The Studio Season 1 Episode 7, “Casting,” is a comedic grilling of Hollywood executives who fail to know the nuances of racism of their business, and right here, co-creator Alex Gregory explains how it is a recurring downside in real-life Hollywood.
Within the April 30 episode, Continental Studios was getting ready to announce the casting for its Kool-Help film: Ice Dice was picked to voice the animated Kool-Help man with Sandra Oh as his spouse, whereas Josh Duhamel and Jessica Biel had been set to play a live-action couple. As studio head Matt Remmick (Seth Rogen) was getting ready to make the casting announcement at Comedian-Con, he and his staff panicked as they tried to determine if casting a Black man because the Kool-Help man was enjoying into racial stereotypes — and so they had been involved extra about whether or not their casting decisions might seem racist, slightly than if they really had been racist. Quinn (Chase Sui Wonders) then tried to defend their alternative by saying she by no means noticed Kool-Help as a drink principally loved by Black folks however extra of a “poor-person drink.” Massive yikes.
The spiral that adopted ended up creating extra issues and glossing over different points. They requested certainly one of their few Black colleagues, Tyler (Dewayne Perkins), for recommendation in addition to visitor stars Ziwe and Lil Rel Howery. All of them stated it’s not racist to solid Ice Dice within the position, however then Ziwe and Lil Rel requested if they’ve a Black girl enjoying his spouse, throwing out names like Gabrielle Union and Keke Palmer, making the group discover for the primary time in the entire course of that they excluded Black ladies totally from their expertise pool. On high of that, the folks of colour of their solid had been solely enjoying animated characters whereas the white solid could be live-action.
Each new thought snowballed into new points. They scrambled to recast the whole film and tried to symbolize each demographic of the U.S. inhabitants. Finally, Matt requested Ice Dice himself for his opinion. The dialog was as painfully uncomfortable as you’ll think about.
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They saved the rapper within the position and went by with the Comedian-Con announcement. Followers had been excited by the casting, however then an viewers member referred to as out the report that they used AI for the animation as a substitute of human animators. All of that point and power spent to verify they had been representing folks properly, and it didn’t even happen to them that changing human animators with AI was an issue.
Of this, Gregory tells TV Insider that this episode “is a distillation of the panic that individuals within the enterprise really feel not about doing the flawed factor, however about being perceived as doing the flawed factor.”
“That’s the entire thing with ‘Casting.’ He by no means says, ‘I don’t wish to be racist.’ He’s like, ‘I don’t wish to be seen as racist,’” Gregory says. Matt and the staff wished to keep away from controversy greater than they wished to verify their selections had been truly inclusive. In the actual world, this mindset results in Black artists and different underrepresented teams struggling to get their initiatives greenlit.
“I’ve had folks inform me that episode actually spoke to them as a result of they’ve had conversations like that behind closed doorways,” Gregory shares. “However we wished to make it clear that these aren’t folks which can be cavalier about it. They actually wish to do — or be seen doing — the best factor. However in making an attempt to try this, they gloss over different issues.”
Gregory says that the AI blindspot additional highlights how behind the curve Matt’s staff is. “AI might truly put folks out of enterprise,” he notes of this real-world problem, including that AI in Hollywood is “a type of ethical, moral grey areas” that the business can also be ill-equipped to sort out.
The Studio, Wednesdays, Apple TV+