Last year, the University Of Southern California conducted a study that—gasp—found Hollywood to be a playground for straight, white dudes. Only one-third of speaking characters were female, while 28.3 percent were portrayed by performers of color. These statistics, it goes without saying, don’t reflect this country’s diversity. In fact, only 7 percent of films had a cast that accurately reflected the gender and racial makeup of the U.S. Factor in the apoplectic strain of fan entitlement that arises every time a female or non-white actor is considered for a role that previously belonged to a white male, and the systemic nature of it all becomes clear.
On Twitter over the weekend, writer Brian J. White decided to envision an alternate Hollywood, one where some of our most iconic film and TV properties were cast without any straight, white men.
He got some great responses, which are still rolling in. Unsurprisingly, SNL and Ghostbusters star Kate McKinnon’s name popped up several times, namely in roles like Back To The Future’s Doc Brown and Goose in Top Gun. Other popular names to pop up were Kristen Stewart, Janelle Monáe, John Boyega, and Oscar Isaac.
Naturally, White’s mentions were overrun with trolls horrified at the notion that people aside from straight, white men be cast in their favorite movies, so do him a favor and brew up some better suggestions to help drown them out.