To Woke, or not to Woke. Mr. Apu on the Simpsons.

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I imagine millions women in the 1950s would have been heartbroken to know that the three biggest heart throbs
James Dean
Gregory Peck
Rock Hudson
were all unavailable

But I don't think that a casting director has to have things in common with the actors to judge their performances. For example, the casting director of the Silence of the Lambs cast Anthony Hopkins as a serial killer, even though Hopkins, or the casting director were serial killers in real life.

I'm being facetious in that example, but my point is, an employer is not required to share the same sexual orientation of a person they hire for a certain job, in my opinion.

They are different though. Take the first example. Serial killers are either i) hidden from view or ii) in jail. So that's not really relevant and the casting director can use their own imagination.

The second example is also not relevant because sexual orientation is never taken into consideration when somebody is interviewed for a job.

That's true, I was being sarcastic in my first example.

But I think sexual orientation is taken somewhat seriously when doing a job, since Tom Hanks for example, came out and said that he shouldn't have played a gay man in a movie, and it wouldn't have flied today. If it's true that it wouldn't fly today, then that means sexual orientation is taken into considering when hiring, at least for actors in a job.

If anyone asked him, what do you suppose he'd say a gay actor would have brought to the part that his performance didn't?

Sorry, I don't understand what you mean, if you could elaborate?

I was watching an interview with Kal Penn (From Harold and Kumar) and he says he regularly has to compete with white actors who do "brown face" when there's an opening for an actor to play an Indian.

However, Penn is sympathetic to his fellow actors as jobs are so hard to come by that he understands why they are so desperate to land a role. The problem is if they become famous later on and the movie role re-surfaces.

How would Tom Hanks' performance have been better if he were gay personally?

Oh I don't know how or if it would have been better. I was just quoting what he said, that he felt he shouldn't have played a gay role.

That's unfortunate for Kal Penn but at the same time, anyone is free to audition it seems, so what can you do really?

The flipside I don't think Kal Penn has an Indian accent either.

Oh but what does that have to do with anything?

Well technically he's doing brown face as his accent is Canadian

But why is it considered brown face if his accent is Canadian?

because he's north American Not Indian. Another example is Ben Kingsley's portrayal of Mahatma Ghandi. Kingsley is half Indian but speaks with an upper crust thespian English accent.

But aren't actors allowed to fake accents or is that considered 'racist' now? For example, I had no problem when Viggo Mortensen faked a Russian accent to play a Russian character in Eastern Promises, but is that considered wrong now?

I had no problem with Nick Nolte faking an Italian accent for Lorenzo's Oil, even though he is not Italian. Faking accents for movie characters never bothered me.