The practice of casting an actor who is of a different race than a character’s original portrayal in a book, movie, or show is considered colorblind casting. The reason casting directors do this is because race does not impact the character’s story, so they cast the best actor for the role. The movie, The Odyssey, is set to release this summer and people—exhaustingly—are up in arms about Lupita Nyong’o and Zendaya playing Greek goddesses.

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Greek goddesses.

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Despite a movie that is based on mythical beings, people have all of a sudden become insistent that the actors must be Greek. However, there hasn’t been any push back with Tom Holland (English), Charlize Theron (South African), and Anne Hathaway (American) playing these characters. Which, as we all suspected, is just another case of racism disguised as a want for “story accuracy”. We’ve seen this commentary over and over now, which has become incredibly boring. The negativity surrounding Halle Bailey playing the little mermaid and the casting choices of Bridgerton characters, amongst others.

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So what is the takeaway? Casting based on the talent of the actor and their portrayal of the character should be the standard. It allows for excellent performances while also increasing representation. However, the term ‘colorblind casting’ perpetuates the belief that people ‘can’t see color’ which completely negates the cultural background and hardships people of color go through. Additionally, it should not be seen as progressive to turn an originally-white character to a person of color. Rather we should be creating and championing stories that are originally created for people of color. In the meantime, we’ll be enjoying the perfomances of the incredibly talented Nyong’o and Zendaya.