Identity Politics

A published version of this appeared in American Thinker and may be accessed "HERE".

     In 2020 The Simpson’s voice actor Hank Azaria (a Caucasian man) said he would no longer perform Apu’s voice (an Indian character). For nearly thirty years no one had a problem with this, but all of a sudden it became a cause for concern. Why is it that something which was perfectly acceptable by practically everyone for so long suddenly became verboten? It would seem, even to a casual observer, that doing accents is one of the primary trademarks of acting. 

This relatively recent trend in Hollywood has gone so far that on June 30, 2020 The Babylon Bee (a satirical website) ran a parody where Alyssa Milano began a new movement with the hashtag ‘#takethepledge.’ In the satire she states, “Actors should not act like people they are not.” Sadly, it was not as far fetched as the humorists had intended. 

In the 2019 movie “The Upside,” able-bodied actor Bryan Cranston received flak for playing a disabled man confined to a wheel chair. He defended himself by saying that he was entitled to play characters whose attributes and abilities differed from his own, "If I, as a straight, older person, and I'm wealthy, I'm very fortunate, does that mean I can't play a person who is not wealthy, does that mean I can't play a homosexual? I don't know, where does the restriction apply, where is the line for that?" he told the Press Association. 

Back in 2005, there was an uproar in the Deaf community over a New York adaptation of Carson McCuller's "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" in which the central character John Singer (who is deaf and mute) is played by a hearing actor. On October 18, 2009 “Curb Your Enthusiasm” Season 7 Episode 5 aired and Larry David came under fire for his use of not one but two actresses who can walk playing wheelchair users. Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton, Jack Whitehall, Ed Skrein, Abigail Breslin, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Dwayne Johnson are among some other actors who have faced criticism for playing disabled characters.

In 2018 actor Darren Criss said he would no longer accept LGBT scripts because he did not want to be "another straight boy taking a gay man's role." Britain's Ben Whishaw (an openly gay actor) expressed sentiments similar to that of Bryan Cranston's after winning a Golden Globe for playing a gay man in A Very English Scandal. "I really believe that actors can embody and portray anything and we shouldn't be defined only by what we are. On the other hand, I think there needs to be greater equality," he continued. "I would like to see more gay actors playing straight roles. It should be an even playing field for everybody. That would be my ideal," he concluded.

It is interesting how this principle seems only to apply to straight, able-bodied, Caucasian men. For over 30 years a woman named Nancy Cartwright has performed Bart Simpson’s voice, and no one ever batted an eye. In 2022 Mark Ruffalo played a straight man in “The Adam Project,” and no one said a word about it. Sean Penn played gay activist Harvey Milk in 2008, but he has been grandfathered in due to his bona fides as a progressive warrior. Where was the outrage when Kevin Spacey was portraying non-pedophiles? In the current day age of absurd superhero movies, films about time travel and space exploration, and other such fantastical subjects, it seems odd to fixate so unbendingly on who exactly may be allowed to play certain specific roles. In any case, there was an actor who expressed a more sensible and preferable take. Actor Andrew Garfield said it best, “If we only let people play exactly who they are, it’ll be the death of imagination.”

Jean-Marc Bovee, PharmD retired
St. Louis, MO