INCLUSIVE
CASTING
In collaboration with a group of BIPOC directors, Hire Higher’s call to action is aimed at rethinking the approach to diversity in casting. Working together in conversation with production, casting directors, ACTRA, agencies, and their clients, we hope to shift the baseline and create a higher standard of inclusion in the casting process.
Working together in conversation and workshops with production, casting directors, agencies and their clients, we hope to shift the baseline and create a higher standard of inclusion in the casting process. project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.
INCLUSIVE CASTING AWARENESS
Casting is paramount to the commercial making process. It’s where clients, creatives, and directors have an opportunity to openly scrutinize the actors that will bring their scripts to life. As BIPOC directors, we appreciate the increased awareness and demand for diversity in commercial casting, but the language and implicit bias remains problematic.
There is an acceptance of language in our industry that is designed to talk around the issue of race, when it’s actually doing the opposite. Qualifiers like “ethnically ambiguous”, “exotic”, “urban”, “open to all ethnicities'', etc. are all too common. They give cover to those who want credit for assembling a diverse cast without actually making a legitimate or genuine effort to do so, and makes the casting process feel performative, tokenizing and colour coded.
The implicit bias is further perpetuated throughout the casting process where we’re told “they’re hard to find” or “they’re not as experienced/talented/funny”. It feeds a detrimental and harmful narrative that people of colour are not as worthy as their white counterparts, and they’re not given a fair opportunity to prove otherwise.
To create a more inclusive casting process, we need to rethink our approach to shift the baseline and redefine the norm:
1. Diversity should not be a request, but an expectation.
Being ‘open to all ethnicities’ should be implied. Removing racially biased language from casting briefs challenges an inherent assumption that diversity is not a priority unless specified.
2. Specificity without insight is tokenism.
Race is not a checkmark, prop, or accent colour. Specifying race should be conscientious, sincere, and intentional - authentically reflecting the character, culture and community it seeks to represent.
3. Create demand to amplify the supply.
The more opportunities we create, the deeper the talent pool becomes. Request, seek and foster diverse talent to elevate the work with insight and authenticity.
As commercial directors, we are asked to bring ideas to the table that elevate the creative. Let’s give BIPOC performers the same opportunity to come in and share performances and perspectives that can make our collective effort stronger.
This is a collective effort, and people all over the industry are making positive changes within this conversation in their own way. We are confident that these impactful steps will help create needed change within our advertising community and inspire work that better reflects the cultural mosaic in which we live.