I have to mull over this a bit but good post. I don't have an opinion on a cisgender man playing a transitioning person anymore than if a gay man plays a straight man or vice versa. I have to ponder this some more. I know it caused a stir at the time, but the initial choice I believe was Nicole Kidman so yeah, I can see that he might have just been going for a 'Name'. I know Hopper consulted quite a few (dont remember numbers) trans people but I've never read an interview where he was asked how he went about the casting choice.
I suppose that's still better than what happened with Jared Leto being cast as a trans woman in
Dallas Buyers Club - not only did they not even try casting any actual trans actresses, but the character in question is fictional anyway so the controversy could have been avoided by just making the character a cis gay man. Casting a cis woman like Kidman in
The Danish Girl would still have been a compromise, but at least it would be a slightly more acceptable one.
re Tropic Thunder with a white guy playing a black guy who is actually white, I actually thought that was a dig at the controversial skit of the Jackson Five on hey Hey it's Saturday Night. (you're aussie, I think?) You would have seen the fall out when the american singer on the panel called it racist. the guy playing Michael jackson with white skin foundation is actually a POC and he was dumbfounded.
I didn't think that skit actually got any notoriety outside Australia, but both reflect a greater problem regarding blackface and the degrees to which people will consider it acceptable or unacceptable, whether for the sake of a novelty act or award-baiting grand-standing. Also, does one of the guys being a POC (which kind of POC exactly?) in whiteface really make the four white guys doing blackface acceptable? It comes across as a defensive measure, and unlike
Tropic Thunder it doesn't even have some deliberately absurd satirical justification.
Any actor should be allowed to play any role. Political Correctness will kill creativity and pigeon hold us with unnecessary labels.
This just in, Citizen Rules thinks Channing Tatum should be allowed to play Barack Obama.
But seriously, when people play the "being PC kills creativity" card I contend that there is a flip-side where being un-PC can also kill creativity by encouraging low standards and thoughtless complacency. In the examples cited, it goes beyond whether or not the creators are failing to appease the narrow standards of some restrictive boogeyman and into actively questioning how much they really care about making something that is artistically worthwhile.
Dallas Buyers Club becomes an example of mediocrity for the reasons I mentioned above - namely, that its creators' decisions and justifications indicate ignorance and insincerity regarding the very issues that their film is supposed to address. This naturally reflects poorly on the film itself and ends up being further indication of how it comes across as a cynical exercise in award-baiting instead of a sincere dramatisation of an important and still-relevant true story. This isn't about imposing a rigid set of arbitrary standards onto every single film regardless of context, it's about actually thinking critically about what the film is doing and whether or not it can genuinely justify any choices that immediately stand out for the wrong reasons. It's not so much about reflexively saying "this is bad!" so much as asking "but how exactly is this supposed to be good?"
That's the stance I tend to take as well, Rules. I also don't mind in reboots if a gender or ethnicity is changed. Not sure how I feel about an all women's ghostbusters or ocean's 11, though. Why not write a new story all together.
Because brands sell, that's why.