Ethnic actors asked to audition for stereotypical roles, survey finds

MORE than half of all actors from ethnic minorities have directly experienced racism in the workplace, a new study has found.

More than 1,300 actors took part of the UK survey, which found 64 per cent had experienced racist stereotyping during an audition, while 55 per cent suffered racist behaviour at work.

Among those polled, 71 per cent said hair and make-up departments failed to cater to their heritage hair or skin tone.

Sir Lenny Henry (left) said the findings were a “stain against the entire industry”.

The actor and comedian added, “This report finally brings into the open what many of us talk about, and suffer, in private. We all work in this industry because we love it, but we must do better.”

The report was commissioned by the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity at Birmingham City University.

Almost four out of five actors said they were asked to audition for roles that potentially stereotyped their ethnicity, and only 39 per cent felt they could turn them down.

An actress of Middle Eastern heritage said, “All the roles specific to my heritage… were all stereotypical”, with “scripts written with broken English”.

A British Asian actress in her 50s said “eight out of 10” of her auditions were for an “Indian mother/aunt, with accent”, often spouting outdated ideas on sexuality and interracial marriage.

“[It’s] like my generation of British Asians has been completely forgotten, but we are the ones that left home and defied convention,” she said. “We studied Shakespeare and Ibsen and went to uni in the UK… yet we just don’t exist.”