Hunger Games Director talks Casting

[dkwrkm]

Lionsgate has confirmed that Jennifer Lawrence has been cast as Katniss and Entertainment Weekly interviewed director Gary Ross. For once, they asked some relevant questions:

There’s already quite a bit of hand-wringing that, no matter how good an actress Lawrence is, at 20 she’s simply too old for the role.First of all I talked to Suzanne

Comments

[llamrei]

I'm relieved about Rue and Thresh.

[tryxkittie]

I'm not.

He's fine with Rue and Thresh being black because they die and are never replaced with other prominent black characters. Thresh himself is a noble savage archetype if I've ever seen one (which means I'm not exactly putting the author of the books on a throne of authority when it comes to race representations). Them being black in the movie is a small victory, but not much of one.

Not to mention the director seems awfully dismissive of the racial issues in casting a blonde haired blue eyed white as white actress in a role that could have gone to a different type of actress - a darker skinned actress - in order to promote darker skinned actresses in major roles, which is sorely needed in Hollywood.

[calcifermagnet]

Something that really stands out to me in this issue is the constant blonde-bashing. Like blondes are some kind of symbol of whiteness. But then, she's not blone. I lost my link to a picture of her younger with her natural hair color, but here is one with her roots clearly showing:

http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1225308672/nm2225369

Like 4/5 of all blondes, she's a bottle blonde. That doesn't suddenly make her casting ok, but that's how the director is taking it, because there are so many comments from the fandom about her blondness being the issue.

[stigmatize]

blonde-bashing

are you for real rn

[faded_facade]

The problem is still the fact that the casting call went out seeking Caucasian girls to fill the role of Katniss and unfortunately, that wasn't asked about in this interview. So of course, it's possible that Jennifer Lawrence was the best one casting saw of the girls that were allowed to audition. But it also means there's potentially a great actress who doesn't fall under the label of Caucasian that missed out on the part.

[nagasasu]

Well, that's great that Collins is ok with it, but I don't think she gets what a big deal it is for PoC (WoC!) to see themselves reflected back in positive roles. That said, I'll favor Death of the Author over Word of God.

[tryxkittie]

people give way too much credit/authority to an author because she's an author as if she's 1000% aware of the issues concerning racial representations. She's not.

[sorryno]

That's how I read that, too. He is stupid if he thinks that hair color is all we care about.

[topazera]

I hate that deflection, trivializing legitimate issues is not exactly how you are going to win people over. :/ Since it was brought up anyway, why not try to speak about it with a little more depth? At least argue that the racial implications within her district aren't as important as class divides or something. We would still have words (especially about the ridiculous exclusionary language of the casting call) but I would find that more palatable than just being totally brushed off.

[robowolf]

Ugh, yes. HAHA, SILLY FANS.

[indefiance]

Yeah, we're not really concerned about her hair color here.

I'm glad they addressed Rue and Thresh, though. There's that. I won't be surprised if they get the lightest bi-racial actors to play them, though. Ugh.