Color-blind casting

Color-blind casting, also referred to as non-traditional casting, integrated casting, or blind casting is the practice of casting without considering the actor's ethnicity, skin color, body shape, sex or gender. A representative of the Actors' Equity Association has disputed the use of the term "color blind", preferring the definition "non-traditional casting". Non-traditional casting "is defined as the casting of ethnic minority actors in roles where race, ethnicity, or gender is not germane". Race-reversed casting is one form of non-traditional casting.

Examples

Production	Year	Description
New York Shakespeare Festival	1955	Joseph Papp started hiring actors of color in his Shakespeare productions.
Tannhäuser	1961	Grace Bumbry was cast as Venus in the Wagner opera, becoming the first African-American singer to perform at the Bayreuth Festival.
Batman	1967	Eartha Kitt was cast as Catwoman in the third season, taking over the role from the white Julie Newmar.
After the Fall	1990	Josette Simon played Maggie at the London National Theatre in 1990. The role is widely supposed to have been based on Arthur Miller's former wife Marilyn Monroe.
The Shawshank Redemption	1994	An adaptation of Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. The character Red, described as Irish in the novella, is played by Morgan Freeman.
This England: The Histories	2000	British-Nigerian actor David Oyelowo played Henry VI of England. Oyelowo was the first black actor to play an English king in a major production of Shakespeare
Grey's Anatomy	2005	During the creation of the television series, none of the characters was assigned a race. Color-blind casting was used to choose the best actors for the roles, resulting in an ethnically diverse cast.
Robin Hood	2006	Kwame Kwei-Armah was cast as De Fourtnoy (Master-at-Arms) in "Who Shot the Sheriff?", the third episode.
King Lear	2010	Black British actress Pippa Bennett-Warner played Cordelia in the 2010 Donmar Warehouse production of King Lear, starring Derek Jacobi in the title role.
Skyfall	2012	The role of Miss Moneypenny, which had previously been cast as white, went to Naomie Harris. She reprised the role in the next James Bond films, Spectre and No Time to Die.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child	2016	Black actress Noma Dumezweni played Hermione Granger, a character who was portrayed by white actress Emma Watson in the Harry Potter films.
Doctor Strange	2016	British-Nigerian actor Chiwetel Ejiofor played Karl Mordo, who is a Transylvanian baron in the comics the film is based on.
The Girl with All the Gifts	2016	In the British post-apocalyptic zombie horror drama film, based on a M.R. Carey novel of the same name, black actress Sennia Nanua plays main character of Melanie, who is white in the book.
Dynasty	2017	Based on the 1980s series of the same name where both of the lead families are white. In this reboot, the Colby family is portrayed by African-American actors.
Riverdale	2017	Based on the characters and setting of the long-running Archie Comics series, several characters traditionally depicted as white in the comics are portrayed by non-white actors in the series. Most notably, Archie Andrews (the series' lead) is portrayed by KJ Apa, who is of mixed Samoan descent. Veronica Lodge is portrayed by Camila Mendes, who is of Brazilian descent as well as the entire Lodge family has been depicted as being of Latin-American descent in the series. Reggie Mantle is portrayed by Asian-American actors Ross Butler in season 1, and Charles Melton from season 2 onwards, Pop Tate is portrayed by black actor Alvin Sanders and Josie and the Pussycats, a band originally consisting of one black member and two white members in the comics, are converted into an all-black group: Josie and Melody, both previously white, are portrayed by Ashleigh Murray and Hayley Law, respectively.
Spider-Man: Homecoming	2017	Tony Revolori, of Guatemalan heritage, plays Flash Thompson, a white character from the comics previously portrayed in Spider-Man and Spider-Man 3 by Joe Manganiello.
Beauty and the Beast	2017	Gugu Mbatha-Raw plays Plumette, a castle maid who was represented in the 1991 animated film as a white woman. Similarly, Audra McDonald plays Madame De Garderobe, an opera singer who was also white in the animated movie.
The Dark Tower	2017	Black actor Idris Elba plays Roland Deschain, a character who is described in the Dark Tower series as white and is said to have been inspired by white actor Clint Eastwood.
Frozen the Musical	2017	Black actor Jelani Alladin plays the character Kristoff, a Scandinavian ice harvester.
Thor: Ragnarok	2017	The role of the bounty hunter Valkyrie, based on the Marvel Comics character commonly depicted as white, is played by African American actress Tessa Thompson. The role of the Asgardian sentry Heimdall, based on the Marvel Comics character depicted as white (also described in the Scandinavian mythology as "the whitest skinned of all the gods"), was played by Black British actor Idris Elba.
A Series of Unfortunate Events	2017	African-American actor K. Todd Freeman portrayed the character Mr. Poe, who was portrayed by white English actor Timothy Spall in the 2004 film. Indian actor Aasif Mandvi portrayed the character Monty Montgomery who was portrayed by Irish-Scottish actor Billy Connolly in the film. African-American actor Alfre Woodard portrayed the character Aunt Josephine, who was portrayed by white American actress Meryl Streep in the film.
1066: A Year to Conquer England	2017	Jotham Annan plays Norman Robert de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Leicester.
Troy: Fall of a City	2018	The BBC/Netflix co-production, which retells the Iliad, depicts Achilles and Zeus as being black, with the respective roles played by David Gyasi and Hakeem Kae-Kazim.
Deadpool 2	2018	The character Domino, drawn in comic books as an albino white woman with a dark patch of skin in a diamond surrounding her left eye, is portrayed by African-American/German actress Zazie Beetz; the anomalous skin patch was instead lighter than the rest of her complexion. The film also features Māori actor Julian Dennison as Rusty Collins / Firefist, a white Oklahoma native in the comics and biracial actor Lewis Tan (of partial Chinese descent) as Shatterstar, an extraterrestrial who in the comics has the appearance of a white human.
