THIS GUY AGAIN?

Just imagine: you turn on a movie and suddenly Jacob Elordi lumbers into the scene or Sydney Sweeney performs a mumbled monologue. There’s no escape; the faces of over-cast actors are burned into everyone’s retinas. Seriously, who’s gonna tell all these casting directors that they have more than five performers to choose from?

It’s not only annoying and lazy, it’s also problematic. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë masterfully touches on themes of racism, domestic abuse and gender roles. That’s what makes it all the more offensive to cast the white, Australian Jacob Elordi as the dark, brooding Heathcliff, who is widely interpreted as a man of color.

But at least they cast someone good for Heathcliff’s 18-year-old counterpart Cathy Earnshaw, right? Wrong. Margot Robbie, a woman in her mid-30s, was given the role. Was there really nobody better suited for the part? These casting directors worked incredibly hard to bastardize an adaptation of one of the finest pieces of literature, making it into a crass piece of softcore garbage.

On that note, we all know Sydney Sweeney, actress and eugenics extraordinaire. Wherever you look, she’s there. Since her breakout role as Cassie Howard in Euphoria, she has since taken the world by storm with her subpar acting and newfound sex symbol status.

Primarily favored by pre-pubescent boys, Sweeney was in Anyone But You alongside Glen Powell, The Housemaid with Amanda Seyfried and Christy, a film about Christy Martin, a queer woman and a legendary boxer. The latter seems like an especially egregious missed opportunity to have given some attention to one of the many extraordinarily talented queer actresses out there. With Christy being a box office flop, it’s a shame that Martin’s story will remain unknown by many.

Now, though it pains me to add him to this list, I must: Timothée Chalamet. With both Dune movies, Marty Supreme, Wonka and A Complete Unknown? Give the poor kid some days off. Opportunities to give young actors their big break have been continuously handed to Chalamet, and while we can’t deny his popularity and talent, can’t we save some roles for all the other gangly white guys out there?

Similarly, if you’ve ever seen a flashback scene from the 2010s, you know who McKenna Grace is. She played the younger version of every white woman in Hollywood. Were there other kids that would have also given stellar performances? Yes, of course, but this again seems like laziness on the part of casting directors. Now a young woman, she’s moved on from juvenile roles, starting off her adult acting career questionably by starring in Regretting You, a movie adaptation of the Colleen Hoover book. For Grace, it seems like an opportune time to step back and reevaluate where her career is going.

What the film industry needs more than anything right now is a lineup of fresh faces, like the breakout hit Heated Rivalry, with its cast of relatively unknown actors. Hopefully the casting directors of Hollywood take a page out of their book and provide audiences with a carefully cast set of individuals for future projects.