FRUSTRATED! WHERE'S THE COLOUR-BLIND CASTING IN THIS BLOODY COUNTRY!!!
Tue, 2 May 2006, 01:52 pmMichelleZ31 posts in thread
FRUSTRATED! WHERE'S THE COLOUR-BLIND CASTING IN THIS BLOODY COUNTRY!!!
Tue, 2 May 2006, 01:52 pm
Just want to vent, so I apologise in advance. Ha, ha, ha, so much for Australia priding itself on being a multicultural society! HA! Where the hell is all the multi-cultural actors on our stages and screens then? I think I'm as good or on par, in regard to talent, with many actresses in their early 20s, but being of Asian appearance, I rarely get called in - and I'm a NIDA grad! (Not that that means a lot these days).
I know this industry is primarily based on what you look like, but come on!!! Give us a chance to even audition for you, for christ's sakes! When are producers gonna open their eyes and realise that the Australian population is not entirely Anglo.
Has anyone else experienced this frustration?! This sounds dramatic (but hey, we're actors!!), but I'm going to devote my life to changing this in the industry. I realise that even Asian actors in England and USA find it difficult to break into the industry, so I really hope to change this.
Ethnic!
Fri, 9 June 2006, 10:51 amWalter Plinge
This debate has taken on many different angles, we could go on about NIDA etc...but that is not the issue...Bottom line is if you are from an anglo background you WILL get the auditions...forget how you audition or where you studied...getting in the door is the issue! If you are crap then so be it but can we not get a look in?....I have many years of study both here and overseas and have auditioned and worked also. Put my 15 years of training and developing my craft next to a 'Ms Smith' with 1 day of training and 'Ms Smith' will get the audition...Why?...well who the hell knows...(michelleZ) you are right, it is hard to get auditions anyway...but do you honestly think you are being discriminated against because you are anglo! give me a break! this racism has been going on forever in this country, ....just imagine if some of the greats ie Pacino, Deniro, Streep grew up in this country? no career! no wander actors go overseas to make it and our industry is going down the toilet. When 'minority' actors do get the roles, why does the storyline need to explain what they are doing there or the story is specifically mulitcultural? unbelievable...I am going on a bit of a rant because today I am specifically shitty about this topic as only this morning something occured that got my agent just as cranky...so I am not coming across as articulate as I would like to...Yes, it is changing slowly but it saddens me that this is even a topic!...Perhaps I should have stayed in the US where I was an actor before anything else and the casting agents where not colour blind!...the thing is I love a sunburnt country...because Im bloody Australian!