Fahrenheit 451	2018	The character Guy Montag, who was portrayed by Austrian actor Oskar Werner in the 1966 adaptation, is portrayed by African-American actor Michael B. Jordan. Additionally, the character Clarisse McClellan (portrayed by Julie Christie in the 1966 film) is played by Algerian actress Sofia Boutella.
Titans	2018	African-American actress Anna Diop plays the superhero Starfire (Princess Koriand'r). An alien who is drawn in comics with orange or golden skin, Starfire has been previously portrayed by white performers and drawn in cartoons with light tan skin, though originally being black-coded.
Colette	2018	Saudi actress Aiysha Hart plays the character Polaire. Polaire is a French woman.
Pokémon Detective Pikachu	2018	Biracial actor Justice Smith plays the main human character Tim Goodman, who was brunette and white-passing in the 2016 video game.
Mary Queen of Scots	2018	A British historical drama included Gemma Chan as Elizabeth Hardwick and Adrian Lester as Lord Thomas Randolph.
Les Misérables	2018	British-Nigerian actor David Oyelowo plays inspector Javert, who was described as the son of a French man and a Gypsy woman in the original Victor Hugo novel.
Robin Hood	2018	Jamie Foxx was cast as Little John.
Krypton	2018	Black British actor Colin Salmon was cast as General Zod, who is traditionally portrayed as white.
The Witcher	2019	Yennefer is played by half-Indian actress Anya Chalotra, who was a white brunette in the original, similarly done with Vilgefortz (Mahesh Jadu). White character Fringilla Vigo is played by black actress Mimi Ndiweni; Istredd (Royce Pierreson) and Triss Merigold (Anna Shaffer) are also white in books, yet are played by actors of color. The Zerrikanians Tèa and Vèa, who are blonde in the books and based on Scythian warrior women and Greek stories about Amazons, are also played by black actresses.
The Personal History of David Copperfield	2019	Director Armando Iannuci described his approach as colour-blind when casting Dev Patel as Charles Dickens' titular character. Patel described the casting as "representative of a modern Britain – the one that I grew up in". Nigerian actress Nikki Amuka-Bird plays Mrs Steerforth and Benedict Wong plays Mr Wickfield.
Birds of Prey	2020	Biracial actor Jurnee Smollett-Bell plays the character Black Canary who is white in the comics.
Artemis Fowl	2020	In the novel, the character Butler is described as Eurasian, specifically Russian-Japanese; in the film he is portrayed by British Nigerian Nonso Anozie. Anozie's casting, combined with the character's physical description of terrifying anyone in his presence and backstory of his family having served the Fowl family for centuries, had been criticised for embodying several stereotypes of African Americans, in particular the "scary black man" and "black servant" tropes.
Transplant	2020	Pakistani-Canadian actor Hamza Haq portrays Syrian doctor Bashir Hamed.
The Great	2020	Elle Fanning who stars as Catherine the Great in the series spoke of using color-blind casting from the very beginning to make "people from now to be able to relate to the show" and "have everyone represented". Sacha Dhawan, a British-Indian actor, plays Count Orlo, and Abraham Popoola plays Rostov.
Bridgerton	2020	The show, crested by Shonda Rhimes, employs many actors of color in positions of nobility that historically would have been white, most notably Golda Rosheuvel as the queen, Regé-Jean Page as the Duke of Hastings, and Adjoa Andoh as Lady Danbury.
The Witches	2020	Based on the Roald Dahl novel, the main character, a young boy, and his grandmother are black; in the book, they are Anglo-Norwegian.
Mortal Kombat	2021	Sisi Stringer portrays Mileena, a character who has a pale complexion in the Mortal Kombat games.
Without Remorse	2021	Michael B. Jordan plays John Clark, a fictional character in the Tom Clancy media franchise traditionally portrayed white.
Anne Boleyn	2021	Jodie Turner-Smith plays Anne Boleyn.
The Green Knight	2021	Dev Patel plays Gawain, a fictional character in the King Arthur legend traditionally portrayed white.
Cruella	2021	Kirby Howell-Baptiste portrays the character Anita Darling, who is white in all previous iterations of 101 Dalmatians.
Spider-Man: No Way Home	2021	Jamie Foxx reprises his role as the supervillain Electro, who is white in the comics.
Cowboy Bebop	2021	The live-action TV series based on the original 1997 Japanese anime has Mustafa Shakir portraying the character of Jet Black, who is presumed white, and Daniella Pineda, a Mexican-American actor as Faye Valentine, who is Singaporean in the anime.
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City	2021	A film based on the first two games of the Japanese video game series Resident Evil, biracial actor Avan Jogia portrays the characters Leon Kennedy, who is white in the video game series and was portrayed by white actor Johann Urb, in the original film series. Biracial actor Hannah John-Kamen portrays Jill Valentine, who is white in the video game series.
The Electrical Life of Louis Wain	2021	British actor Richard Ayoade, the son of a Nigerian father and a Norwegian mother, plays Henry Wood.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage	2021	Black actor Naomie Harris plays the character Shriek, who is white in the comics.
The Tragedy of Macbeth	2021	Black actors Denzel Washington and Corey Hawkins play Lord Macbeth and Macduff, respectively.
The Irregulars	2022	Black actor Royce Pierreson played Doctor John Watson.
The Batman	2022	Jeffrey Wright portrays the usually white American Commissioner Gordon and Zoe Kravitz plays Catwoman.
House of the Dragon	2022	Steve Toussaint was cast in the role of Corlys Velaryon, and Sonoya Mizuno was cast as Mysaria, though both characters are described as white in the source material, Fire & Blood.
Halo	2022	Shabana Azmi, an Indian actress, portrays Admiral Margaret Parangosky.
The Flash	2023	Colombian actress Sasha Calle will portray Supergirl; she is set to be the first Latina to portray the character.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians	2024	Black actor Leah Jeffries will portray the character Annabeth Chase, daughter of the goddess Athena, who was described as white in the books, and played by Alexandra Daddario in the movies.

