On March 17th, Entertainment Weekly interviewed director Gary Ross about the casting, asking him point blank whether he and Collins discussed the implications of casting a blonde, Caucasian girl in the role of Katniss.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: In the books, Katniss is described as being olive-skinned, dark-haired, possibly biracial. Did you discuss with Suzanne the implications of casting a blonde, caucasian girl?
GARY ROSS: Suzanne and I talked about that as well. There are certain things that are very clear in the book. Rue is African-American. Thresh is African-American. Suzanne had no issues with Jen playing the role. And she thought there was a tremendous amount of flexibility.
In the interview, Ross redirects fans concerns about racial discrimination as something easily resolved by a bottle of hair dye. At the same time, Ross also states in the interview that Collins felt there was a tremendous amount of “flexibility” casting Katniss. Unfortunately, that “flexibility” was not extended to non-white actors in the casting breakdown distributed by the production.
Aliya, a Guyanese blogger and law student from Toronto, Canada, wrote a compelling essay on why she feels Katniss Everdeen is a Woman of Color. She argues how Katniss is otherized in the text, how Suzanne Collins’ influences included people of color, and how contexts change in the story with different readings of the ethnicity of the protagonist.
In the interview, director Gary Ross indicates that the supporting characters of Rue and Thresh will be African American. Beyond these two roles, there are several characters in the novel whose ethnicities are not clearly delineated (Cinna, Haymitch, etc.) Will actors of color be actively recruited and given equal consideration for these roles? Will actors of color be represented or tokenized?
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This feels even more pertinent, because today is the UN’s Anti-Racism Day. The article presents a number of incredibly important points, including why Katniss’ race is important to viewers, how this affects the film as a whole, and why this could change other things in the book. I recommend reading the whole thing, and I’m just going to throw in my two-cents:
I believe that an actress should be chosen based on her ability to portray the role, regardless of appearance (this is why Nina Dobrev got the part in Vampire Diaries), and the production company shouldn’t have limited the casting call to Caucasian actresses. Since Katniss’ race isn’t essential to the plot, they should have been open to anyone in that age range. They obviously ignored the “underfed but strong,” part that they advertised for, so why not ignore the “white” part as well? (and I’m just saying Jennifer Lawrence isn’t anorexic, I actually think her muscular build is better for the part than someone super skinny). Jennifer may have gotten the part anyway, but at least I wouldn’t feel like this was unfair. I was so happy that they decided to do an open casting call when this started, so I’m disappointed in them for restricting it the way they did.
How do you feel about Jennifer’s casting? Has the article changed the way you think about it, or how you view the books? Is this a big issue for you?
