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On Wednesday, two animated comedies announced significant changes in their casts.
This is a time to acknowledge our acts of complicity.
Heres 1 of mine, Belltweeted.
Portraying Molly shows a lack of awareness of my pervasive privilege, she wrote.
Kristen needed to be Molly, he said.
We couldnt not make her Molly.
(Bouchardapologizedfor that non-explanation yesterday.)
Its true that both shows have more work to do now.
Slates and Bells roles will need to be recast.
Their contracts will need to be unraveled.
New actors will need to be auditioned and hired.
But recasting animated voices is no harder than any other part of making a TV show.
Contracts are renegotiated; situations change.
Making this kind of move is not an extraordinary feat.
Its the day-to-day operations of Hollywood.
Itsalwayshard to make something, or to remake it.
But its notable that the hard work here will come in the remaking stage, not in the unmaking.
The declaration is the deed.
The most significant part is also the easiest to do.
The people who make these shows decide to change, and then they say it.
(We should have hired a Vietnamese writer and a Vietnamese actor to play Diane, he recentlytweeted.)
In February,The Simpsonsannounced that white actor Hank Azaria wouldno longer be the voice of Indian character Apu.
Real change means committing to undo a shows status quo, even if it feels awkward.
The simplest and most effective solution is to not accept the excuse of color-blind casting in the first place.
Short of that, though, these announcements should be a lesson to other creators and performers alike.
It may seem hard to make casting changes, but its utterly straightforward.
All it takes is for the people responsible to have the guts to say the thing out loud.
