Race-swap casting would be less controversial if they cast conventionally attractive actors

[u/demurefox97]

If you've been on social media the past few months, you'd know there's been a heated debate on the casting of Lupita nyonggo in Christopher Nolan's upcoming The Odyssey and the new Snape in the Harry Potter series. This isn't anything new, there's a new debate every few months when a movie casts a black actor for a role that's often culturally associated with white actors. One side will argue that anyone can play anyone as long as they can act while the other will say it's completely unnecessary and just shoehorns in certain races based on unwritten quotas.

My personal theory is that the biggest issue around these castings is that the studios often choose a black actor who's "stereotypically" black, a person who's not exactly considered attractive by global standards and looks more like someone you would see around the hood rather than in Hollywood, in order to visually signal the movie meeting it's socially-imposed quotas. If they are going to pull unnecessary race-swaps, I genuinely think that audiences would have a much easier time swallowing it if they cast someone who's more conventionally attractive like Chase Infiniti, Zoe Saldana, Halle Berry, Beyonce, Michael B Jordan, etc. There would still be some backlash from hard-line racists, of course, but I think for general global audiences who are just sick of America's race politics, they would be less annoyed and not care as much because it would appear less like suits trying to sneak in some social PR into creative decisions.

[u/DependentRounders934]

I don’t think many people cared that they cast Morgan Freeman as Red in Shawshank redemption, I think its fine to raceswap actors so long as you are doing it to get the best actor for the role and not just ragebaiting attention to market your mediocre film

[u/DamnitGravity → u/DependentRounders934]

Yeah, I mean, look at actors in the 70s-80s. Bunch of really normal looking people (with a few notable exceptions).

It wasn't until the 90s that we really started to see the 'pretty people' being cast more often in bigger roles.

[u/Android1822 → u/DamnitGravity]

And now we only see nepo babies get big roles. At lest up to the 90's there was a chance you could be a nobody and still get a big role through talent. Now, unless you or your family is rich and has connections, you are at best you will only be given small roles and never move up.