Research Questions
This research kit sets out two key questions: How is casting used to develop film characters, and how are choices made in casting reflective of racial biases, both conscious and subconscious?
Overview
This research kit is meant to provide the user with tools to educate on issues of casting in film production, particularly as they pertain to Latin America and Latinx actors. This is an issue with deep cultural roots in the United States and its history of representing non-white characters.
Latin American history is not a subject that is taught frequently in US schools despite the US’ proximity to Latin America its growing Latinx population. An example of this lack of curricular attention to the region is evident in The Virginia Standards of Learning for world history from 1500-present. This has 15 emphasized skills, which are essentially subjects which it is expected will be taught to students such that they are proficient. Of these, four mention Europe or “Western Civilization,” one each mentions Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, yet none of the major topics include any reference to Latin America. There are two mentions of Latin America as a subpoint, one instructing teachers to cover the impact of the American and French revolutions on Latin America and one emphasizing the impact of the Monroe doctrine. This indicates broader US attitudes towards Latin America and Latinx issues, where these are rarely taught and when they finally are they are tied to US and European history instead of being allowed to stand on their own.
This disinterest in Latinx issues is best addressed by placing an emphasis on teaching them and this can be accomplished especially well by framing the problems the community faces in the context of film, which for many students will be more attractive and interesting than traditional methods of teaching. Illustrating these issues through film is not just a way to interest students, however. Film is an important part of culture and the representation of different groups, yet in film Latinx actors and other actors of color frequently find themselves undercast and underrepresented. Educating students on the issues this creates is valuable for everyone, be they white, Latinx, or otherwise. For white students, learning the importance the representation they often take for granted has to other groups can be incredibly important, while for Latinx students and citizens understanding the history of this, and being shown and given the opportunity to study film where they are better represented, can be rewarding and validating.
One way to gain insight into the two main questions of this research kit is by understanding the concept of film as an expression of power. In the early days of Hollywood in particular, who and what was shown on screen was reflective of what groups had power. This can be seen in looking at the film Viva Zapata, which was released in 1952. Viva Zapata was directed by Elia Kazan and starred Marlon Brando as Mexican revolutionary hero Emiliano Zapata. This movie was a large, well-funded Hollywood project, and it was primarily targeted at US audiences, as many films of the time were. Perhaps as a result of this, the film had many issues in terms of representation. The film was also made at the peak of McCarthyism, when Hollywood was under intense scrutiny for alleged glorification of communism. Viva Zapata, being a film about communist revolutionaries in Mexico, would seem at first to be problematic to the virulently anti-communist public of the time, an issue the movie addressed by being incredibly pro-United States, to the point of becoming essentially propaganda. Characters frequently speak of the virtue of the US, and there are several lines where characters lament how much better life is north of the border. Emiliano Zapata also gives speech at the end of the film that was very individualist, asking those around him to continue to fight for themselves and what they believe was right. This message of rebellion and fighting for freedom is contrary to the historical Zapata’s communist leanings but was great for a film praising the US. This and many of the other fictionalized aspects of the film, such as Emiliano Zapata giving up control of the military in a way that echoed George Washington, were done to give a sense of patriotism and show reverence for the US.
Representation issues in Viva Zapata seem fairly obvious in retrospect. Brando played entirely in brownface, especially troubling given this film was released at a time when blackface theatre was becoming increasingly controversial in American society as the Civil Rights movement gained steam. This casting choice was clearly made with a conscious racial bias, as were many others in the film, such as Mexican American actor Anthony Quinn getting the role of Euphemio Zapata, who ultimately betrays the revolution and his brother. Throughout his career Quinn was frequently cast in roles “marked by a brutal and elemental virility,”1 largely due to his status as a colored actor. This sort of typecasting was unfortunately common at the time and even into today. These issues of casting are also a way in which the film characterizes certain figures in the movie. It is clear from the beginning that Emiliano Zapata is the main protagonist largely because that role is given to the white Marlon Brando. At the same time, his Mexican American costar was the traitorous brother, who even before his betrayal of the revolution is clearly impulsive, reflecting the stereotypes that existed at the time and in some part today. Most other characters are played by white actors, many of whom make no attempt at a Mexican accent. All these factors come together to make Viva Zapata feel like a representation of the Mexican revolution that is uninterested in Mexico, instead loosely representing these events to ultimately extoll the virtue of the US.
