Would Earl Hamner Embrace “Acting Cancel Culture?”

[flossieskid]

It has been said, “Good Actors Never Let You See Them Act.” Many actors have won Academy Awards for playing people with physical or mental challenges: Jane Wyman, playing a deaf woman in “Johnny Belinda”, Cliff Robertson, as a mentally ill patient in “Charlie” and Jon Voight, a paraplegic veteran in “Going Home” to name just a few. All Oscar worthy performances. But, weren’t they awarded for their believable acting skills because we knew each of these actors were not afflicted with the ailment portrayed in their movie?

Currently, there seems to be a movement to ONLY hire an actor or actress who actually has the malady presented in a movie or TV episode. Recently, there has been a movement to “cancel” regular actors and give roles to people who actually have the problems depicted in the script. So, my question: isn’t the term “acting” designed for people who don’t have the condition presented in the movie and they are “acting” the part as written by the screenwriter?

Of course, there are certain roles that MUST be authentic when shooting a movie. For example, in the movie CODA (Children of Deaf Adults) it was imperative that the main actors were actually deaf. The interaction between deaf and hearing cast members was extremely important to the plot of the movie - and amazing performances were captured by the filmmaker.

My parents always told me that they were not doing their job correctly if people didn’t believe they were actually the character they portrayed. When Flossie Brimmer read from a German Bible, it was very believable and the way my Mom did that scene in “The Firestorm” episode of the Waltons was so touching it brought many to tears (including me!) but my Mom wasn’t German - so should she have been denied that scene due to the fact she was not from that country? She was just acting.

I really abhor “cancel culture”! I think I have alluded to my feelings about this ridiculous practice in some of my earlier posts. I think I mentioned that most people raised in the Catholic faith were taught: “Hate the sin. Love the sinner.” I think Olivia and John may have felt the same way although they were not Catholics. But, it always seemed that the Walton parents applied that philosophy as they
raised their own large family and became such upstanding citizens on Walton’s Mountain.

Earl did tell me one time (and I am paraphrasing here) that he felt very lucky that each cast member and every guest star made “The Waltons” such a relatable series because, as a viewer, you believe every actor speaks the truth through their character’s dialogue. Would love to hear the thoughts of other Forum members if they think, today, if Earl would “cancel” any of the characters that appeared on any Walton episode - and why would Earl feel compelled to do so? A lot to ponder……

[Easton]

I agree with you on 'cancel culture'. The role of an actor is to convince us that they are the character they are portraying, no matter what. I've recently become a fan of 'Monk' starring Tony Shalhoub and I've come to appreciate what an incredible performance it took on his part to portray that character. He was Jack Lemmon's 'Felix Ungar' in overdrive.

Just like your mother reading the German Bible. I even asked you if she spoke German and you told me that your husband had taught her the correct pronunciations. I was convinced that she knew German. I don't speak Spanish so I wouldn't really know a decent performance in Spanish, but I know French, both Québécois and Parisienne, and I know that Alex Trebek spoke French very well, mainly because he grew up in Sudbury, Ontario, which was and still is a heavily-French region of Ontario. On the other hand, Mayim Bialik speaks it phonetically. (Ken Jennings even speaks it better than some of our 'bilingual' English politicians. Even people on the Babel commercials speak French better even if they're not speaking it properly. Babel does not know how to speak French.)

In The Waltons 'The Foundling', Erica Hunton was a hearing child, but she gave us an incredibly-believable performance as a deaf child, and even Kami, Judy, and Richard gave very passable performances when fingerspelling, especially in comparison to Brent 'Data' Spinner's performance in Star Trek: TNG. (Trust me. It was atrocious.)

There is, however, one performance which should have been cancelled: Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's. There is no excuse for that.

[Kyle]

I believe that if the casting pulls you out of the moment, then you shouldn’t do it. That’s why it’s tough to see actors in brownface playing Mexicans in old westerns. Or Marlo Thomas playing a Chinese mail order bride in Bonanza.

But I’m OK with race-blind casting for cartoon voiceovers. That doesn’t pull you out of the moment. And I do believe gay people can play straight and vice versa. And fully abled actors can play characters with disabilities.

[Easton]

^ For decades in Hollywood, gay men were playing straight characters. Few knew who were members of that club. It wasn't until Rock Hudson was dying from AIDs that the rest of the world sat up and took notice. They had no idea, and any rumours they heard or read were nothing more than rumours.

Tab Hunter was another young man who was forced to live a lie by the studios as were any number of actors: Roddy McDowell and Anthony Perkins to name just a few.

'Coda' was mentioned by Tracey. It co-starred the deaf actress Marlee Matlin. Marlee actually broke barriers in the 1986 movie 'Children of a Lesser God', co-starring with actor William Hurt.

