In case you’re still wondering about the kind of “thinking” that pervades the entertainment industry, we have this from actress Chloe Sevigny.
During Rich Juzwiak’s interview with Ms. Sevigny for themuse.jezebel.com, she was asked about how she researches roles, and then about the casting for a movie set in the “gentrified” area of Park Slope, Brooklyn. Here are the questions and how she answered:
Juzwiak: Do you usually research roles so extensively?
Sevigny: “If it’s available. It depends on the part. I did The Snowman last year, so I read the book. I did Golden Exits with Alex Ross Perry, and I was like, “This white privilege lady in Park Slope? Yeah, I know that!” There’s not that much research that needs to be done on that one.
Juzwiak: You think about (race)?
Sevigny: I do. I’m very aware of that now. At one of the Golden Exits [screenings], someone I was with confronted him about that. He was like, “Have you ever been to Park Slope?” And then you’re like…what’s he gonna do? Fill in all the minor characters? When I watch a movie, it’s so transparent when they’re casting in that situation. I’m not saying they shouldn’t. It’s also like, this is that world… There’s too many white people, period.
In other words, in the mind of Chloe Sevigny, there is no need to research the role of a “White privilege lady”. If the lady is White and has money there’s nothing textural at all about her, nothing else to know.
And, in case you thought that was just a case of clumsiness in answering, we then find out that, in Ms. Sevigny’s mind, “there’s too many White people, period”.
What does that mean? If you happen to have that skin color you are extraneous? God over-ordered? Maybe you should be sent back?
Or is it that Chloe Sevigny, who is also White, is making some kind of suicide threa….uh, no. Forget that. Since Ms. Sevigny seems perfectly happy to live her privileged, White life – and enjoy her celebrity status (which is why a magazine interviewed her in the first place) – I doubt it.
But, while we’re on the subject of her opinions about race, can someone explain to me how “there’s too many White people, period” – a specific reference to skin color – differs from, say, a kkker telling us “there’s too many Black people, period”? Maybe I’m just not sufficiently educated in the complexity of these things, but, to me, it seems exactly the same sentiment.
Personally, as someone who is White – through no doing of my own, any more than Chloe Sevigny, or any other White person, or any other person of any other skin tone is – I think I’ll stick around. I don’t feel my melanin content defines whether I am entitled to a place on planet earth.
If Ms. Sevigny feels differently, I suppose the logical conclusion is that she’ll act accordingly. But don’t bet on it happening. Her racial intellectuality is too important to the world. Just ask her.
