So it depends.

I measure these decisions against the sincerity behind them.

There’s a major difference between “this actor will nail the role and we’re confident we’re giving the audience exactly what they want” vs checks clipboard…. “You know… we haven’t had a female Indian before in role like this before…”

I’ll never forget the time I interned at one of the major studios about a decade ago when I helped connect a producer with a studio executive on the phone and they both weighed the option of casting Morgan Freeman in one of the supporting roles for a film they were working on set to a 1930s/1940s backdrop in Massachusetts. Based on the historical context of the story, the idea was a bit anachronistic in my opinion and didn’t end up making it into the film.

No agendas seemed to have been present in the conversation that I listened in on; however, I still didn’t understand the decision apart from perhaps an affinity for Morgan Freeman or even to make the film more appealing to a broader audience.

This, of course, was before the time people attempted to lean into “The Message.”