Seeking a 30-year-old actor, period
‘We’re a little behind in terms of reflecting reality’
It’s all about the comma. In a recent conversation about the challenges facing black actors in Quebec, Angelo Cadet said it all comes down to what he sees as that dreaded comma.
“I just want to be part of the show and not to be considered a black actor,” said Cadet, an actor and TV host who has a role in the upcoming Quebec film Les Maîtres du suspense and was in the film L’Appât. “I just want to be considered an actor. Montreal is probably the best city in the world to live in. Everybody’s with everybody. It doesn’t matter if you’re black or white or gay. Everybody’s on the same level. The diversity is the beauty of this city, but there’s none of that on TV.” Enter the comma. “My theory is all about the comma,” Cadet said. “They send me a role. It’s a 30-year-old, comma, black guy. I don’t need that comma. He’s a 30-year-old male. He’s a doctor or a plumber. That’s all I need to know. ‘Black guy’ doesn’t give anything to me. You want to play Hamlet, you have to be that kind of crazy person. A girl can play that.
“I go to the audition, I’ll see black people, white people, Chinese people. I don’t care. We’re all there for the same role. That’s what it’s about as an actor. Delivering, understanding the role, the emotion. But producers and writers miss that. They don’t know how much we could give without that comma thing. I’ve been thinking about that comma thing for years and years. Don’t mention it. Stop that comma thing.”
But colour-blind casting rarely goes on in Quebec. The roles offered to black actors are usually ones producers are specifically looking for black actors to fill and, unfortunately, they often fall into the usual stereotypes of criminals, refugees and other marginal characters.
For example, there are black roles in the hit Radio-Canada medical drama Trauma, but those roles are machine-gun-toting militia men in Haiti. The doctors in the show aren’t black.
In fact, there aren’t a lot of major French-language Quebec films or TV series that feature black characters in leading roles. There are a few black TV hosts, notably Normand Brath waite and singer/ host Gregory Charles, but few high-profile actors.
The English remake of the hit Radio-Canada cop series 19-2, which premièred this week on Bravo, features a black actor in one of the two lead roles, with Adrian Holmes playing Nick, the character portrayed by Réal Bossé in the Québécois original. In the French-language original, there was one black actor in the cast, but playing a secondary role. Benz Antoine, who had that part, is the only actor from the French series to also appear in the Bravo version, and he plays the same character, cop Tyler Joseph.
What’s interesting is that the English 19-2 does not make a big deal of the fact that one of the two main detectives is from a visible-minority community.
“It’s never something that’s mentioned or accentuated, yet it’s there, it’s not something that you can avoid,” said Antoine, who portrays one of Nick’s colleagues at Station 19. “So people are just watching the character and not the race of the character. It’s a feather in their hat to bring out something that reflects how people really live. I think this is long overdue. Here you have the No. 1 actor and another supporting actor, both of whom happen to be black. I think that’s amazing.”
English-Canadian TV series certainly showcase more diversity — and colour — in their casts than French Québécois shows, which is a reflection of differences in the two cultures.
So why is that? No one I spoke to suggested it has anything to do with racism or lack of openness to cultural communities. It’s more complicated than that. I sought out Oscar-nominated Montreal filmmaker Philippe Falardeau to weigh in on this because his films have always featured key roles for actors from different ethnic backgrounds, from the Congolese woman in Congorama to the Algerian teacher in Monsieur Lazhar to the Sudanese refugees in The Good Lie, the American film that he recently completed (and which also stars Reese With- erspoon). His next French Quebec movie will feature a Haitian character as one of the leads.
Falardeau has an explanation — not a justification, he’s quick to add — for the lack of black actors in prominent roles in local films and TV series.
“The first thing is that people who write for TV here write what they know, and they’re probably a little behind in terms of reflecting the reality of Montreal,” Falardeau said. “The black character (here) is a loaded character. There has to be a reason he’s black. He can’t just be a black doctor. It’s not a conspiracy. It’s just that people write about their own universe.
“We’re a little behind in terms of reflecting reality. But it will eventually be reflected in our films and TV series. Also, the volume of actors isn’t there yet.
“For example, I’m going to have to hire a Haitian actor soon and I know there are Haitian actors here. But there aren’t 200. So am I going to take a black actor even though he’s less good just because there are only three or four actors? Or do I change the character? That’s the dilemma we’re facing.”
It’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation. Are there fewer roles for black actors because there aren’t enough actors? Or are there fewer black actors in Quebec because there aren’t enough good roles (and thus not enough decent work available)?
Rebelle is one of the few recent Quebec films that featured a largely black cast, but the caveat there is that most of the actors were cast in the Congo, where the film was shot.
However, there were a few local black actors in the Oscar-nominated film about child soldiers in an African civil war, including Alain Bastien, who played a rebel commander. He says he’s been frustrated since because there are still so few good parts for visible-minority actors.
“If you want to be a black actor, you have to be a gangster or a drug dealer, and I’m trying to get away from that,” Bastien said.
The Oscar heat for Rebelle helped Bastien snare an agent in Vancouver and he’s been actively seeking English-speaking roles elsewhere in North America. But he says the stereotyped roles for blacks aren’t restricted to French Quebec.
One of the highest-profile black actors on Quebec TV right now is relative newcomer Ayisha Issa, who stars as a troubled prisoner in the ultra-hot Radio-Canada drama Unité 9, set in a women’s prison in Quebec. But once again, she plays a villain, something that’s often happened in Issa’s young career.
“I like playing physical roles, but I can do all that and be on the good team,” Issa said. “I’d like to do that.”
The one thing everyone I spoke to agreed on was that you can’t force producers to hire more diverse casts.
“No one wants quotas,” Cadet said. “You’re there because you’re good. You come for supper because we want you for supper, not because we want a black guy. You come because you’re welcome.”
So, Cadet reasons, the roles should always go to the best actor, period. No comma.