Not to take anything away from the whole Nadine situation, but Uncharted 4 did actually feature a POC woman in a non-POC role: Merle Dandridge voiced the old woman (Evelyn) in the flashback chapter with a young Nate and Sam.
Claude and Cyril are literally from that world's version of the middle east. Claude's real name is Khalid.
This would take huge, huge moral character for someone to do, to make such a sacrifice to their own job opportunities.
That's what would make it an incredible sacrifice for whomever does it.
That's kind of a risky, to the point of being an unfortunately pointless gesture, for when all you know, the next 20 VAs they have in line for the role are also non-PC.
Exactly. Which is why the guilt, pressure and ultimately responsibility should be aimed at the casting, not the actors.
Good point. It's the kind of gesture that would only work in a idealistic World where the problem of institutional racism is already solved at a meta level.
Agreed. Even looking at a recent game like Fire Emblem: Three Houses, all 3 of its PoC characters (Claude, Dedue, & Cyril) are voiced by white actors in English.
Like I said, this falls more on the casting director than the actors themselves. But if NDAs permit, I honestly wish that they turned down those roles & let fellow PoC actors take them up.
I actually provided some examples in the OP, albeit for the same voice actor (Zeno Robinson).
At least in the cases of Twintelle & Marina, there aren't many (if any, I'm not 100% certain) black voice actors located in Japan, where both ARMS & Splatoon 2 were recorded. Said location should explain why Biff never got his English voice in the actual game (though on both fronts, why they didn't involve NoA is beyond me). But then then, that doesn't excuse Urbosa & Riju, with BotW having had its English voice acting recorded in America.
Putting in PoC characters just to have PoC characters is "pandering"?
Yep, which is why blaming Laura Bailey for Naughty Dog's issues is pointless.
Their excuse for this doesnt hold water either which way.
Either they had the character and still went with casting a white person after calling her agent.
Or they had a white person cast and decided to make the character look like an actual South African actress....and yes im still calling bullshit that its a coincidence she looks pretty much identical to Kandyse.
I agree. Acting is...acting. You hire someone to fill the roll you have. The character isn't a clone of a person.
It's not really that simple. I dont work in the industry but I am fairly sure that generally, directors look for people with a huge amount of range so they can save cost on hiring VAs. If one person can voice multiple people it makes sense, regardless of ethnicity.
As strange as it sounds I'm guessing ND did not want to pay her whatever she would be owed in the instance of a recast due to a creative difference rather than any actual issue of job performance. This redesign happened after all relevant contracts were drawn up and signed so Laura would likely get a nice payout for ND reneging on their deal. Or they just didn't care about the optics. Either seems plausible.
This, we absolutely need more representation but I think asking others to turn down roles is asking a bit much. We need to have more black writers, casting directors, and voice actors period. There's room for both. Goes for all people of color, all genders, all ethnicities, and backgrounds.
It's all navelgazing since we don't know the specifics of Laura's contract but not to put too fine a point on it your example is quite old. I'm sure good agents do a better job keeping their talent in the seat so to speak. I also don't know how relevant it is as well since Eric Stoltz was apparently difficult to work with according to the producers which is job performance related rather than a creative difference.
They either didn't care about the optics or did not want to pay Laura Bailey out when there is no actual cause for termination. Like her or not she is a top tier talent, it's not someone you can randomly dismiss with no blowback.
slightly off topic but what line are you talking about? I'm not too well versed in cinema history but very curious.
I AM YOUR FATHER
Remember when people reached out to her on twitter letting her know and she answered something like "I should probably call my lawyer" ? It was fun seeing people lose their shit over a corporation maybe getting sued.Their excuse for this doesnt hold water either which way.
Either they had the character and still went with casting a white person after calling her agent.
Or they had a white person cast and decided to make the character look like an actual South African actress....and yes im still calling bullshit that its a coincidence she looks pretty much identical to Kandyse.
This.
