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With an impressive 87 pilots in the works this year, many casting directors are turning a color-blind eye when it comes to booking top talent.
“Diversity is on everybody’s minds with all of our pilots,” NBC’s Grace Wu told The Hollywood Reporter. “We’re talking about it a lot.”
The casting portion of the pilot season is winding down on the heels of #OscarSoWhite and a recent USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism study about diversity — or more accurately the lack of — in Hollywood. The report puts the film industry clearly on the “whitewashed” spectrum, but said television and digital content offered a “few very bright spots” that provide hope for the future.
“There are pockets of promise in television,” said Stacy L. Smith, a USC professor and one of three authors of the diversity study. “There is a focus that change is possible.”
RELATED: Study: Hollywood ‘Whitewashed’ but TV Offers Hope
When six casting directors spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the challenges and triumphs of wrangling a wide range of actors and actress for upcoming shows, it’s no surprise that many of them had diversity on the brain.
Sony Picture TV’s Dawn Steinberg said there used to be a time when a role was written in a way where casting directors would look for an actor with a specific ethnicity.
“Now it’s just who is the best actor for the role,” she said.
Sharon Klein at 20th Century Fox TV agreed that an industry push for diversity is rendering on screen.
“I’ve seen more diverse casting announcements, and I’ve seen more people on our casting reports booking jobs that are diverse — and big roles, not just supporting roles.”
ABC/ABC Studios’ Ayo Davis seconded that.
“When I started at ABC 14 years ago, there was no Kerry Washington or Priyanka Chopra front and center on a TV show,” she said.
In terms of creating more diversity in the entertainment industry, the USC study suggests that companies need to embrace new approaches for inclusion that go beyond simply “checking a box” when casting. So it’s good news that when it comes to finding talent, networks are making an effort to look in more ethnic areas outside Hollywood.
“We have Sensory on CBS, where we have a Latino lead,” said Steinberg. “We try to target areas we think may have inner-city people we’re not getting in L.A. (The pilot has since been rolled off-cycle).
Wu said she’s also seeing a major shift happening among talent representatives.
“It feels like some agencies and managers, who in the past may not have had the most inclusive client list, have now signed more diverse actors because they know there’s a need and demand for them on the broadcast side,” she said.
Read more: Hollywood Reporter
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