I don’t see myself casting a white dude as the lead in my movie. Not that I don’t like white dudes,” he said, nodding over to his moderator pal Roberts. “But I’ve seen that movie.” The line drew loud applause and shouts of agreement. “It really is one of the best, greatest pieces of this story, is feeling like we are in this time — a renaissance has happened and proved the myths about representation in the industry are false.”

Peele’s original movie Us—love it, hate it, or indifferent to it—has now become the second-biggest opening so far this year after Captain Marvel, the biggest horror opening for an original movie, and it’s led by a dark-skinned Black woman. That’s groundbreaking as both a horror fan and someone who wants to see Black people and families in traditionally held white roles.

Those who would cry foul at Peele’s comments need to note that not casting white people as leads in his films does not mean an absence of white roles from his movies. While they were the villains, the cast of Get Out was mostly white, and Us also has an amazing performance from Elizabeth Moss. We see from the Twilight Zone trailer that there are plenty of white and non-Black people in that show.

Deprioritizing white actors and whiteness in casting is a part of parity. The entertainment industry, almost since its inception, has used whiteness vs. the other as shorthand for many of their horror projects. Peele, himself a biracial man with a white wife, the hilarious Chelsea Peretti, is someone who has lived a lifetime having to carve out something for himself in white spaces as a Black man. He knows the doors that have been historically closed for people like himself and is working to open them up.

Now, because of Us, young actors Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan Alex have a better chance at getting more leading kids roles than they would have before, because they were in a box office-winning, critically acclaimed movie where they got to act. Peele is opening doors for the underrepresented and also keeping it open for talent that he thinks is valuable.

That’s super important, and if it bothers you, maybe you should look at why you think it’s bad for him to hire talented white actors to play villains and victims when POC have been doing that since they were allowed to play themselves on screen.

(via THR, image: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images)

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