Article by Cameron Spink

 

Just when you think you've seen it all another story comes along and surprises you. This week it is a casting agent from Wingnut, on The Hobbit set, who has been placed directly in the PC firing line.

 

Apparently a British woman, Naz Humphreys, was rejected because her skin was too dark due to her Pakistani heritage. According to a video the casting agency specified that "we are looking for light-skinned people. I'm not trying to be - whatever. It's just the brief. You've got to look like a hobbit".

 

Of all the indignation! How dare they require someone striving for the role of a Hobbit to look like the creatures created by JRR Tolkien in his book in 1937. In fact, surely it is specified that a male be cast in the role of Bilbo. But wouldn't that set off all sorts of PC alarms. After all that is a very sexist limitation.

 

"It's 2010 and I still can't believe I'm being discriminated against because I have brown skin," Humphreys told the media. Ah, so here is the trump card, legitimate casting decisions shouldn't be made in 2010.

 

There have been significant ramifications from this event. The casting agent has been sacked and Wingnut have issued a press release saying "anyone who met the height and age criteria [is] free to audition". So let me get this right, they can't discriminate upon skin tone but they can discriminate in regards to someone's height or age. It's 2010 and I still can't believe people are being discriminated against because of their height or age.

 

It is important to remember that people playing the politically-correct card only play it insofar as it benefits them. They never take it to its logical end and then consider the stupidity of their claims.

 

Humphreys continues on in her dismayed state "it just seemed like a shame because obviously hobbits are not brown or black or any other colour. They all look kind of homogenised beige and all derived from the Caucasian gene pool. In 2010, a movie company should be representing all its viewers. It's not just going to be white people seeing The Hobbit, but people from all over the world."

 

From my understanding of this statement I get the impression that she accepts the classic English novel's take on what a hobbit should look like but she is hell-bent on changing it to fit into this PC-mad world. As a fan of the original works this irks me somewhat. A classic is to be distorted in order to retain uniformity.

 

Obviously it is not a big deal. Inevitably Peter Jackson will give Humphreys a part just to shut her up. However, it seems that whenever someone pulls out the discrimination card all decent folk of Middle Earth need to run for the hills in order to remain politically correct.