Car company Acura was forced to issue an apology after coming under fire for their Super Bowl casting call. You may remember the Acura commercial with Jerry Seinfeld and Jay Leno that aired during the Super Bowl — well, the company was very specific/exclusionary about their dream African American car dealer.
According to the casting doc, seen below, the role of the African American car dealer would be played by a “Nice looking, friendly,Not too dark” African American actor.
An African American actor who didn’t fit the profile, was pissed and handed the document over to TMZ. Acura issued this apology for the “language” used in a casting call for their Super Bowl ad that specified they didn’t want a black actor who was “too dark” in the description.
“We apologize to anyone offended by the language on the casting sheet used in the selection of actors for one of our commercials.”
The car company added, “We sought to cast an African-American in a prominent role in the commercial, and we made our selection based on the fact that he was the most talented actor.”
There’s still no word on why “dark” African Americans weren’t right for the role but someone associated with casting the commercial says one of the reasons for the “not too dark” restriction was because lighting and special effects would get tricky. Seriously?
Help me out here, is this how casting calls work or is this wrong?
via BMS