The movie’s US-centric messages, as well as its poor representation of nonwhite individuals, are emblematic of the problematic power disparities at play in the film’s production and society as a whole at the time it was made. Film has a unique ability to give insight into the social norms of its time, and in the case of Viva Zapata this insight makes clear much of the racism and patronizing attitudes of the US at the time. Zapata is made illiterate in the film, while in the actual history he was not only literate but an accomplished lawyer. This alteration is made largely to deepen the sense that, while a noble person with the right ideas, Zapata is still from a backwards place and as a result lesser.
Nearly 70 years after Viva Zapata, the musical film In the Heights was released. The movie was centered on the New York City neighborhood of Washington Heights, a predominantly Latinx [Dominican and Puerto Rican, in particular] community. The setting is also contemporary, with one of the key discussions in the film being the issues faced by the Dreamers, or those immigrants who came to the US as children without legal documentation, sometimes not even knowing that they do not have legal status in the US. The film was a massive Hollywood production with a huge budget, featuring many elaborate song and dance sequences, and was primarily targeted at American audiences. The film however performed very poorly at the box office, grossing over $10 million less than its production budget2. This excludes the additional costs of marketing that were also put into the film. In the Heights was based on a play written by Lin Manuel Miranda of the same name, and it was directed by John Chu.
Miranda’s involvement is noteworthy, as he is Puerto Rican, and he is known for pushing the boundaries of racial representation in his work. He famously wrote and directed Hamilton, a musical in which many of the founding fathers of the US are played by people of color. Despite the credentials of Miranda, however, the film has also come under scrutiny for some of its casting decisions, particularly the absence of darker skinned Latinx individuals in the cast.
In the Heights does a lot right in addressing many issues facing Latinx communities today. There is one character who throughout the film is struggling to secure an apartment. This is shown largely to be a result of gentrification in the community, as at one point her real estate agent is seen brushing her off in favor of a white family for an apartment. This and many other issues, such as immigration and representation in higher education, feature prominently in the film. Despite these significant attempts to discuss these and other issues facing Latinx communities, the film’s controversies with casting and representation dominate much of the discourse around it. While the film’s cast all racially represent their characters properly, there are issues in how these characters are shown. The characters are all Latinx, but they are also for the most part white passing, leading to many complaints among critics and audiences of the film’s colorism. While there are many who are critical of this, the film also has defenders, saying that the film is a great representation of Latinx individuals and that complaints about the skin color in the film are largely unfounded.
This debate over In the Heights’ casting and representation leads into one of the key findings of this research kit. There were many articles written about this issue, including one by the New York Times. This Times article is impressive for the depth at which it discusses these issues, and the contributions of its panel of experts. More interesting than the actual writing however is the comment section of the article, in which many different individuals from a range of groups voice their opinions on In the Heights’ casting controversy. These comments range from criticism of the Latinx community for appropriating this issue of representation in film from the African American community to Latinx individuals praising the film’s representation and dismissing the criticism. Some comments discuss also the nuance to this issue, and the reality that there is a fundamental disconnect in how race is understood between Latin America and the United States. While the US generally considers race to essentially be a dichotomy, in which an individual is either white or not, in Latin America race is seen more as being on a spectrum.
- L’universale Cinema. Milan: Garzanti. 2003. p. 950. ASINB005XM82BE.\\
- Rubin, Rebecca. “HBO Max Isn’t to Blame after ‘in the Heights’ Fizzles at the Box Office.” Variety, Variety, 14 June 2021, https://variety.com/2021/film/box-office/in-the-heights-box-office-hbo-max-1234995410/.
Glossary:
Latinx: A term for a group of individuals of Latin American heritage. It is adopted from the Spanish term Latino and removes the gender bias of the ending o so as to be both more inclusive and specific.
