Ethnic Diversity in Casting: Reimagining Classic TV Shows and Movies

Have you noticed this? A trend of remaking classic TV shows and movies with more ethnically diverse casting than the original? I’ve noticed, and it seems like a good thing.

In the 1970s and 80s, I didn’t think much about ethnic diversity in entertainment media. I grew up in mostly white neighborhoods, attended mostly white schools, and worked alongside mostly white coworkers. With a handful of exceptions like Sanford and Son, Chico and the Man, and Good Times, the screen world I saw reflected my real-world experience.

[Click the red Play button on the below image to hear the audio version of this post.]

But the art of casting has evolved in recent decades. Directors and producers see the need for and the value in diverse casting.

Well, at least, that was the initial premise of this post. After digging deeper into the controversial practice of casting, I found this topic is not so black-and-white.

In this post, I’ll look at how five classic TV shows and movies were reimagined through ethnically diverse casting.

Reboots Reimagined

Two TV shows on my list focus on white families in the original versions and non-white families in the reboots.

One Day at a Time

The classic One Day at a Time (1974) shows the everyday life of a divorced mother (Bonnie Franklin) of two teenage daughters (Mackenzie Phillips and Valerie Bertinelli) with Pat Harrington, Jr., and Richard Masur as the main male characters.

The 2017 version features a similar household but with a Cuban American family played by Justina Machado, Isabella Gomez, Marcel Ruiz, and Rita Moreno.

The Wonder Years

The Wonder Years (1988) may have introduced the now-familiar formula of an unseen adult narrator reflecting on childhood memories. This cast includes Fred Savage, Dan Lauria, Alley Mills, Jason Hervey, Olivia d’Abo, Josh Saviano, and Danica McKellar. The show is set in a middle-class suburban neighborhood in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The 2021 reboot uses the same narrative formula as the original. It’s also set during the same era of the Civil Rights movement and the Vietnam War. But this version is told from a Southern middle-class Black family’s perspective. The cast includes Elisha “EJ” Williams, Dulé Hill, Saycon Sengbloh, Laura Kariuki, Amari O’Neil, and Milan Ray.

These remakes mirror their originals in situation, but the characters by necessity interact differently with their settings because of ethnic differences.

For example, in an episode of The Wonder Years reboot, a Black teacher is hired at an integrated—but mostly white—middle school. The parents of the featured family invite the new teacher to dinner, so they can advise him on how to “get along” as a Black man in Alabama.

There’s no need for this conversation in the original series because the featured family lives comfortably in the ethnic majority. A new white teacher in a mostly white school in a white suburb doesn’t need to think twice about his behavior.

Regarding both reboots: Similar family situations, different cultural perspectives.

Representative Casting: Well, They Tried

True representative casting requires hiring actors who fit the ethnicity of the roles they play. Why does this matter? A talented actor can convincingly pull off any role, right?

One argument for representative casting says that only an actor with the lived experience of a given ethnicity can authentically embody a character of that ethnicity. Also, casting white actors to play non-white characters denies people of color the opportunity to represent their ethnic groups.       

Does it matter that Johnny Depp played Indigenous American Tonto in the 2013 film The Lone Ranger? It may not matter to you, but it may matter to thousands of Indigenous Americans. To see the world through someone else’s eyes, we must look beyond our own limited world views. Better yet, when making choices that affect others, take the time to ask, “Does this matter to you?”

The directors of two recent movie remakes made an honest effort at representative casting, but they may have missed the target.

Dune

The cast of the 1984 sci-fi epic Dune features Kyle MacLachlan, Patrick Stewart, Brad Dourif, Dean Stockwell, Virginia Madsen, Sting, Linda Hunt, and Max von Sydow. José Ferrer stands as the only person of color in a significant role.

By contrast, the 2021 Dune looks like a rainbow of skin tones and ethnicities. This cast includes Oscar Isaac, Dave Bautista, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Zendaya, Chang Chen, Jason Momoa, Javier Bardem, David Dastmalchian, Babs Olusanmokun, Golda Rosheuvel, and Roger Yuan, as well as Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, and Stellan Skarsgård.

Here’s why I include Dune under the heading “Representative Casting.” The mostly white desert-dwelling Fremen people in the 1984 version literally pale when compared to their dark-skinned counterparts in the remake. The idea of light-skinned people living in a desert seems unrealistic and inauthentic.  

At first glance, this shift in casting seems like a move toward representation. But in her review “Dune Has a Desert Problem,” Roxana Hadadi criticizes the film for falling short of this promise. Author Frank Herbert, who wrote the Dune book series, modeled the Fremen on Arab and Muslim cultures. Yes, people of color play the Fremen in the 2021 version, but the cast includes no Arab or Muslim actors.

Close, but not quite?

West Side Story

West Side Story (1961) features Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno, and George Chakiris in the lead roles. A white actor (Wood) plays Maria, a Puerto Rican living in the United States.

For the 2021 remake, director Steven Spielberg tried to correct this casting choice by selecting Rachel Zegler for the Maria role.

Rita Mareno, who appears in both films, said in an interview with Nicole Pajer in the December 5, 2021, issue of Parade, “I’ll tell you something else extremely important. Every Latino in the movie is Latino. All the boys in the sharks [the Puerto Rican gang] are Hispanic. Not everyone’s Puerto Rican, but they are all Hispanic. And that makes me happy.”

