TORONTO – Many in the Italian film industry lament the lack of ethnic accuracy concerning casting for Italian roles. With the abundance of talent in Italy, it’s incomprehensible that foreign casting agents opt for non-Italians, especially for non-fictional roles in Italian based biopics. For example, Ferrari and The House of Gucci. There is a counter argument, however.
An international star can draw a larger audience, and actors after all are paid to act. They are by their very definition pretenders.
This week however, the debate regarding Italian actors abroad took a wild turn. HBO announced some of its casting for its upcoming Harry Potter series. Adapted from J.K. Rowling’s seven books about a boy wizard, the series intends to unravel over at least as many years. But when a young British-Italian actress, Alessia Leoni, was cast to portray the Parvati Patil character, the blowback was palpable.
From Reddit users to posters on the ‘X’ platform, media outlets began plastering the internet’s outrage over the casting.
“I’m so sick of Hollywood casting biracial, half white desi actors”. Another comment on X read, “This is frustrating. Why cast an Italian who just looks brown to play Parvati Patil? They easily could’ve cast an actual Indian actress. So much for ‘diversity’ @HBO. No hate to the kid, but still”.
To assert that Leoni’s casting “leads to discussions about authentic representation” is all well and good. There’s a valid debate concerning the issue – keeping in mind however that Harry Potter is a fiction.
And just like so many other fictional pieces written and produced over decades through the Hollywood Studio System, Italian characters have sparsely been played by Italians.
Though from an Italian perspective, Leoni’s casting raises a different question. Specifically, how is it that casting agents in England and the U.S. can burrow deep into the earth’s crust to find an Italian girl to play an Indian character – but forget where Italy is on the map for Italian characters.
This was the case with the Netflix Medici series, an Italian/British co-production, which saw several Italians cast in the show, except as the main Medici members. Who were all British. And the Gladiator sequel Gladiator II, another British/American co-production cast zero Italians in their recreation of Ancient Rome.
The shooting for HBO’s Harry Potter series is set to commence this summer, unless the outrage expands into other areas, like J.K Rowling’s anti-woke stance on Trans issues. HBO’s Chief Content Officer Casey Bloys has already been challenged by Rowling’s critics for “doing business” with the British Author.
Her response: “We already have a show on HBO from her called ‘C.B. Strike’ that we do with the BBC. It’s pretty clear that those are her personal, political views. She’s entitled to them. ‘Harry Potter’ is not secretly being infused with anything. And if you want to debate her, you can go on Twitter”.
Image of Poster and Alessia Leoni courtesy of HBO
Massimo Volpe is a filmmaker and freelance writer from Toronto: he writes reviews of Italian films/content on Netflix
