Kristen Bell and Jenny Slate step down from voicing biracial characters

Kristen Bell and Jenny Slate have announced they're stepping away from their voice roles as biracial animated characters on Central Park and Big Mouth, respectively. Both actresses currently portray biracial women in their particular series and on June 24, they both issued public apologies and announced they would be leaving their roles in an attempt to help curb the erasure of Black voices in pop culture.Whitewashing characters has been a pervasive on the big and small screen since Hollywood's inception, starting with Blackface and continuing with casting white actors to portray people of colour, including modern examples like Emma Stone in Aloha, Jake Gyllenhaal in Prince of Persia, Johnny Depp in The Lone Ranger, Scarlett Johansson in Ghost in the Shell, Tilda Swinton in Doctor Strange and countless others. Now Bell and Slate are reflecting on the impact of casting white actors to play biracial characters and stepping aside.[video_embed id='1982699']RELATED: ’30 Rock’ episodes featuring Blackface being pulled[/video_embed]Slate was the first to announce that she was stepping away from her role as Missy on Netflix’s raunchy coming-of-age series Big Mouth, a character she's portrayed for all four seasons of the animated comedy. “At the start of the show, I reasoned with myself that it was permissible for me to play ‘Missy’ because her mom is Jewish and white — as am I. But ‘Missy’ is also Black and Black characters on an animated show should be played by Black people,” wrote Slate in her Instagram message.

 

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A post shared by Jenny Slate (@jennyslate) on Jun 24, 2020 at 1:00pm PDT

Slate also wrote, “I acknowledge how my original reasoning was flawed, that it existed as an example of white privilege and unjust allowances made within a system of societal white supremacy, and that in me playing ‘Missy,’ I was engaging in an act of erasure of Black people. Ending my portrayal of ‘Missy’ is one step in a life-long process of uncovering the racism in my actions.”Slate said that she has been reflecting on her career in comedy and acknowledges that she’s made other mistakes, adding that she cannot change the past, but she can take accountability for her actions and will continue to “engage in meaningful anti-racist actions.” Slate ended her message with an apology, adding “Black voices must be heard. Black Lives Matter.”Big Mouth creators Nick Kroll, Andrew Goldberg, Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett issued their own statement following Slate’s announcement, echoing her sentiment and apologizing for the role they played in minimizing the importance of representation by casting a white actor to play Missy.

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— nick kroll (@nickkroll) June 24, 2020

The creators said that they plan to recast a Black actor to play Missy for the show’s fifth season (according to Variety, Season 4 has already wrapped production). “We made a mistake, took our privilege for granted, and we are working hard to do better moving forward. We are proud of the representation that Missy has offered cerebral, sensitive women of color, and we plan to continue that representation and further grow Missy’s character as we recast a new Black actor to play her,” read the statement. “We thank Jenny for her decision and for creating with us an inspiring, compassionate, and very human character. We look forward to being able to explore Missy’s story with even greater authenticity in the years to come.”Hours after Slate and the Big Mouth creators released their statements, Kristen Bell also announced she would no longer be playing the character Molly on the new Apple animated series Central Park. In a statement by the show’s creators, producers and writers, including Loren Bouchard, Nora Smith, Sanjay Shah, Halsted Sullivan, Kevin Larsen and Bell’s Frozen co-star Josh Gad, it was confirmed that she will not be playing the role of Molly, but instead will be cast as a different character while a Black actor steps in to voice Molly.“Kristen, along with the entire creative team, recognizes that the casting of the character of Molly is an opportunity to get representation right—to cast a Black or mixed race actress and give Molly a voice that resonates with all of the nuance and experiences of the character as we’ve drawn her,” reads the statement. “We profoundly regret that we might have contributed to anyone’s feelings of exclusion or erasure. Black people and people of color have worked and will continue to work on Central Park but we can do better. We’re committed to creating opportunities for people of color and Black people in all roles, on all our projects – behind the mic, in the writers room, in production, and in post-production. Animation will be stronger for having as many voices, experiences, and perspectives as we can possibly bring into the industry.”

 

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This is a time to acknowledge our acts of complicity. Here is one of mine. Playing the character of Molly on Central Park shows a lack of awareness of my pervasive privilege. Casting a mixed race character with a white actress undermines the specificity of the mixed race and Black American experience. It was wrong and we, on the Central Park team, are pledging to make it right. I am happy to relinquish this role to someone who can give a much more accurate portrayal and I will commit to learning, growing and doing my part for equality and inclusion.

A post shared by kristen bell (@kristenanniebell) on Jun 24, 2020 at 3:46pm PDT

Bell added her own message when sharing the official statement, writing “This is a time to acknowledge our acts of complicity. Here is one of mine. Playing the character of Molly on Central Park shows a lack of awareness of my pervasive privilege. Casting a mixed race character with a white actress undermines the specificity of the mixed race and Black American experience."[video_embed id='1983692']RELATED: Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard bring Hello Bello to Canada[/video_embed]