If the past several years have been any indication, Hollywood has a tendency to skew away from non-white casting. Nothing against the business, that’s just the generally safe way to do things. In order to sell movies, they tend to cast stars, and thanks to the way the Hollywood system is, most stars tend to be white.
It’s because of that tendency that it’s a big deal when a film like Black Panther comes along. It’s a big deal when a film like Coco comes along. Coco, as you may know, is Pixar’s latest animated movie, and it notably features an all-Latino cast (well, all-Latino, plus John Ratzenberger).
LRM had a chance to sit down with Danielle Feinberg, director of photography lighting for Coco, and during the roundtable chat, she had a chance to react to Pixar’s dedication to hiring an all-Latino cast.
“I think it’s totally awesome. I love that Pixar doesn’t shy away from things like that, where it’s like we’re making a movie about Mexico, why we would get a bunch of…We’re never like, ‘Oh, we’re going to get some big name actor to do the voice of this so that we can sell more tickets.’ It’s like no, who’s the right casting for that character kind of thing, you know? Obviously, the right casting for Coco is to have Latin actors and actresses. That’s part of why I work at Pixar because that’s what they care about and that’s the priority things are put on.”
Indeed Pixar has always been that company. Unlike other big animation studios, Pixar isn’t one to headline their cast. Their films tend to rely on the strength of the Pixar brand, the high-concept ideas, and solid execution.
Coco is no different in that regard, and based on what we’ve seen of the film so far (we’ve seen the first 35 or so minutes), we think that approach worked well for this film.
Coco hits theaters on November 22, 2017.