If you’re a white dude in Hollywood, are you allowed to play any movie character who’s not a white guy, a white guy who gains 50 pounds, or a slave owner? Not really, according to a Saturday Night Live skit that roasts the identity obsession that’s taken over the film industry.
In the skit, three players participate in actors’ least favorite game, “Can I Play That?”
Idris Elba and two SNL cast members play actors who guess which roles they can and can’t play, as quizzed by Kenan Thompson’s host character. For any actor with the gift of eyesight, for example, playing a blind person is the first role that’s off the table.
“God took their sight,” Thompson says, “and now you want to take their jobs.”
The hilarious roast of the identity politics that has come to consume Hollywood continues with debates over whether Will Smith is “black enough” for a certain role and if anyone has the right identity to play Caitlyn Jenner.
Celebrities have confronted criticism over the past few years for their similarly “problematic” roles in films. Last year, Scarlett Johansson backed out of a role as a transgender man after critics complained about letting her take the role as a cisgender person, someone whose gender identity matches their biological sex. In 2016, Matt Damon had to defend starring in “The Great Wall,” a monster movie set in China.
Hollywood wasn’t the only target of SNL’s ridicule, though. Twitter, where backlash over novels can get them pulled from publication and journalists have been banned, also got a shoutout.
“This game is produced by Twitter,” the show’s host says. “Twitter: one mistake, and we’ll kill you.”