And back in the late 40s and early 50s, Canadian Mohawk Jay Silverheels starred as Tonto in The Lone Ranger alongside Clayton Moore, opening the doors for a number of other Indigenous actors who followed, probably most notably Graham Greene. I still have no idea how Johnny Depp was cast as Tonto in the 2013 Lone Ranger movie. Even more of a tragedy was the producers allowing Johnny to design his own make-up.

[JessicaGirlSpy]

Mar 1, 2023 10:11:27 GMT -5 Easton said:

I agree with you on 'cancel culture'. The role of an actor is to convince us that they are the character they are portraying, no matter what. I've recently become a fan of 'Monk' starring Tony Shalhoub and I've come to appreciate what an incredible performance it took on his part to portray that character. He was Jack Lemmon's 'Felix Ungar' in overdrive.

Just like your mother reading the German Bible. I even asked you if she spoke German and you told me that your husband had taught her the correct pronunciations. I was convinced that she knew German. I don't speak Spanish so I wouldn't really know a decent performance in Spanish, but I know French, both Québécois and Parisienne, and I know that Alex Trebek spoke French very well, mainly because he grew up in Sudbury, Ontario, which was and still is a heavily-French region of Ontario. On the other hand, Mayim Bialik speaks it phonetically. (Ken Jennings even speaks it better than some of our 'bilingual' English politicians. Even people on the Babel commercials speak French better even if they're not speaking it properly. Babel does not know how to speak French.)

In The Waltons 'The Foundling', Erica Hunton was a hearing child, but she gave us an incredibly-believable performance as a deaf child, and even Kami, Judy, and Richard gave very passable performances when fingerspelling, especially in comparison to Brent 'Data' Spinner's performance in Star Trek: TNG. (Trust me. It was atrocious.)

There is, however, one performance which should have been cancelled: Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's. There is no excuse for that.

I completely agree with you about Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's. Completely horrid cinematic moment 

[patriciaanne]

I don't think Earl would have been a fan of cancel culture. Tracey, there is SO much going on right now that I don't agree with -- I wouldn't even know where to begin. 🤦

I just keep putting one foot in front of the other every day and I look for reasons to be grateful. I usually find them, too.

[goodnight]

Mar 1, 2023 15:50:11 GMT -5 Kyle said:

I believe that if the casting pulls you out of the moment, then you shouldn’t do it. That’s why it’s tough to see actors in brownface playing Mexicans in old westerns. Or Marlo Thomas playing a Chinese mail order bride in Bonanza.

But I’m OK with race-blind casting for cartoon voiceovers. That doesn’t pull you out of the moment. And I do believe gay people can play straight and vice versa. And fully abled actors can play characters with disabilities.

In a least 2 Disney movies that I can think of, the casting directors made sure to cast the speaking voices according to the race of the character. But not for the singing voices of the same character. For example, the Disney character Pocahontas, Irene Bedard who is Native American was cast for the speaking voice and singer/actress Judy Kuhn for the singing voice. For the character of Capt. Li Shang in Mulan. Actor BD Wong for the speaking voice and Donny Osmond for the singing voice.

[kazk]

It's an interesting question flossieskid!

We've just had an instance here of a stage musical being completely cancelled (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) because a transgender group criticised the casting because the actor playing Hedwig wasn't transgender! Because of this action there are now people who could have been working who no longer will be. Whatever happened to the best person for the job? Those actors identifying as transgender would surely be a small group and as has been stated, putting yourself into a character and being authentic is what acting is.

Thinking back to the 1970s though, Little House on the Prairie cast seeing children as blind children in later episodes and we are still asking if they were really blind or not. The sighted Melissa Sue Anderson was very convincing as Mary Ingalls who went blind.

Equally though I have just finished watching through Michael Landon's Highway to Heaven and it seems that he went out of his way to cast a disabled actor in storylines where he could.

Richard Thomas himself played a mentally challenged young man in No Other Love.

And thinking of The Waltons, what about the situation with The Warrior episode? Apparently Eduard Franz was signed to play the role of the 100 year old Indian but just three days before filming Ralph Waite and Will Geer insisted that a real Indian actor be cast. Ralph Senensky, director of that episode, says in the book Goodnight John Boy that he felt a wonderful script had been sacrificed and that the man finally cast was cast for his look only.

I think it's a real pity if great writing cannot become great television simply because an actor is cast because he has the attributes of the character, rather than an actor being cast because he can portray the character the most convincingly.

Perhaps though, when outside groups become involved, it might be just easier not to go ahead with the project.

[Carla]

In I believe the most recent stage production on Broadway of Oklahoma the role of Ado Annie was played by Ali Stroker who is a spinal cord disabled actor. She won the Broadway job and went on to win the Tony Award for that role that year. 

I do not believe that Earl would embrace the Acting Cancel Culture.