Emmy Rossum HAS to play Mimi in Rent- Page 3

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 6/30/17 at 12:10pm

^good answer, I withdraw the question.

[Messytheatregirl]

Posted: 6/30/17 at 12:12pm

"I think of all the characters, Mimi is the only one whose ethnicity is actually written into in the show. Her name is Mimi Marquez, she sings about "home, when the Spanish babies cry" and in Act 2, her mother leaves a voicemail in Spanish. While the casting should be multicultural, none of the other characters are specific. Mimi is."

Fair enough. I'm not an expert on the show so I wasn't sure. But if Latinos can be white, black, etc. then why should it matter what the actress's real life heritage is? Actors/actresses leave who they are behind in order to ACT in a role and PORTRAY a character, so who's to say that someone from European decent can't play Mimi?

Updated On: 6/30/17 at 12:12 PM

[Messytheatregirl]

Posted: 6/30/17 at 12:15pm

That being said, I don't think Emmy Rossum should be a part of anything musical ever again.

Updated On: 6/30/17 at 12:15 PM

[Yero my Hero]

Posted: 6/30/17 at 12:22pm

I wasn't arguing that the part can't be played by an actress of another ethnicity (not touching that topic). I was just answering the question of, why is Mimi Latina? I may not have the answers as to moral casting questions, but I do know RENT (thanks, teenage me!)

[UncleCharlie]

Posted: 6/30/17 at 1:49pm

Yero my Hero said: "I think of all the characters, Mimi is the only one whose ethnicity is actually written into in the show. Her name is Mimi Marquez, she sings about "home, when the Spanish babies cry" and in Act 2, her mother leaves a voicemail in Spanish. While the casting should be multicultural, none of the other characters are specific. Mimi is.

 

Easy fix. Emmy Rossum is Jewish, right? Just tweak the character a bit. Let's call her Mimi Marcus and she can sing about when Jewish babies cry and her mother can leave the voicemail in Yiddish. The more I think about it, the more I love it. Everyone cool with that?

 

[LunaEstelle]

Posted: 6/30/17 at 2:29pm

Kad said: "Natasha is not explicitly written to be of any specific background in Great Comet (no character is specifically defined by race in that show). You really need to look at the *intent* of that show- it is very clear, from its earliest incarnations, that it was never intended to depict an historically accurate vision of aristocracy in 1812 Moscow, and has opted instead for anachronistically diverse casting. This is supported in its anachronistic score and design and its metatheatrical devices.

 But see, from the STAGE, the ethnicity of the actor / actress is something that can easily be overlooked if said actor / actress has some qualities and characteristics of the race they are portraying. The world is a giant melting pot. Some Latinas are lighter than others, some are darker. Some have lighter hair, some have darker hair. Different colored eyes, etc. Josefina Scaglione played Maria in the West Side Story revival a few years ago and she's from Argentina but honestly doesn't look that far off in look from Emmy Rossum, both of them having an American girl-next-door vibe.

 

And even if The Great Comet does expect us to suspend our disbelief and enter into a surreal world, it still doesn't change the fact that it is based on War and Peace, a Russian novel, and that Natasha was no doubt intended to be an aristocratic white Russian woman.

Even though it's a surreal take on a classic novel, I feel as though the tables would be turned if this "blind casting" happened in The Color Purple, for example. Casting an African-American woman to play a white Russian aristocrat = ahhh, it's just a surreal show, not made to be taken seriously. It's abstract in nature so it's okay. But casting a white person to play an African American character in The Color Purple? Ooooooh, would have been a scandal. 

 

But back to the topic, Latinas come in different skin shades, different eye colors, hair colors, shapes, sizes, etc. One does not need to be the ethnicity IRL to play someone of a particular ethnicity IF THEY CAN REMOTELY PASS AS BEING THAT ETHNICITY.  Emmy has brown eyes, brown hair, and honestly looks like quite a few Latinas I know. 

I don't see why this topic of conversation was even started. I can sit here and point out dozens of double standards where people of color played roles that were written for white people and would be historically accurate if they were played by white people, but, blind casting is a thing. And I like blind casting. But There is no equality in blind casting. It's not so blind, is it? It's full of double standards. People think certain things are okay and certain things aren't. Yet, I thought the point of blind casting was to cast a blind eye to skin color / ethnicity / etc, not just when it's "politically correct" to do so.

Updated On: 6/30/17 at 02:29 PM

[theatregoer3]

Posted: 6/30/17 at 2:35pm

Luna, you're again missing the point of cultural appropriation. It's not about political correctness.

[GeorgeandDot]

Posted: 6/30/17 at 2:44pm

It's because there are like fifty billion roles for white women. Meanwhile, there's a small handful of Latina roles.  It's about being inclusive and allowing talented POC to perform roles that they wouldn't have been able to play 30 years ago.  It allows them to break into a larger pool of opportunities,  instead of sitting around waiting for a West Side Story or In the Heights revival.  White women don't have that problem.  Almost every show on Broadway has multiple roles that can be filled by white actresses.  There are already so few roles for WOC, you don't need to take one away to give it to a white actress (who can't even sing).  It's not about being "politically correct," it's about having respect for other people and their race, ethnicity, and heritage.  It's just about being respectful.

Also, a little black girl came up to Denee Benton at TGC stagedoor and said "I didn't know we could be princesses."  That's fricking adorable.

[trpguyy]

Posted: 6/30/17 at 2:55pm

In the fantasy world where someone is willing to put enough money into "Rent" as to be able to cast an A-list actress, surely they would have the resources to find someone who is the proper ethnicity for the role. Even easier to do if we include actresses who would sing it as poorly as Ms Rossum. 

[10086Sundays]

Posted: 6/30/17 at 3:04pm

Representation isn't just important for kids(not my Insta): 

Did I cry again telling @dontgo_jasonwaterfalls how happy I was seeing someone that looked like me in a role like Rita's? Yes.

Updated On: 6/30/17 at 03:04 PM

[South Florida]

Posted: 6/30/17 at 3:05pm

She is so beautiful.

[hork]

Posted: 6/30/17 at 5:12pm

CarlosAlberto said: "hork said: "Um ... Latinas can be white.

 

Yes, they can and many are...the one thing they can't be is CAUCASIAN

 

I don't know if you're joking, but that's the same thing. Unless you mean someone of the Caucasus, in which case, why discriminate against them?

"

 

[jimmycurry01]

Posted: 7/1/17 at 1:11pm

LunaEstelle said: "

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

 

"

Colorblind casting is not a problem at all so long as ethnicity or race is not an issue in the plot or a specific character trait given to the character by the author. 

It would make little sense to have Nellie in South Pacific played by a person of color when the conflict in the story is directly related to her ingrained ideas about race.

In the case of Mimi, Larson specifically made her of Hispanic  (possibly latina) descent. Take a look at the lyrics to Out Tonight. This was an intentional choice made by Larson for the character, and therefore that choice should be respected.

Now for a character like Cinderella or even Dolly Levi, ethnicity is not pertinent to the plot, nor to the character; therefore, there is nothing wrong with colorblind casting, and it should be encouraged.

I hope that answers your question as to why colorblind casting is sometimes OK, and at other times it is not.

[darquegk]

Posted: 7/1/17 at 1:20pm

Can we at least agree that Camila Mendes needs to play Mimi?