North Texas Daily

Hollywood has a casting problem.

Now more than ever it seems to be a bigger issue than it has been before. This may not necessarily be new to some, but it is certainly an issue.

Whether it’s casting a straight actor to portray a gay character, not giving women enough roles they deserve or casting an actor who is not the correct race the character is intended to be, Hollywood’s casting issue also breaches into another topic not mentioned as often as it should: movies with actors having to adopt a certain accent to fit the character they are portraying onscreen.

Unfortunately, when actors have to mask their natural voice with an accent, most of the time it never really seems to work out for the good.

For instance, I recently saw the spy thriller “Red Sparrow” with Jennifer Lawrence, who portrays a Russian with, of course, a Russian accent. Lawrence is not a native Russian — she had to adopt a Russian accent for her role.

For the most part her accent was fine, but throughout the film, I could tell when her original voice would blend in with her accented voice, and it did not flow as naturally as it should have.

If filmmakers casted a real Russian to play the role in the film, there would have been no real issues with the portrayal of the main character and her accent.

“Red Sparrow” is just one example in a long list of films in which actors have to fake an accent for roles, and it does not always work.

The main issue with casting people without the correct background, race or identity for films is how it takes away from the overall viewing experience of the film. Films are an escape into another world for a couple of hours, and when those films accurately convey those things, it boosts the film to another level of enjoyment.

However, when these films are not portrayed accurately, especially in terms of casting, it can definitely detract from the overall viewing experience of the film.

Hopefully in the future Hollywood can make the push it really needs to cast the right actors for the right characters to give films the quality they need to be fully accurate.