Kal Penn tweeted some of the racist casting calls he got early in his career.
Before "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle," Kal Penn was just another 20-something guy in Hollywood looking for a break.
Aspiring actors are subjected to no shortage of humiliating audition opportunities. But as a young actor of Indian descent, Penn was forced to subject himself to an extraordinary level of typecasting and stereotyping in order to work, at least according to a series of tweets the "Designated Survivor" star posted.
You can pretty much guess what some of the casting notices were like.
Penn recalled being asked to put on an exaggerated accent for comic effect more than once — though the casting people rarely admitted that's what they wanted him to do.
Often, he explained in his tweets, the roles were one-note jokes — defined by little more than skin color and a "funny" voice.
The audition experiences even soured him on some shows he was a fan of before he became an actor.
Penn also included praise for some shows he auditioned for and worked on that "didn't have to use external things to mask subpar writing" — including "24," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "The Steve Harvey Show," and "Angel."
Since the years when Penn was an up-and-coming actor, the TV landscape has diversified and opportunities for non-white actors have expanded, with shows like "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend," "Jane the Virgin," "Black-ish," "Silicon Valley," and "Empire," featuring three-dimensional characters of color in starring roles.
Still, some evidence suggests that progress might be anecdotal. According to an analysis conducted by the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, 72% of all speaking roles in film and TV were white in 2016, virtually unchanged from a decade prior. Only 28% of roles were from non-white racial and ethnic groups, despite the fact that these groups constitute almost 39% of the actual U.S. population.
Racist and sexist casting calls haven't gone away. Recently, New York actor Audrey Alford was threatened with a lawsuit after she posted a screengrab of a casting call notice from an agency seeking "mainly caucasian actors" who are "gorgeous in a classic way," to her Twitter page. In 2015, actor Rose McGowan leaked a casting call, purportedly for an Adam Sandler movie, encouraging female auditioners to wear something that "shows off cleavage" to the audition.
As a successful actor, Penn can use his platform to advocate on behalf of young actors of color auditioning today who might not be able to speak up for fear of reprisal.
Photo by Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images.
More exposure probably won't end the calls for South Asian actors to play convenience store clerks, terrorists, and nerdy one-note programers, but if it shames the people in charge of bringing movies and TV shows to life into making more creative choices and casting directors into searching talent, rather than ethnicity-first, than that's a good first step.
Upworthy has reached out to Penn for comment.
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There's a reason why some people can perfectly copy accents, and others can't
Turns out, there's a neurodivergent link.
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Have you ever had that friend who goes on vacation for four days to London and comes back with a full-on Queen's English posh accent? "Oooh I left my brolly in the loo," they say, and you respond, "But you're from Colorado!" Well, there are reasons they (and many of us) do that, and usually it's on a pretty subconscious level.
It's called "accent mirroring," and it's actually quite common with people who are neurodivergent, particularly those with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). According Neurolaunch, the self-described "Free Mental Health Library," "Accent mirroring, also known as accent adaptation or phonetic convergence, is the tendency to unconsciously adopt the accent or speech patterns of those around us. This linguistic chameleon effect is not unique to individuals with ADHD, but it appears to be more pronounced and frequent in this population."
Essentially, when people have conversations, we're constantly "scanning" for information—not just the words we're absorbing, but the inflection and tone. "When we hear an accent, our brains automatically analyze and categorize the phonetic features, prosody, and intonation patterns," writes Neurolaunch. For most, this does result in copying the accent of the person with whom we're speaking. But those with ADHD might be more sensitive to auditory cues. This, "coupled with a reduced ability to filter out or inhibit the impulse to mimic…could potentially explain the increased tendency for accent mirroring."
While the article explains further research is needed, they distinctly state that, "Accent mirroring in individuals with ADHD often manifests as an unconscious mimicry of accents in social situations. This can range from subtle shifts in pronunciation to more noticeable changes in intonation and speech rhythm. For example, a person with ADHD might find themselves unconsciously adopting a Southern drawl when conversing with someone from Texas, even if they’ve never lived in the South themselves."
People are having their say online. On the subreddit r/ADHDWomen, a thread began: "Taking on accents is an ADHD thing?" The OP shares, "My whole life, I've picked up accents. I, myself, never noticed, but everyone around me would be like, 'Why are you talking like that??' It could be after I watched a show or movie with an accent or after I've traveled somewhere with a different accent than my 'normal.'
They continue, "Apparently, I pick it up fast, but it fades out slowly. Today... I'm scrolling Instagram, I watch a reel from a comedian couple (Darcy and Jeremy. IYKYK) about how Darcy (ADHD) picks up accents everywhere they go. It's called ADHD Mirroring??? And it's another way of masking."
(The OP is referring to Darcy Michaels and his husband Jeremy Baer, who are both touring comedians based in Canada.)
Hundreds of people on the Reddit thread alone seem to relate. One comments, "Omfg I've done this my whole life; I'll even pick up on the pauses/spaces when I'm talking to someone who is ESL—but English is my first language lol."
Sometimes, it can be a real issue for those around the chameleon. "I accidentally mimicked a waitress's weird laugh one time. As soon as she was out of earshot, my family started to reprimand me, but I was already like 'oh my god I don’t know why I did that, I feel so bad.'"
Many commenters on TikTok were shocked to find out this can be a sign of ADHD. One jokes, "Omg, yes, at a store the cashier was talking to me and she was French. She's like 'Oh are you French too? No, I'm not lol. I'm very east coast Canada."
And some people just embrace it and make it work for them. "I mirror their words or phrase! I’m 30. I realized I start calling everyone sweetie cause my manager does & I work at coffee shop."