This week on Saturday Night Live, Kenan Thompson portrayed 12 Years a Slave director Steve McQueen and discussed one of the most difficult parts of making the Oscar-nominated film: Casting the racist roles.
Faux McQueen, sitting down for an profile interview about his film, admitted it wasn’t just the acting, but casting the right parts that gave the movie its worth.
“Specifically, the smaller supporting roles,” he told the camera. “We needed those roles to be believable and authentic.”
The open casting calls McQueen used to discover raw talent quickly became uncomfortable for the wannabe actors, who were asked to portray “hostile slave owner” — aka the character that basically no white male actor wants to portray.
“Nooo,” Brooks Wheelan’s auditioning character said after taking a look at the script. “Don’t want to say those words.”
But things got worse when Wheelan’s character was asked to read the part with the black assistant casting agent, played by Sasheer Zamata.
“Uhh, do you guys have any North parts?” Wheelan’s character asked of the casting directors, played by Cecily Strong and Vanessa Bayer.
Mike O’Brien’s character was asked to go off script and improv a little racism off the top of his head for the camera. Stricken with fear and white guilt, he goes on a tirade using words such as “bozos” and “jerks” instead of real racist slurs.
And SNL host Jim Parsons’ character was asked to read his lines to the black cameraman, a very angry-looking Jay Pharoah.
“You know, I feel — I feel like my character — I just feel like he would be looking away a lot,” Parsons’ character responded awkwardly.
There was only one auditioning actor who effectively portrayed the intensity and cruelty of a slave owner without remorse — the racist janitor, who didn’t even know there was a movie being filmed.
Watch the clip here:
