This is a tough post to write, because it involves so much sensitive content, and the culture wars, and the way that Hollywood works these days, which everybody has a different opinion on. I make no secret that I am progressive, and all in for better representation, social justice causes, and avoiding bad practices like erasure, whitewashing, and cultural appropriation. However, I'm not really talking about any of that today. I'm talking about marketing.
Not so long ago, Hollywood casting practices generally always defaulted to straight white actors with the most star power to lead movies and television shows, no matter if the role was actually appropriate for them or not. You might remember "Prince of Persia" with Jake Gyllenhaal and Scarlett Johansson in "Ghost in the Shell." The biggest excuse was always marketability. People wouldn't see a blockbuster starring a brown nobody! There weren't any actors of the correct ethnicities/sexualites with enough star wattage to sell the picture! And that kind of rhetoric has thankfully diminished over the past decade as the culture has shifted and representation has gotten better.
There is, however, still the marketing issue. These days it feels like the trade off for having any representation in a piece of media is that the representation often becomes a talking point. The new "Aladdin" has a cast full of Middle Eastern and Indian actors? The casting search becomes a story, bolstered by puff pieces in "Entertainment Weekly." "Wonder Woman" is the first female lead superhero film in a decade? She's quickly elevated to female empowerment icon by the press. Much was made of a rewritten LeFou being the first gay character in a major Disney film, the live action "Beauty and the Beast," and Joe Russo playing the first gay character in a Marvel film in the latest "Avengers." Context matters, of course. Obscure animated horror movie "Paranorman" has a gay character and nobody bats an eye. The PBS kids' show "Arthur" has a gay character, and nobody can stop talking about it.
Personally, I don't take too much issue with this. Hollywood has been selling films based on their social conscientiousness for ages, especially around awards time. However, there have been a lot of cases lately where the representation hasn't lived up to the press. The gay characters in "Beauty and the Beast" and "Avengers," for instance, were onscreen very briefly, and the implication that they were gay was easily obscurable, in case foreign markets like Russia or China would object. It's easy to become cynical that the studios are just collecting "woke points," praising themselves for perfunctory inclusivity without taking any real risks. And make no mistake that giving major roles to women/minorities/LGBT/disabled folks can still be a sizable risk.
I can understand the benefits of the approach too. It's an easy way to get more attention and more press, bad or good. We've been seeing several films like "Black Panther" and "Crazy Rich Asians" being rewarded for catering to underserved audiences. Suddenly, this is a valid strategy for selling big blockbuster films instead of only niche films. If having a gay character in a Disney movie attracts a gay audience looking to see itself onscreen, why not try to draw them in by talking up the inclusion? It might be pandering, but the audience is out there, and it's become increasingly clear that these tactics work.
We're also still in the #Metoo era, in the Black Lives Matter era, and the critics of problematic media can be fierce. With social media part of the equation now, and many recent films bombarded with criticism over representation issues - see "Green Book" and "Bohemian Rhapsody" - it makes sense to try and get ahead of the cultural conversation and work to control the narrative from the get go. A film or television show flaunting their progressive bona fides can help to deflect or stave off criticism. And occasionally it backfires. See "Ghostbusters."
One of the reasons I started writing this blog was that back in 2010, "The Last Airbender" decided to initially cast all the roles with white kids, and I needed somewhere to vent about it. I've been keeping a closer eye on diversity efforts in Hollywood ever since, and I'm thrilled that movies like "Love, Simon" and "To All the Boys I've Loved Before" are now seen as profitable ventures. The recent trends in media marketing strike me as phony and insincere too much of the time, but honestly all media marketing is phony and insincere.
It's best to remember, the art is the art, and the marketing is just trying to sell you something.
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