Others feel less happy. Mandy Velez said in her op-ed for the Daily Beast, “Once again, the actress playing the character of Maria is not Puerto Rican.”

Zegler is, in fact, not Puerto Rican. She’s of Columbian heritage.

And in “Spielberg’s ‘Rican Reparations: ‘West Side Story’ Resurrecting a Place for Us,” Aurora Flores-Hostos wrote, “In the end, you need more than just an advisory board. You need writers, directors, and producers. We need our stories told, our way. This was a good try, but I still felt they were trying to insert square pegs into round holes.”

These views sum up the saying, “Nothing about us without us,” which means people want to be involved in making decisions about issues that affect them.

Yes, I agree with this sentiment wholeheartedly, but we need to consider practical matters, too. For example, why was Natalie Wood cast as Maria instead of a Puerto Rican actor? Probably because of her power as a box office draw. Movie studios exist to make money. Big-name stars sell tickets.

But can this notion be taken too far? Should we demand that only US-born actors play Americans to the exclusion of non-US-born actors like Emma Watson (as an American teenager in The Perks of Being a Wallflower) and David Oyelowo (as Martin Luther King, Jr., in Selma)? Do these examples even hold up as an argument for representative casting? Is there no room for compromise, like in the case of the 2021 West Side Story? Can we really say, “Close enough” or “Well, they tried?”

See, these questions are not easy to answer. 

Non-traditional Casting

Non-traditional casting refers to the practice of casting against type. For example, selecting people of color to play our Founding Fathers in the Broadway musical Hamilton. This practice opens roles to a wider range of performers, is an unexpected treat for audiences, and brings new interpretations to familiar characters.

The movie Annie has been produced for the big and small screens a few times with progressively different takes on casting.

The characters stem from the early 20^th century comic strip, Little Orphan Annie, which established a look for each character decades before the 1982 film. For example, Annie as the spirited girl with curly red hair and button eyes in a red dress; Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks as the smooth-headed billionaire in custom-made tuxes. 

Three of the four subsequent screen adaptations demonstrate non-traditional casting.

Annie (1982)

This cast includes Aileen Quinn, Albert Finney, Carol Burnett, Bernadette Peters, Ann Reinking, Tim Curry, and Edward Herrmann. Only a couple of non-white actors (Geoffrey Holder and Roger Minami) appear in supporting roles. But in another example of non-representative casting, a non-Indian (Holder) plays Indian mystic Punjab. For the most part, this version features a traditionally white cast.

Annie (1999)

This made-for-television version premiered as part of The Wonderful World of Disney weekly program and marks the beginning of non-traditional casting in the Annie stories onscreen. While white actors fill most of the main roles (Alicia Morton, Victor Garber, Kathy Bates, Alan Cumming, and Kristin Chenoweth), Broadway legend Audra McDonald plays the lead female role.

In a departure from established tradition, this casting choice proved controversial. The original script called for Garber’s character to give McDonald’s character an engagement ring. An alternate ending, shot but not included in the final cut, removed the engagement scene.

McDonald stated in an interview that the ending was re-shot because the Disney Corporation and/or the ABC TV network felt “a little uncomfortable” showing a white man proposing to a Black woman. According to this account, Garber intentionally botched his performance to keep the new ending from being used, and the engagement scene ultimately stayed.

A small step toward social progress because someone stood up to authority.  

Additionally, the girls selected to play Annie’s orphan friends are more ethnically diverse than the girls in the 1982 film. It only makes sense that the racial makeup of the orphans reflects the racial makeup of their larger community of New York City.

Annie (2014)

This version gives a modern twist to the familiar story. Set in present-day New York City, the traditional Broadway songs and plot details take on a contemporary feel.

Most notably, for the first time, a Black girl (Quvenzhané Wallis) plays Annie. And why shouldn’t Annie be Black? She was drawn as a white girl in the comics, but there’s nothing inherently white about her. Any child can be an orphan.

Jamie Foxx, Rose Byrne, Bobby Cannavale, and Cameron Diaz play the adult characters.

Annie Live! (2021)

Annie Live!, produced as a live performance of the Broadway musical, aired on NBC TV. Like in the 2014 film, a Black girl (Celina Smith) plays the Annie role. The adult leads include Harry Connick Jr., Taraji P. Henson, Nicole Scherzinger, Tituss Burgess, and Megan Hilty. This version, including leads, supporting cast, and orphans alike, saw the most ethnically diverse cast of all. It’s a noticeable contrast to the ethnically homogenous 1982 film cast.

The End

This post considers only a handful of movies and TV shows. As you can see, casting is a complex, controversial matter. Directors and production companies sometimes make hard choices with many factors to weigh. Who’s the best person for the role? Who’s available? Who sells tickets? Can we afford to be authentic to the script? Can we afford not to be?

I’m not sure anyone knows the best approach to casting—the fairest balance. I certainly don’t.

What do you think? Do casting considerations matter? Matter to whom? Can the question be taken too far? Can everyone be satisfied all the time? Must we or should we allow for compromise? Let me know by leaving a comment below.

And if you haven’t already, I invite you to read about Paralympian Brenna Huckaby’s continued legal battle for inclusion in Brenna Huckaby: The Struggle for Inclusion Continues.