As I sat in the movie theaters a few days ago awaiting the start of
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1, a trailer for the new production of
Annie appeared before my eyes. The preview immediately captivated my attention. This
Annie clearly strayed away from the traditional elements of the classic Broadway musical and Oscar-nominated 1982 film. In the new
Annie movie, which will be released on
December 19th of this year, Annie lives in a foster home (instead of an orphanage like in previous versions of the production) in
present-day New York. The trailer makes the hustle and bustle of 2014's Big Apple evident, yet the most surprising and positive change I noticed in the clip was the casting of
Annie. In the new movie, Quvenzháne Wallis, an 11-year-old African American actress, portrays the lead role of Annie. Maybe we are finally making strides in Hollywood by including more racial diversity among casts.
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Annie over the years:
Aileen Quinn (left), Alicia Morton (center), Quvenzháne Wallis (right) |
In the 1982 production of
Annie, Aileen Quinn plays a redheaded, freckle-faced Annie, living in an oprhanage during the Great Depression.
Quinn is surrounded by almost all other white actors. Geoffrey Holder is listed as the only black actor in the cast. However, he plays Punjab, a bodyguard and butler, who can be described as a servile, supporting character. A new
Annie film was
released in 1999, with Alicia Morton, another young white actress, portraying the role of Annie. Like the 1982 version, the lead characters in this film are almost all played by white actors and actresses. Yet, Grace Farrell, Warbucks' secretary, is portrayed by a black actress named Audra McDonald. Despite earning more screen time than Geoffrey Holder, Audra McDonald still plays a supporting character.
15 years have passed since the 1999 release of
Annie and
the cast in the 2014 production looks completely different. Actors and actresses of color have finally been cast as lead roles in the film. African Americans Quvenzháne Wallis and Jamie Foxx play Annie and Will Stacks (Warbucks), the two main characters in the movie. The black actors and actresses are no longer just the helping hands to the leading white characters. Now, they shine in the spotlight. Hopefully, more films follow the example of 2014's
Annie and start to include more African Americans in leading roles. The 2014
Annie should represent more than just a new era with modern technology; it should represent changing times in cinema and society.
I think this is a great step and also very interesting that the roles of African Americans in the previous movies were all service roles (bodyguard/butler and secretary) and now they are the strong lead roles. It's similar to what we were talking about in class about the photographs we discussed where you could replace the African Americans in the photo with white people and it would be the same photo.
ReplyDeleteJules,
ReplyDeleteNice analysis of the cast and the momentous changes in racial composition. You're clearly promoting a progress narrative in this post, but I am wondering how widespread this casting phenomenon is as well as other reasons (not mentioned) for it. For example, could it be that musicals are "safer" bets than dramas? Could it be that Annie is so well known that it's easier to cast African-Americans in it whereas it might be a tougher "sell" to mix up these racial roles in an untested musical vehicle?