Cast Off

Seen too many casting notices lately that say in essence "We only want someone of this specific colour, age, socio-economic group and with these precise affiliations for this role".

Every job seems to be designed for one person who can fulfil all these meaningless and arbitrary things and whether or not the person is an effective actor seems by-the-by.

There are a lot of non-acting jobs that have the same tenor to them in the last few years though these look as though they are actually designed not to find the right person for the job because they are really intent on getting someone who is already with them a job. Possibly that's the case with some of these acting jobs as well, but in the main it looks like the casting agents have lost all ability to be imaginative and are too lazy to see more than about three people for anything. Maybe it's the fault of reality TV and fake documentaries that are really non-actor soap operas. In those they cast specific types and specific people who are 'really' like that or can be easily manipulated into being like that.

In both cases this seems to flout guidelines, or at least come very close to the edge, and it's looking more and more ridiculous.

In the case of acting, I would rather see people who aren't necessarily just being themselves all the time. It helps if the actor can find something within themselves to bring to the character, this is true - but casting only people who are 'actually' the person they are portraying* can't really be a good thing. It's a bit limiting for the actor and even more limiting for the production.

(*Recent examples include one that asked only for women in their 30s who had Barclaycard plus accounts and one for a woman who ,according to the notice, had to be 34 years of age, white and working class - and it looked as though anyone who wasn't all these things exactly, in real life, wouldn't even be seen.)