Mostly in film, the ethnicity or culture of a character doesn’t come into play. Sure, we poke fun at Kevin Costner for being the only Robin Hood without an accent, but for the most part if a character is black, white, yellow, brown or any other colour, race or creed – no one cares.
This becomes more of an issue for an actor playing an existing role. When I say “existing role” I typically refer to comic book movies, but this can apply to any novelization brought to film, tv series adapting to film or video game movie as well. Not that these things should not be considered, but that they are not the first thing I think of when evaluating how I react to some casting news.
Recently the example I will use is that Captain American MUST be played by a card carrying American. Now at the heart of this comment, I would have assumed that any actor regardless of birthplace that matches the presence of this existing character was the intention. But there was a strong sense of patriotism and pride that this role would not be suitable if it was played by an Australian even if he could do a convincing Hollywood American accent and had the buff blond hair blue eyed Steve Rogers look.
The concern wasn’t that an actor could portray the role, but that a bigger picture of their qualities OUTSIDE the role they play would somehow influence their ability to play the part.
For me, I feel that it doesnt matter at all where someone is from, as long as they can do the job. Typically there are some qualities that I personally like to see when an established character is brought to film.
1. The Look.
Clearly this is the first impact. If the iconic roles were being filled by actors that did not fill the physical part at all, this could be a major trigger on the appeal of the film. If Captain America was played by a slim out of shape middle eastern man in a turban and a strong Spanish accent, it just wouldn’t work. Nothing about the appearance of the character, including speech, just would contribute to the the character.
2. The Presence.
Sometimes capturing the pure essence of a character makes it worthwhile. The costumes in XMen make the comic book cool, but they didn’t translate well to the big screen. “Would you prefer yellow spandex?” But it captured the essence of the characters. They had a uniform, and clearly something more stylized than common street clothes that set them apart as the action heroes. It filled the same role in the presentation of the characters without being dead on accurate to the source material.
Michael Clarke Duncan played the role of Wilson Kingpin Fisk. The pure essence of Kingpin was a massive imposing man of influence and power. No doubt, Duncan has these qualities. Many of the purists were upset that he was black. I personally don’t think that this affected the presence of the character at all. Despite being iconic in the Daredevil books, the role was secondary and could get away with this indiscretion to the appearance because he had everything else in spades.
The two qualities I mention can be applied to judge my appeal of any character in a film based on another medium.
The qualities are not a “one or the other” type thing for me, but they do feed off each other. If you were to take a character and hire an actor for him SIMPLY because he looks like that character, you could make some pretty impressive posters, but perhaps not a film. Many professional wrestlers have physiques that were made for the pages of a comic book, but they lack the acting ability to portray the character and nail that presence.
The other side of that coin is that if the character doesn’t look or sound the part in the slightest, no degree of presence would save that role. If the ethnicity is close, or not as critical to the portrayal of the character, it becomes questionable, but can still work. As much as I respect Leonard DiCaprio is as an actor and I have faith in anything they manage to put him in, if he was to be cast as Blade, I just couldn’t get into the character.
The bottom line for me is simply that these people make their living as actors. It is their craft. And by definition, this means they are pretending to be something they are not. They might be an Australian playing the part of a wise cracking LA native in a buddy cop film, but that is not who they are in real life. But they can do the job convincingly enough to make the film enjoyable.
Does it matter where someone is from to play a role? Only if that ethnicity or physical appearance is so drastically different that it impedes the presence.
So who is right for the job? Could be any number of actors. We may have an idea on who we want to see, but I would hope that the reasoning for wanting to see them is based on the proper portrayal of the character or role instead of burdening ourselves with inconsequential details that have no impact on the role.
