Color-blind casting

Non-traditional casting, or integrated casting, and sometimes color-blind casting is the practice of casting without considering the actor's race or skin colour. A representative of Actors' Equity 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 or ethnicity is not germane."

The replacement of non-white characters with white ones, or the use of white actors (sometimes in blackface or yellowface) to portray minority roles, is referred to as whitewashing.

Examples

Production	Year	Description
Doctor Zhivago	1965	The eponymous Dr. Yuri Zhivago was played by Egyptian actor Omar Sharif.
Batman	1967	Eartha Kitt was cast as Catwoman on several episodes.
Jesus Christ Superstar	1973	African-American actor Carl Anderson was cast in the lead role of Judas Iscariot, successive to Ben Vereen playing the role in the original 1971 Broadway production.
I, Claudius	1976	Darien Angadi and Sam Dastor played key roles with Renu Setna and Roy Stewart in smaller speaking roles.
Never Say Never Again	1983	Actor Bernie Casey was cast in the role of Felix Leiter. Most other depictions of Leiter, a recurring character in the James Bond franchise, have been white, although Jeffrey Wright played the role in Casino Royale in 2006.
The Mahabharata	1989	Men from distinctly different ethnic groups were cast to play Indian brothers in the epic story of the nation's mythical founding.
Batman	1989	Billy Dee Williams was cast as Harvey Dent in the 1989 film. The character reverted to a white depiction in subsequent films by actors Tommy Lee Jones and Aaron Eckhart.
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 Bonfire of the Vanities	1990	Morgan Freeman plays Judge Leonard White, who was white and Jewish in the novel.
The Shawshank Redemption	1994	An adaptation of Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, Red, who is Irish in the novella, is played by Morgan Freeman.
Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella	1997	The movie contained a racially diverse cast, with Brandy Norwood as Cinderella, Bernadette Peters as her stepmother (with Veanne Cox and Natalie Desselle as Cinderella's stepsisters), Victor Garber as King Maximillian, Whoopi Goldberg as Queen Constantina, Whitney Houston as the fairy godmother, and Paolo Montalban as their son, Prince Christopher.
Wild Wild West	1999	Black actor Will Smith plays James West, a character originated by Caucasian actor Robert Conrad.
This England: The Histories	2000	David Oyelowo played of Henry VI of England. Oyelowo was the first black actor to play an English king in a major production of Shakespeare
Smallville	2001	The TV series cast African-American actor Sam Jones III as Clark Kent's childhood friend Pete Ross, who, in the comic books, was white; Kristin Kreuk, of Dutch and Chinese descent, cast for the originally red-headed character Lana Lang; and Allison Mack, whose character Chloe Sullivan was intended to have a non-white ethnic background.
Daredevil	2003	Black actor Michael Clarke Duncan played Wilson Fisk (aka Kingpin) who has always been portrayed in the Spider-Man comics as a Caucasian.
Catwoman	2004	Halle Berry portrayed the titular character in the 2004 film.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy	2005	Mos Def was cast as Ford Prefect. Although Ford's ethnicity was not explicitly stated in the books, he was described as having ginger hair and the majority of readers assumed for various reasons that he would probably be white.
Batman Begins	2005	Colin McFarlane was cast as Gillian B. Loeb in Batman Begins and its sequel, The Dark Knight.
Grey's Anatomy	2005	During the creation of the show, none of the characters was assigned a race and the best actors were chosen, leading to a racially diverse cast.
Casino Royale	2006	Jeffrey Wright was cast as Felix Leiter in Casino Royale and its 2008 sequel, Quantum of Solace.
Robin Hood	2006	Kwame Kwei-Armah was cast as De Fourtnoy (Master-at-Arms) in "Who Shot the Sheriff?", the third episode.
Merlin	2008	Several nonwhite actors play roles traditionally described in the Arthurian legends as white, most notably Guinevere and Elyan the White.
Max Payne	2008	Ludacris plays the role of Jim Bravura, who is portrayed as white in the video game.
King Lear	2010	Black British actor Pippa Bennett-Warner played Cordelia in the 2010 Donmar Warehouse production of King Lear starring Derek Jacobi in the title role.
Thor	2011	The role of Heimdall, based on the Marvel Comics character commonly depicted as white, was played by Afro-Briton actor Idris Elba.
Skyfall	2012	The role of Miss Moneypenny, which had previously been cast as white, went to Naomie Harris, who reprised the role in the next James Bond film, Spectre.
The Great Gatsby	2013	Indian actor Amitabh Bachchan played Meyer Wolfsheim, a character who was white and Jewish in the novel.
Man of Steel	2013	The role of Perry White, always previously portrayed as white, is played by black actor Laurence Fishburne.
Hannibal	2013	Fishburne co-starred as FBI agent Jack Crawford, who was previously portrayed by various white actors for his appearances in the films.
Fantastic Four	2015	Black actor Michael B. Jordan played The Human Torch, a character traditionally portrayed as white.
Hamilton	2015	Broadway musical. Historical figures including the Founding Fathers are played by people of multiple different races, who were all white in real life.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child	2016	Black actress Noma Dumezweni played Hermione Granger, a character portrayed by the white actress Emma Watson in the Harry Potter films.
Suicide Squad	2016	Black actor Will Smith played Deadshot, a character traditionally portrayed as half-Hispanic.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again	2016	This remake of The Rocky Horror Picture Show stars black transgender actress Laverne Cox as Dr. Frank-N-Furter, a role originated by white male actor Tim Curry. The film also features black actress Christina Milan as Magenta, a role originated by white actress Patricia Quinn.
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 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.

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. Actors Equity is a co-founder.

See also

• 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.