Sandra Oh says the UK is “behind” on diversity in the film and TV industries

[snoop1130]

Sandra Oh says the UK is “behind” on diversity in the film and TV industries

By Rhian Daly

 

Sandra Oh as Eve Polastri in ‘Killing Eve’ CREDIT: Sid Gentle/BBC America

 

Sandra Oh has spoken about working on British sets, saying the UK TV and film industries are “behind” on diversity on set.

 

The Killing Eve star discussed her experiences of working on the BBC show, in which she plays MI6 agent Eve Polastri.

 

Speaking with Kerry Washington for Variety, Oh said she was “totally used to” being the only Asian woman on a set.

 

“The UK, I’m not afraid to say, is behind,” she said. “I am not only the only Asian person on set, but the development of people behind the camera is very slow in the UK. I don’t know about the rest of Europe.”

 

Full Story: https://www.nme.com/news/tv/sandra-oh-uk-behind-diversity-film-tv-industries-2696941

[jesimps]

These people must be on something, either that or they're just trying to cause trouble. Almost every show I watch from the UK has non-whites in it, whether the parts call for them or not. Even period dramas. The ratio of non-white to white is far higher than it is in real life. I'd also like to add (and I find it really annoying) that the whites are more often than not portrayed as real nasties, whereas the non-whites are the salt of the earth. The UK has to be among the most racially tolerant countries in the world, I wish these people would stop trying to stir up problems. They want to try being a pensioner for a few months, they'd have something to drip about then.

[Denim]

14 hours ago, jesimps said:

Almost every show I watch from the UK has non-whites in it, whether the parts call for them or not. Even period dramas.

 

Yes, I was watching one the other day and they had a black bloke playing Othello !! 

[248900_1469958220]

We NEED  a black Sherlock Holmes....I mean like NOW!! An Asian, male midget also needs to play Miss Marple....and Pocahontas needs to be played by a white.......hang on thats not allowed is it???

[bodga]

12 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Speaking with Kerry Washington for Variety, Oh said she was “totally used to” being the only Asian woman on a set.

and  how  many  white Europeans in her  original  countries  sets?

How long before Sherlock  Holmes is a mixed  race, transgender, vegan (for some members), amputee with learning disabilities?

[bodga]

7 minutes ago, 248900_1469958220 said:

We NEED  a black Sherlock Holmes....I mean like NOW!! An Asian, male midget also needs to play Miss Marple....and Pocahontas needs to be played by a white.......hang on thats not allowed is it???

posted  minutes  apart,  same  thoughts  though,  getting  more  pathetic  by  the  day, i  should  add   "alien"  into that also so not  to be discriminatory against other planets

[Orton Rd]

They are actually over represented in most tv productions, not only that they can only ever be cast in positive roles. You are never going to see a serial killer or rapist played by a black actor for example, just as bad as only casting them as servants and doing menial work. Where a black role is involved in crime there is almost always an evil white character really responsible. Good example the series Broadchurch, we all knew no way was Lenny Henry going to end up being the rapist, but a half back/arab looking actor was, but he had been forced to do it by a physco posh white man.

Edited June 30, 2020 by Orton Rd

[Dustdevil]

I like Sandra Oh but it seems to me there's an adequate presence of minorities in UK television. In American TV, it's not about race or culture anymore. Rather, nobody's straight anymore--even in the ads. Everybody's gay and it seems as if it's becoming politically incorrect to portray a beautiful woman as straight. I'm all for live and let live but I get really tired of seeing men kissing men. Yukko.

[sammieuk1]

Wonder how many white Brits are on the sets of Asian tv for a balanced diversity comparison ????

[Kaoboi Bebobp]

4 hours ago, bodga said:

and  how  many  white Europeans in her  original  countries  sets?

How long before Sherlock  Holmes is a mixed  race, transgender, vegan (for some members), amputee with learning disabilities?

 

In answer to your first question, a lot! She was born near Ottawa. She's been acting in TV and films for a long time. She's Canadian and now a duallie, became a naturalized American citizen a couple of years ago.

Edited June 30, 2020 by Kaoboi Bebobp

[twocatsmac]

13 minutes ago, sammieuk1 said:

Wonder how many white Brits are on the sets of Asian tv for a balanced diversity comparison ????

