10/8/2006


In Living Color

By Nicole Porter
Backstage.com


People are accustomed to categories. At Starbucks we ask for tall, grande, or venti. Our cars come in compact, midsize, full-size, and luxury. Categories can -- to the disappointment of some -- also apply to people, particularly when it comes to racial or ethnic typing. This season's Survivor: Cook Islands, for example, made headlines when it was announced that the show would divide contestants into tribes based on race: African Americans, Latinos, Asians, and Caucasians. Some might consider dividing people by race or ethnicity on a television show distasteful, but such an act fits assumptions made about race by many people, not just in Hollywood. How much of what people accept about race is fact -- and how much is fiction?

"When my hair is dark, I can play Latin. When my hair is curly blond, I never ever get cast as Latin," says actor Vivian Gray, who appears in the new syndicated MyNetworkTV series Desire. Gray's father is from Scotland, and her mother is from Mexico. The actor speaks Spanish and English -- with American or British accents -- and was raised in England. Like more than 7 million people recorded in the 2000 U.S. Census, Gray is multiethnic -- a person who identifies with more than one race, ethnicity, or culture. The New York Times reported in April 2005 that among multiethnic people, "41 percent were younger than 18... compared with 26 percent for the overall population." But, like many actors, Gray will identify as one specific ethnicity to book a gig. "Inevitably if my hair is blond, [the casting director] will make a comment like, 'Oh, this is actually a Latin audition.' And I'll say, 'Yeah, I know. That's why I'm here.'"


The Right Fit


Such moments aren't uncommon. Let's say you're a casting director for a new high-budget film that seeks three male actors, age 30-45, one Native American, one Irish, and one African American. Would you consider Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning actor Jeffrey Wright for one or all three roles? If you were seeking a Latina leading lady, would you consider Cameron Diaz, whose father is Cuban American, as Latina as, say, Desperate Housewives' Eva Longoria? Many multiethnic actors experience "not fitting in" in various phases of their careers. In an interview with Back Stage (12/15/05), Wright -- who won a Golden Globe and an Emmy for the 2003 TV miniseries Angels in America and whose long list of credits includes Syriana, Lackawanna Blues, The Manchurian Candidate, Lady in the Water, and Jim Jarmusch's Broken Flowers -- proves that no one is immune to the industry's limited view of ethnicity.

"My grandmother was Native American and Irish; everyone else was African, so I'm this kind of mix that means, in some ways, I exist between types," he says. "It's rare that there's a script or character that's written that has me in mind. I'm kind of, in some ways, an oddball. I guess I try to bring more of a certain part of myself to fit and give myself more work."

Very few people, regardless of what they claim to be, are any single ethnicity. Another "oddball," Angela Nissel -- a staff writer on NBC's Scrubs and author of the book Mixed: My Life in Black and White, about her journey of self-acceptance -- says things, not people, fit into categories.

"People are very close-minded to [mixed ethnicity] now. I just found out that I'm 55 percent black, which means my father, who I thought was white for ages, must have some black in him," she says, laughing. "My husband's mother, who is considered 100 percent black -- no one has ever questioned her blackness because she has two black parents -- only came out 33 percent African. I'm teasing my mother-in-law, like, 'I'm blacker than you and I'm half white.'" Nissel considers Mixed a celebration of her "coming out" as a biracial woman. While writing the book, she tried to enlist Hollywood celebrities to talk about their multiethnic experiences. The response was less than enthusiastic. "I find that a lot of biracial actors just don't want to identify as biracial," she says. "That's a big thing because as soon as you do that, no one knows what to do with you. There are so many actors who just refuse to talk about it."

New York-based public speaker, community organizer, and activist Jen Chau says Hollywood has a lot of work to do to increase its awareness of mixed-heritage issues. As the co-editor of Mixed Media Watch, Chau monitors representations of mixed people, couples, families, and transracial adoptees in film, television, radio, and print media. "There's this insistence on looking at mixed-race identity as this troubling identity -- one where you can't really be both, you have to choose. Sometimes you try to 'pass,' and always when a character tries to pass, they're kind of beaten down to submission," she says. "I wouldn't say that the average person has seen any kind of representation of mixed-race identity that's neutral or deals with it in any kind of a normal way."


Names and Faces


Chau explains that the entertainment industry doesn't allow actors to check more than one box for ethnicity. "I definitely think that there's that struggle with, 'Do I try to get roles that I actually identify with culturally, or do I just fit into what people think that I am?'" she says. "How much do you really fight that as an actor or actress? I think that in some ways Hollywood is a little bit behind the times; they see people in very defined categories. Within those categories, you're supposed to look a certain way. It's very limiting. I personally think that it isn't until people force it a little bit more that Hollywood is going to change."