Dreamers: These are mostly Latinx individuals who immigrated to the US illegally while they were children. The term comes from the proposed DREAM act, which would allow these undocumented children protection from deportation and a chance to remain in the country. This protection was largely granted with DACA, deferred action for childhood arrivals, which passed in 2012, although this has faced many challenges over the years.
Source: “New American Dreamers.” Santa Fe Dreamers Project, http://www.santafedreamersproject.org/the-new-american-dreamers.
Gentrification: The large-scale movement of wealthier, usually white, people into a community of color, driving up the cost of housing and making the community less diverse.
Colorism: Colorism is similar to racism in that it is an inherent bias against people. In this case however, the bias is based entirely on the individuals skin color rather than their ethnicity, so a preference between two Latinx individuals because one has lighter skin than the other would be an example of colorism.
McCarthyism: This term comes from Senator McCarthy, who was a prominent figure in the politics of the 1940s and 50s. He was responsible for the “Red Scare,” a period of paranoia in the US fearing communist invasion of American institutions, from Hollywood to government agencies.
from comments available at https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/21/movies/in-the-heights-colorism.html
Annotated Bibliography
Beltrán, Mary C. “The New Hollywood Racelessness: Only the Fast, Furious, (And Multiracial) Will Survive.” Cinema Journal, vol. 44, no. 2, 2005, pp. 50–67, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3661094. Accessed 25 Apr. 2022.
This is a secondary source that discusses trends in casting Hollywood films, particularly from the 1960s to when it was published in 2005. This article begins by discussing 1960s urban films including West Side Story, and their use of race as a way of building tension for the white protagonists (p. 51). This is another example of race being used to develop characters, with the filmmakers utilizing audience perceptions of Puerto Ricans as “oversexed” and violent. The article continues to discuss the increasingly multicultural young audience for film, and how this has had an impact in casting as studios aim to avoid committing their film to only one group (p. 54). This is related to the concerns people have with In the Heights, a movie where actors whose more ethnically ambiguous appearance ended up creating controversy that they aren’t properly representing who they should. A final point to discuss from this paper is how it posits that films such as Fast and Furious are speaking to a theme that survival in urban environments is best accomplished by pursuing a “raceless” identity (p. 63). This is again just reinforcing the notion that Hollywood is moving towards more multicultural casting and depiction of characters in order to broaden their appeal by making them relatable for a larger audience.
Garcia, Maira, et al. “’In the Heights’ and Colorism: What Is Lost When Afro-Latinos Are Erased.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 21 June 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/21/movies/in-the-heights-colorism.html.
This is a secondary source that brings a unique perspective to the discussion. This article, in itself, is interesting and useful for study. It includes significant, thought-provoking analysis of issues of representation that face Afro-Latinx communities in film and provides historical context to issues of colorism in Latin America. The article is excellent, but equally useful is the comment section, in which many different opinions on these issues are voiced from a wide range of perspectives. Comments range from complaints that this controversy exists, to accusations of the Latinx community appropriating these concerns regarding representation from black people who have traditionally faced worse oppression, to staunch agreement that Afro-Latinx individuals are underrepresented and face unique adversity, with many opinions in between being voiced as well. This can be useful in showcasing how personal these issues are to many individuals, and also creates interesting questions of who is correct in this instance. Is it problematic that In the Heights underrepresents darker skinned Latinx individuals, or is the fact that several actors have some level of Afro-Latinx heritage adequate to address these concerns? In the United States there is a tendency to see race as a Boolean, individuals either being white or not white, but in much of the Latin American world race is seen as much more of a spectrum, which is the root of much of this misunderstanding and is clearly displayed by the different mentalities that can be seen in the comments included with this article that are visible above.
Hannah-Jones, Nikole. “The Birth of American Music”. The 1619 Project. Podcast Audio, September 6, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/06/podcasts/1619-black-american-music-appropriation.html?
