Casting Manager Fired Over Hobbit Race Dispute

[Big Don]

Casting Manager Fired Over Hobbit Race Dispute


30 November 2010 4:16 AM, PST WENN /IMDB EXCERPT:

A casting manager working on The Hobbit has been sacked over allegations a British actress was turned down for a role in the film because of her skin colour.
Naz Humphreys, who has Pakistani heritage, auditioned in the New Zealand city of Hamilton last week (ends28Nov10) but alleged she was rejected because movie bosses only wanted "pale-skinned" actors.
She said, "It's 2010 and I still can't believe I'm being discriminated against because I have brown skin. The casting manager basically said they weren't having anybody who wasn't pale-skinned."
A crew member also reportedly published a newspaper advert calling for extras with "light skin tones".

END EXCERPT
Um, doesn't Hollywood do this everyday? Any reader of Tom Clancy's novels knows he didn't write Admiral Greer as a black guy, and while casting James Earl Jones was clearly a good decision, it WAS based on the concept that there weren't "enough" black people in the book. Shoot, Hollywood's idiotic political correctness changed who the bad guys were in Sum of All Fears, in the book: Muslim Terrorists, in the movie White Supremacist Neo-Nazis?

 

[Tez3]

When Hollywood wants a 'baddie' they usually cast a British actor, seems they work on the principle that Americans think we sound sinister :lfao:

I remember reading that the Hobbit film was having trouble but didn't bother to read anything about it.

 

[Big Don]

When Hollywood wants a 'baddie' they usually cast a British actor, seems they work on the principle that Americans think we sound sinister :lfao:

Die Hard, Alan Rickman, 20 odd years later, SNAPE... :lfao:

I remember reading that the Hobbit film was having trouble but didn't bother to read anything about it.

Oh, trust me, entertainment news is far from my usual interests, but, this perked my ears for some reason.

 

[Tez3]

Die Hard, Alan Rickman, 20 odd years later, SNAPE... :lfao:
Oh, trust me, entertainment news is far from my usual interests, but, this perked my ears for some reason.

Alan Rickman was the best villain ever versus Kevin Costner in Robin Hood!

I found something that says what the problem with the film was, it was a while back according to this. seems like its going to one of those films that has a lot of trouble getting to the end!
http://the-hobbit-movie.com/2010/09/28/more-trouble-for-the-hobbit-movie/

 

[Big Don]

Alan Rickman was the best villain ever versus Kevin Costner in Robin Hood!

Yes, Rickman was great in that role. However, I feel compelled to quote Cary Elweys in Robin Hood: Men in tights:

Because, unlike some other Robin Hoods, I can speak with an English accent.

I found something that says what the problem with the film was, it was a while back according to this. seems like its going to one of those fims that has a lot of trouble getting to the end!
http://the-hobbit-movie.com/2010/09/28/more-trouble-for-the-hobbit-movie/

 

[punisher73]

I remember a discussion like this awhile back on another forum. People were arguing about superheroes being cast as a different race/color than what they were written as.

I think it is kind of silly to bring a lawsuit on it overall.

But, on the one hand, I can see the point that it is a fictional race of people, why only pale skinned ones? On the other hand, would anyone raise a fit if a white person was rejected for a part in the remake of Shaka-Zulu because they didn't get the part as a Zulu Warrior?

 

[punisher73]

When Hollywood wants a 'baddie' they usually cast a British actor, seems they work on the principle that Americans think we sound sinister :lfao:

I remember reading that the Hobbit film was having trouble but didn't bother to read anything about it.

Naww...it's just that we can understand an english accent better than those evil german accents. LOL*





* Note, this was a joke about Germans, no actual germans were harmed in the making of this post. :angel:

 

[granfire]

Naww...it's just that we can understand an english accent better than those evil german accents. LOL*





* Note, this was a joke about Germans, no actual germans were harmed in the making of this post. :angel:

vat arr yuu toking about? ze jerman ackzent? vot wut zat be?

 

[granfire]

so, now the unions have a say in the director's vision of how the film should look?

Or should they have just painted her white....they can do that, you know...

 

[Big Don]

so, now the unions have a say in the director's vision of how the film should look?

Or should they have just painted her white....they can do that, you know...

We know

 

[Tez3]

I think the dispute with the unions was over actor's and extra's pay, the accusations about casting seem to be coming from the actress herself.

 

[Sukerkin]

For the record, Hobbits are not coloured. If the actress wishes to pay for the post-processing to alter her natural hue to one that fits the actual race being portrayed I am sure the films creators would be happy to employ her. Or she can audition for the role of a Southron or a Numenorian perhaps - I am sure that a couple of them could be worked in for the Battle of the Five Armies?

I am sad to say that this feels like daft, self-publicising, nonsense, as seems to be the norm with most 'racial discrimination' cases these days. Gosh this sort of thing activates my 'Daily Mail' gene far too strongly .

She said, "It's 2010 and I still can't believe I'm being discriminated against because I have brown skin. The casting manager basically said they weren't having anybody who wasn't pale-skinned."

The lady is simply the wrong colour for the role; it's not as if the film makers were operating a deliberate racial discrimination in the Nazi/Klu-Klux-Klan sense. It happens sometimes that actors' physical attributes are not what is required.

How about some back-dated law-suits for all the discrimination against tall people that happened with the non-CGI stand-ins for the Hobbit roles in the LOTR trilogy?

 

[granfire]

Sums it up just about.
I mean, heck yeah, I would want to be part of the movie, chances are it will gain me some sort of advantage...

But sheesh...not everybody gets to play. Such is life, I know Barney didn't teach us that.

 

[Bruno@MT]

Maybe she could play a hobbit with a really bad case of sunburn ?
Next she'll be complaining about gender discrimination because she wasn't casted as a wizard.

Hang on... the casting manager was fired over this?

 

[granfire]

Maybe she could play a hobbit with a really bad case of sunburn ?
Next she'll be complaining about gender discrimination because she wasn't casted as a wizard.

Hang on... the casting manager was fired over this?

nothing gets you canned from a US company faster than the hint of racial bias...

 

[Tez3]

It could be the casting directors fault and not the fault of the film makers so perhaps a sacking was called for. We don't know the instructions the casting director had from the film company so we can't judge. The film makers may not care what colour the actors are but the casting director did. Hard on the film makers to be blamed if it wasn't their fault.