So what new stuff is there to “talk about” regarding Allen? Well, the same old stuff, really. Woody Allen is “still thinking about life and death, the end of the world, and why we’re all here,” he’s “dressed like, well, Woody Allen,” and “he’s really, pleasantly, the same as ever.”
But there is one very damning quote, buried toward the bottom. The profile takes a break from fawning over Allen’s celebrity friends and summarizing Allen’s continued success to address the criticism that Allen’s films rarely include people of color:
Earlier this year, in an effort to derail Ms. Blanchett’s Oscar campaign, a couple of anonymous complaints turned up in the tabloids about Mr. Allen not using black actors. He’s horrified when I bring up the subject. We talk about the new generation of wonderful black actors like Viola Davis and wonder if they’ll ever be cast in a Woody Allen film. He doesn’t hesitate to respond: “Not unless I write a story that requires it. You don’t hire people based on race. You hire people based on who is correct for the part. The implication is that I’m deliberately not hiring black actors, which is stupid. I cast only what’s right for the part. Race, friendship means nothing to me except who is right for the part.”
Putting aside the blatantly wrong framing of the issue (“an effort to derail Ms. Blanchett’s Oscar campaign,” really? The primary conversation about Allen in February was not about race, but about sexual abuse allegations, and that sure wasn’t some cheap publicity stunt), Allen’s comments are pretty frustrating. Allen has come under fire several times for not including people of color in his productions. In 1987, director Spike Lee told the New York Times, “Woody Allen, he can do a film about Manhattan – it’s about one-half black and Hispanic – and he doesn’t have a single black person in the film.” And, surprise: When Allen does cast black people, they get handed stereotypical roles. Of Allen’s film, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” actress Angela Bassett observed in 2009, “I mean, to have one black cast member for the whole film seems rather strange, and, oh yes, she’s a prostitute, of course…Don’t get me wrong, I love Spain and it looked beautiful, but that part of the world is so diverse and, really, what is that about?” Allen again came under fire a few months ago when he glaringly omitted black people from his Broadway adaptation of his film “Bullets Over Broadway,” which takes place in Harlem’s famous Cotton Club. According to one source, Allen felt uncomfortable casting black people, a rumor to which a rep responded, “It has always been Woody Allen’s priority to cast the exact appropriate person for a role regardless of race, which has never been a consideration.”
No one is asking Woody Allen to overlook talent on the basis of race. We are asking why talented black actors, of whom there are many, never appear in his films. We are asking him to acknowledge that his casting decisions have the power to make trends in Hollywood. We are asking him to acknowledge that, while talent is color-blind, casting never is. We are asking him to acknowledge that when race is “never” a consideration, what he’s saying is that he only takes race into consideration when a person isn’t white.
Here’s the thing
kottke.org.
