Diversity in Hollywood: Casting

There’s a lot to say on this topic, but I thought I’d briefly share a personal experience I’ve had that has influenced my thinking on this. A number of years ago, I took a workshop that was focused on screenwriting. We were tasked with writing a single scene, which would then be cast and performed live. It was a fantastic opportunity to see a scene come to life—so that we can see what works and what doesn’t.

I had written—and rewritten my scene until I had something I was somewhat satisfied with. There were two characters. One of them, I had pictured as a blonde and glamorous female. The other, a thin-framed, lanky, flamboyant, British, dark-haired, caucasian, male. I had a very clear picture of what I wanted in mind. I was pretty firmly set on it, in fact. Rigidly so.

When it came time to casting, I was in for a surprise. We were very quickly assigned a cast, almost at random. For my female lead, I ended up with a brunette. For my male, I ended up with a Black male who looked like a …