This podcast is a secondary source that discusses the history of blackface theatre in considerable depth, as well as how black culture and music were ultimately reclaimed by African American people. In discussing Viva Zapata, the issue of Marlon Brando performing in brownface is significant, and including a look at the cultural significance of blackface theatre among his contemporaries can make sure that significance is felt. It is often underestimated by modern people who have not studied these issues just how widespread blackface performance was at its apex, and this podcast discusses this and gives the context that many of the most popular performers of the day were frequently acting and singing in blackface. This can also lead to questions of African American representation in acting, be it on stage or in film, a topic for which this podcast can serve as a great starting point.
“In the Heights.” Directed by John Chu. June 4, 2021. Film, 143 minutes.
In the Heights is a great primary source that gives a much more contemporary lens through which these issues can be discussed. This movie’s casting has come under significant scrutiny since, while it fills roles entirely with actors of the correct ethnicity, there has been a large outcry publicly about the lack of representation of Afro-Latino characters in the film and casting. In addition to this controversy, there is also the character of Benny. Benny is the only African American depicted in the film and, while he is a kind person, he at one point is part of a song that dedicates a significant amount of time to discussing how he was frequently in trouble growing up. There are unfortunately stereotypes around African Americans of them having more of a proclivity to be in trouble with the law and generally be troublemakers, and this characterization could be considered to draw on that. This film sets the stage for multiple questions about race and representation beyond what the research kit is discussing, such as whether the depiction of Benny is problematic and whether the absence of darker skinned Latinx actors is acceptable.
Rao, Sonia. “’Percy Jackson’ Author Condemns Racist Backlash to Casting Decision.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 10 May 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/05/10/percy-jackson-leah-jeffries-rick-riordan/.
This is a popular secondary source, a Washington Post article regarding casting in a new Disney Plus series based on the Percy Jackson books. This series has created a different sort of casting controversy than is discussed in much of the rest of the research kit, where a character who in the books was white is being played by a black actress. Many fans are upset and consider this an unfaithful adaptation because of the casting, despite the author of the books himself stating that he supports the choice. This is a controversy that has happened with several films and series recently, such as with the outcry when black actress Halle Bailey was cast as Ariel in Disney’s live action Little Mermaid. These types of controversies over casting create more interesting questions that can be worked with. Is it unfaithful to the original work to cast an actor of a different race than was intended? Or, like any other job, is race not an adequate basis to deny someone an opportunity?
Robert Stam and Louise Spence, “Colonialism, Racism, and Representation: An Introduction,” from Bill Nichols, Movies and Methods vol. II: An Anthology (1985), pp. 632-648.
This article by Stam and Spence is a great secondary source discussing colonialist biases in filmmaking regarding Latin America. This article talks at length about the history and legacy of colonialism and how it shapes depictions of minority populations on screen. It includes a particularly interesting discussion of how positive depictions of colonized people can oftentimes be problematic as well, as examples such as virtue for black characters being shown to be being peaceful and other such illustrations are often meant as much to appeal to white audiences as black (p. 9). An interesting question that stems from this is where this line exists, and whether the multiculturalism becoming increasingly popular in modern films is an offshoot of this desire to attract white audiences. Another interesting section is their discussion of the subversion of stereotypes and tropes, using a few examples (p. 16). This is something that occurs particularly in more modern films, such as 2002’s City of God, where race is used as a way of indicating character’s social class but doesn’t give any insight into their personality. One of the most violent gang leaders in this film has lighter skin, avoiding the stereotype that this role be played by a darker skinned individual.
Rolling Stone. “How ‘In the Heights’ Casting Focused a Wider Problem of Afro-Latino Representation.” Accessed April 25, 2022. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/in-the-heights-casting-colorism-afro-latino-1184945/
This is a secondary source, and one that is more popular than academic. This is a Rolling Stone article on the lack of Afro-Latinx representation in In the Heights. The article includes a basic history of the significance of Afro-Latinx erasure in the film. This can help readers from outside the community understand and relate to these problems of selective representation. This ties as well into another point related to casting, and mentioned in Stam and Spence, of the fact that oftentimes representation, even when positive, can exist as an appeal to the white audience just as much as to the people ostensibly being given representation in the film. In a work like In the Heights, which even this article acknowledges has received praise for its “3-dimensional” portrayal of Latino characters, to have all these characters be white-passing can indicate intent on the part of the filmmaker to have a story and film that is equally appealing to white audiences, to the detriment of its inclusion of other groups. This source is significant since many people who are interested in the film and impacted by the depictions it forwards are going to be informing themselves more from Rolling Stones articles than the academic material on the subject, if for no other reason than the former being significantly more accessible. Therefore, in understanding contemporary culture and perspectives on these issues, consultation with these types of popular sources is necessary. It also provides a good change of pace in teaching these issues, as many students would prefer reading this article to denser, peer-reviewed literature on the subject.