Actor Coby Bell, son of Broadway actor Michel Bell, is multiethnic -- African American and Caucasian -- and admits that casting directors see him differently than he sees himself. "I've always been put into the category of African American as far as Hollywood goes. I've never had a problem finding work, so I've been lucky in that sense," he says. Bell's résumé includes Half & Half, Third Watch, Girlfriends, A.T.F., Smart Guy, and, most recently, a starring role in the new CW series The Game. He says it's rare to find a project in which race isn't an issue.

"Every once in a while they'll get me in on something that race doesn't matter, but it's hard to find roles like that," he explains. "At the same time, you look at a character breakdown when you go out for an audition, and it will say, 'So-and-so, Asian American, who's this and this.' Then you have, 'So-and-so, an African American, who's this and this.' Then you have, 'So-and-so,' and if they leave it blank, then you're automatically supposed to know that that character is white. It's almost like they're saying white is normal. I don't know if it's art imitating life or life imitating art. It's hard to say if Hollywood could do more to make people see that race is as much of a big deal as you make it -- at least that's how I was raised."

Once a label is applied, it's hard to change. Actor Omar Metwally, the child of Egyptian and Dutch immigrant parents, had been a professional actor for six years, playing a variety of ethnicities. Yet, after earning a Tony nomination in 2004 for playing a Palestinian character in Sixteen Wounded, he found his choices limited.

"Because of the Tony nomination, everyone in the theatre community got to know me in that very specific way," says Metwally. "While it was a huge blessing for me and I was so happy to have that experience, it's been a challenge to convince the theatrical community that I don't always have to play an Arab character." Fortunately, labels didn't follow the actor when he switched coasts. Metwally picked up a role on Grey's Anatomy as a character of nonspecific ethnicity, as well as Middle Eastern characters on The Unit and in Steven Spielberg's Munich.

"The casting community didn't really think of me in any specific way, so I was able to create an impression in the audition room that I wanted to create," he says. "They didn't already know me as, 'Oh, that's the guy...' because a lot of television folks don't keep up with New York theatre. I'd think it's funny if my name were not Omar Metwally. If my name were something less specific, I have a hunch that things may have played out differently [in my career]. But my name is important to me; it's a part of who I am. I'm proud of it." Race and character are mutually exclusive, but sometimes they're made out to be one and the same. Chau says that although ideas such as race, ethnicity, and culture are important, they're only a small portion of a character, not the whole movie. "I have a problem with when a character is portrayed and situated as: [Race] is their identity. Like, this is a black man, and there is no focus on any other parts of his being. It's like, 'You are black; that's the most important thing, and that's the purpose you're serving in this show.' That's what I have a problem with, when it's so two-dimensional and the kind of tokenization of those characters."

Nissel urges people to talk about race -- and then talk about it some more. "We don't talk enough about race as it is that I just think it needs to be in the hands of competent people who will know how to deal with these issues when they come up," says Nissel. "Instead it's just, 'Okay, people are turning us off and sending us hate mail. We're not going to deal with it at all.' [For networks] to say that you're not ready to see interracial people on TV -- well, are you ready to see them in your backyard? Because they're all over the place."


Ready for Airing


According to Nissel, audiences have long been ready to see interracial people and real interracial relationships on television. "If you turn on what 18- to 34-[year-olds] are turning on, there's lots of race mixing, there's interracial people," she says. "On MTV they're just there. But yet [the networks are] still on this old-school mind frame where, 'Oh, Middle America is just not ready for that.' Well, that's kind of why Middle America is turning off their TV to the major networks a lot of the times, I think."

If the industry isn't ready for diversity, it should be. According to a July 14 article published by the State Department's Bureau of International Information Programs, the U.S. Census Bureau announced this year that "as many as one-third of U.S. residents now claim 'minority' heritage." The future stands to become more colorful as time progresses, according to an official report, titled "The Changing Demographic Profile of the United States," from the Congressional Research Service. The report projects that the number of persons who identify with two or more races will increase by 15.3 million, or 217 percent, by the year 2050.

Chau cites Grey's Anatomy -- whose second season, according to The Hollywood Reporter, averaged 22.3 million viewers and a 9.6/22 share in the 18-49 demographic -- as an example of America's readiness to deal with interracial relationships, romantic or otherwise. "One of the reasons I love [Grey's Anatomy] is because there are so many interracial couples or mixed families," says Chau. "You're not completely hit over the head with race. It's natural. Every time I see a mixed family or an interracial couple on that show, I'm almost getting ready for them to make some kind of comment or have other characters say, 'Oh, what's up with that? You're an interracial couple.' But no one ever does. I think that's a closer representation to our reality. It does exist."

Issues of multiethnic heritage aren't just about interracial people; they're about considering how current views of race, ethnicity, and identity are limiting our existence. If the industry can learn to see multiethnic actors like Wright, Gray, Bell, and Metwally as individuals, then maybe we can see how all people are extraordinary characters rather than stereotypes.