The Non-Traditional Casting Project

The Non-Traditional Casting Project was founded in 1986 to examine problems of racial discrimination in theatre, film and television. The Actors' Equity Association is a co-founder.

Debate and "color-consciousness"

In the theatre community, there is significant debate over the concept of color-blind casting vs "color-conscious casting".

In 1996, Pulitzer-winning playwright August Wilson used his Princeton University address on black culture in the United States "The Ground on Which I Stand" to attack the notion of color-blind casting.

"Colorblind casting is an aberrant idea that has never had any validity other than as a tool of Cultural Imperialists who view American culture, rooted in the icons of European culture, as beyond reproach in its perfection... We do not need colorblind casting; we need theatres." - August Wilson

In 2017, Associate Editor of American Theatre magazine Diep Tran declared "color-conscious" to be a preferable term. "Color-conscious means we're aware of the historic discrimination in the entertainment industry... and we're also aware of what it means to put a body of color onstage.". The idea promotes intentionality and race-conscious affirmative action to avoid racially homogeneous casts, and has been supported widely across the theatre community.

In 2018, the Harvard Journal of Sports & Entertainment Law published the article "There's No Business Like Show Business: Abandoning Color-Blind Casting and Embracing Color-Conscious Casting in American Theatre". The article discussed the implications for US employment law and mooted that color-blind casting has not produced its intended result. "Race is still a determining factor in American society, and it is counterintuitive to argue that problems related to race can be fixed by ignoring race altogether". The Broad Online calls a color-blind casting "a superficial solution to a deeper problem."

Popular shows that employ color-conscious casting include: Hamilton: An American Musical, the BBC's Les Misérables, and the film Mary Queen of Scots (in which the black actor Adrian Lester plays a 16th-century ambassador). In 2017, director Michael Streeter made a color-conscious casting decision for his production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? - believing "the decision would add depth to the play". Edward Albee's estate denied permission for the production, stating the casting "would fundamentally change the meaning and message of the play".

See also

• Racebending
• Race-reversed casting
• Whitewashing in film

Further reading

• "Berry is top candidate to play white Democrat", The Guardian, 10 October 2006.
• A. N. Wilson, "I'm ready for a black Miss Marple", The Telegraph, 21 April 2002.