Samuel L. Jackson, during an interview for (I’m guessing) his new Kong: Skull Island film, had some thoughts on the use of British actors to play African American roles, such as the lead in the hit film Get Out:
Samuel L. Jackson Revives Debate on British Black Actors in American Roles
I appreciate Mr. Jackson’s point. There is something to be said about British actors playing “American” Black people, especially in a film where the American Black experience is an integral part of the movie’s plot. Mr. Jackson, too, is not alone in lamenting the use of actors to depict certain racial roles they clearly are not.
A short while ago, for instance, there was an uproar over Emma Stone playing a Asian/American in the movie Aloha (the actress herself weighed in on the controversy) and Rooney Mora playing a Native American in Peter Pan.
I suppose it would be weird to see, say, notable American actors like Clint Eastwood or Robert Redford playing, say, Sherlock Holmes or James Bond. Especially if they were trying to emulate a British accent.
Keep that example in mind because there is also an effort of late regarding casting a person of a certain race when the original character was not originally presented that way. In this, Samuel L. Jackson can very easily be listed as prime example “A”.
One of Mr. Jackson’s bigger roles of late is that of Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the Marvel movies. A character who, in the comics, looked like this…
That’s him, before getting his eyepatch, on the far left of the image. The character moved from a WWII fighter to a secret agent (this was to capitalize on the James Bond craze in the 1960’s) and came to look like this…
A movie, believe it or not, was made in 1998 with David Hasselhoff in the titular role. Here’s the movie’s poster:
Still don’t believe me? Here’s a fan made “trailer” for that film:
My point is this: One can argue in favor of characters written to be of a certain race and when presented on film should be played by actors of that race. But what about when you take well established (or even not so well established) characters on the page and completely change their race for the screen?
In the case of Samuel L. Jackson playing Nick Fury, I think the end result wasn’t by any stretch a bad one.
However…
For no other reason than the fact that Will Smith was a very popular actor at the time, he was cast in the role of James West for the film version of the popular 1960’s action/adventure/fantasy series The Wild Wild West. Here’s an episode from the original TV show, which featured Robert Conrad (that’s him in the still from the episode!) in the role of James West:
Casting Will Smith in the role of a secret service agent in the “wild west” of the post Civil War era was, I’ll be completely blunt here, idiotic. Granted The Wild Wild West, both TV show and movie, were meant to be fantasy, but the idea of a black male roaming the wild west in fancy duds and not being immediately noticed by the locals just doesn’t work, especially for that time frame.
I suppose the “color blind” casting was meant to broaden this role but in this case, as opposed to Nick Fury (who, let’s face it, was known mostly to comic book fans before the Marvel films were released and became such big hits), I felt it hurt the overall product as much as the silly film surrounding it. I can easily imagine a film being made featuring Will Smith in the post-Civil War era and working as some kind of secret service agent, but not in the way presented in The Wild Wild West TV show and subsequent movie.
So here’s the bottom line: I think one can get behind the idea Mr. Jackson presents that when a role is created for someone of a certain background/racial heritage it is indeed appropriate to want a person of that background/heritage to play the role.
It is also appropriate, some might also argue, that when a character is originally created to be of a certain race/background and has been depicted that way for many decades, then perhaps there should also be some respect given to keeping the casting there consistent as well.