“Viva Zapata.” Directed by Elia Kazan. February 7,1952. Film, 113 minutes.
Viva Zapata is a primary source in this discussion. Viva Zapata was released in 1952, and many of the casting choices are reflective of the time’s problematic approach to race. The film stars white actor Marlon Brando in brownface playing the role of Emiliano Zapata, a venerated hero of the Mexican Revolution. This is problematic, with the brownface being a reminder of the blackface theatre that at this point was still a part of the culture. This being done by an actor as iconic as Brando is indicative of how widespread this was in society. In fact, Brando’s career as a whole can be used to see many issues with the casting of his time, as his most iconic role was as Don Corleone in The Godfather, yet he was not ethnically Italian. This creates a question of where the line can be drawn in casting based on race. Is it problematic to have white people play roles outside their own ethnicity?
There is a significant level of whitewashing that occurs in how Viva Zapata is cast, with most of the main Hispanic characters being played by white actors who are more likely to speak in a Brooklyn accent than a Mexican one. The only actors of color who the movie casts in prominent roles are Anthony Quinn in the role of Eufemio Zapata and Frank Silvera as Huerta. In the film, these characters both betray Emiliano Zapata and the Mexican people. The fact these roles of unreliable allies and traitors are given to the only prominent colored actors in the film is indicative of the filmmaker’s desire to reinforce stereotypes of these people as untrustworthy.
Zuckerman, Ezra W., Tai‐Young Kim, Kalinda Ukanwa, and James von Rittmann. “Robust Identities or Nonentities? Typecasting in the Feature‐Film Labor Market.” American Journal of Sociology 108, no. 5 (2003): 1018–74. https://doi.org/10.1086/377518.
This is a secondary source that discusses the career paths of actors and goes into great depth comparing the career tracks of actors who fit into a specific niche versus those who aim to make a broader appeal. The article discusses typecasting more as a consequence of actors occupying a certain type of role than explicitly covering race, however based on this research inferences can be easily made regarding the similarity in how these two phenomena occur. There is also the potential for these issues to magnify one another, since “typecasting should emerge only when employers regard past work as an indicator of a worker’s skill” (p. 1022). If typecasting leads actors to only get opportunities in a role similar to one previously occupied, and casting is simultaneously stereotyped along racial lines, allowing certain groups into only certain roles, these two phenomena can reinforce one another and lead minority actors to have only a small range of roles they may perform in. This can be seen in many ways with the career of Anthony Quinn, who made a name for himself as a colored actor in the 1950s by frequently being typecast into roles that were very impulsive and wild. Typecasting also can be understood to be a way in which film becomes reflective of the power dynamics of broader society. The article discusses how the desire to please audiences is frequently a large part of how casting decisions (p. 1026). This happens by actor choice happening at first in audiences preferring someone who conforms to their expectations in their role, and then after that being someone who can differentiate themselves (p. 1026). This means that there is a certain baseline that audiences will expect the actor to match with, which could include race, and only after this is satisfied is there interest in the differences between actors. This theory can be applied to films like Viva Zapata to explain why the leading role had to be given to a white man, since this conforms to what audiences would be expecting, and the decision that that white man be Brando was made since he was determined the most appealing of those who fit the prerequisites. In this way, this article provides a look at other reasons that film can be seen as a window into the power dynamics of the society it is product of. These concerns of typecasting can also be a lens through which similar issues of representation are viewed, and similar questions of casting along gender lines can be discussed. Additionally, controversies such as in the Percy Jackson series can be understood in the context of this view of audiences, since the black actress who was cast could be considered to not meet the audience’s basic expectation of who should fill the role.
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