The only Brit I remember regularly on asian tv was Gary Glitter.

[BritManToo]

18 minutes ago, sammieuk1 said:

Wonder how many white Brits are on the sets of Asian tv for a balanced diversity comparison ????

Yeah, I watched 'the bridge', only one white guy on screen.

Thai/Malay/Korean/Japan ........ no white folk on their TV.

[Dionigi]

Seeing as there is only 0.7% asian or british asian of chinese extraction in the uk I am not suprised she is the only asian chinese on the set.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_groups_in_the_United_Kingdom

More Asians on uk tv than brits on chinese tv .

 

[bert bloggs]

4 hours ago, Denim said:

 

Yes, I was watching one the other day and they had a black bloke playing Othello !! 

Yes and in the series i watched The artful dodger was black .. i also saw a year or two ago a series about hookers in Victorian times ,the brothel owners were a black male with a white wife ,you really couldnt make it up. just waiting for James Bond to be a black tranny in a wheelchair

[BritManToo]

4 minutes ago, bert bloggs said:

Yes and in the series i watched The artful dodger was black .. i also saw a year or two ago a series about hookers in Victorian times ,the brothel owners were a black male with a white wife ,you really couldnt make it up. just waiting for James Bond to be a black tranny in a wheelchair

And when they're given a historical movie where casting a black guy would be totally in context (Pirates of the Caribbean), they decide to cast a white woman.

[RichardColeman]

5 hours ago, jesimps said:

The UK has to be among the most racially tolerant countries in the world, I wish these people would stop trying to stir up problems.

Agreed, seems crazy all these people travelling all through Europe and Africa to come specifically  to the UK only to tell us we are racist !

[Baerboxer]

18 minutes ago, Dionigi said:

Seeing as there is only 0.7% asian or british asian of chinese extraction in the uk I am not suprised she is the only asian chinese on the set.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_groups_in_the_United_Kingdom

More Asians on uk tv than brits on chinese tv .

 

 

Indeed.

 

Just another "entertainer" thinking she's important enough to lecture everyone on a currently fashionable topic.

 

And of course, it's only Western Democracies with predominantly white indigenous people that this applies to. 

 

Has she comments about white people not being represented in Bollywood? Or Chinese TV? 

 

The BBC if anything is vastly over represented with minorities totally out of proportion to the British populations percentage ethnicity.

 

But as we are learning, white people/governments are now perceived as soft touches.

[Krataiboy]

7 hours ago, Denim said:

 

Yes, I was watching one the other day and they had a black bloke playing Othello !! 

The Moor the merrier say I.

[IAMHERE]

Not many Asians in the UK would trade their lot in life for that of a person working in the Film industry, especially behind the scenes; it'd be a lowering of standards.

[Dustdevil]

On 6/29/2020 at 11:39 PM, bert bloggs said:

Yes and in the series i watched The artful dodger was black .. i also saw a year or two ago a series about hookers in Victorian times ,the brothel owners were a black male with a white wife ,you really couldnt make it up. just waiting for James Bond to be a black tranny in a wheelchair

The armrests will double as machine guns and the whole thing will be rocket-propelled on demand.

[thaibeachlovers]

On 6/30/2020 at 12:34 PM, jesimps said:

These people must be on something, either that or they're just trying to cause trouble. Almost every show I watch from the UK has non-whites in it, whether the parts call for them or not. Even period dramas. The ratio of non-white to white is far higher than it is in real life. I'd also like to add (and I find it really annoying) that the whites are more often than not portrayed as real nasties, whereas the non-whites are the salt of the earth. The UK has to be among the most racially tolerant countries in the world, I wish these people would stop trying to stir up problems. They want to try being a pensioner for a few months, they'd have something to drip about then.

I just watched the first episode of Casualty that came out in 1986. It had at least 1 black actor in a major role, a Pole man and an Irish woman in a major roles ( do they count as diverse? ) a woman of colour as the receptionist, and I'm sure there were a few "diverse" characters as extras. Yet someone I've never heard of that has been in movie/ tv series I've never heard of is apparently being taken seriously. World has gone mad.