Emmy Rossum HAS to play Mimi in Rent — Page 2

Oh yeah I agree with Trpguyy, I'm just arguing against the idea Latinan American can't be white.

I wasn't suggesting that Emmy Rossum could play Mimi. I was just responding to trpguyy's post, which seemed to suggest that "Latina" and "white" are mutually exclusive.

My apologies to hork. I understand what you're saying.

Also, interesting. I didn't know Emmy was Jewish.

"Wow, what?"

Oh, they are saying you are an idiot sweetheart for your ridiculous, tone deaf statements about Hispanic people.

Updated On: 6/30/17 at 12:53 AM

^thanks for reminding me of this video: https://youtu.be/GBt5rMD2aDc

Lilly7, I'm not sure if I am one of the fake "woke" people that you're speaking about, but I basically just said what you're saying. If I'm unclear, I'm saying what Lilly7 is saying if their response makes more sense.

Basically, it doesn't matter what the color of her skin is, it just depends on if she comes from a Spanish-speaking background. Rossum does not so she is wildly innapropriate for the role.

"Of course. So cast a white Latina girl to play a Latina girl, not a white Russian/Jewish/Dutch/English girl to play a Latina."



...so I am guessing you also have an issue with Rene Goldsberry's portrayal of Mimi considering she is black with no latino background.

Who gives a sh** what someone's heritage or nationality is? They are ACTING for that character. They leave who they are behind in order to play a role.

Now, if someone started saying that Emmy Rossum should play Celie in The Color Purple, that would clearly be an issue. In Rent, however, Mimi's latino heritage doesn't play a significant role in the story.

Updated On: 6/30/17 at 10:11 AM

GeorgeandDot said: "Jonathan Pryce HAS to play Mimi in Rent



Ok. This just made me spit out my coffee....EL OH EL

LunaEstelle said: "Reading through this whole post is making me facepalm so hard. Why is it that blind casting is only okay in SOME cases but is not okay in others?

Some of you are acting like casting Emmy in a Latina role would be blasphemous. Yet, Denee Benton was cast as Natasha in The Great Comet, and she's African-American and clearly not of Russian descent, considering Russian aristocrats in that time period were no doubt white.

So... as I've stated earlier, why is blind casting only okay sometimes but not all the time? "

I can understand that this is a confusing topic. It gets into deeper issues of cultural appropriation or rather cultural MISappropriation. I should work on doing a better job of explaining this, so forgive me for the utter lack of nuance, but essentially you could view this as "the majority or ruling class (white people) cannot appropriate from the minorities (non-white people), but the minorities (non-white people) should be able to appropriate from the moronity or ruling class (white people)".

I feel like I'm going to be SLAUGHTERED (and maybe with good reason) by this board for laying it out in those terms. I'm hoping that someone here could reinterpret this in a much more thoughtful and precise manner as it is a sensitive topic.

Similar issues have recently been discussed in surprisingly interesting articles about the white male gay community appropriating/claiming Beyonce vs. Beyonce appropriating/claiming aspects of the gay community and even segments of choreography from white male choreographers that had created it for other shows, etc.

I get really "judgy" about this topic on this board because I feel that artists and those who assist in the creation of art in today's climate should have a firm grasp of this larger global discussion and yet I do a terrible job of explaining it, so...my bad, but I hope this makes some sense even if you disagree with the argument as a whole.

Not that I'm in any way particularly interested in Rossum as Mimi (no offense to Emmy but I don't quite see why this is such inspired casting), but while multicultural casting is a RENT mainstay that should be honored (in most cases at least) with respect to the cast as a whole, what would be the compelling reason why Mimi in particular should invariably be played by a woman of color?