Discussing diversity on TV, The Walking Dead and Damien‘s Glen Mazzara warns against tokenism and finger-pointing.
Diversity. That all-important and divisive word that either sends people into a passionate frenzy, or, well, into a passionate frenzy.
If social media is anything to go by, consumers of media either regard diversity (whether it be in terms of gender, race and nationality, or sexuality) as a natural part of life that the media needs to reflect, or they see diversity and inclusivity as unnatural, claiming that any diversification of media is “forced.”
Glen Mazzara, creator of the cancelled-too-soon Damien and former The Walking Dead producer, is firmly in the former camp. As co-chair of the Writers’ Guild of America’s diversity advisory group, Mazzara is actively working to fix Hollywood’s straight white problem — and the first step is obviously to recognize that there is a problem.
In an interview with Variety, Mazzara says that people need to “stop pointing fingers,” and take responsibility for their own complicity “in a system that doesn’t honestly seek out and promote diversity.”
Identifying a key problem with Hollywood’s existing attempts to diversify, Mazzara says, “People have to realize diversity isn’t just a box to be checked.”
In other words: When shows and movies add in ‘a gay character’ or ‘a woman’ or ‘a black guy’ to an otherwise homogenous ensemble, that isn’t diversity. Rather, it’s “tokenism,” Mazarra says, and only serves to keep minorities on the sidelines of narratives as opposed to front and center as they realistically would and should be.
Mazzara goes on to address the problem of the perceived financial risk associated with prioritizing diversity on TV. Making the star of a show a white, straight male is the safe bet, and if the show then succeeds, “the ship has sailed and diversity is not addressed.”
This means “too many long-running shows are given a pass on the diversity issue,” says Mazzara. “The culture is established and the problems do not get revisited, saying, ‘We’ll address it on the next new series.’ That’s severely problematic.”
In relation to Damien, this is particularly relevant. Obviously this was another show with a straight white lead (played by Bradley James), but the writers’ room was uncommonly and refreshingly diverse, with Mazzarra even banning ‘manterruption’ in pitch meetings.
Additionally, Damien was surrounded by diverse characters, from a Lebanese best friend to an African-American love interest.
“I can’t create a character without thinking of race, gender, age, class, where they grew up — a complete person,” he told Co.Create back in February. “Colorblind casting implies the default is a white person, but you’re willing to cast a person of color. But every character needs to have a specific voice, so I wrote those character descriptions directly into the show.”
As for LGBT representation, Damien‘s first season introduced fan-favorite character James Shay, played by David Meunier.
Mazzarra concludes that, “continued action needs to be taken” in Hollywood to improve diversity representation and visibility. It’s important to combat this perceived ‘otherness,’ and assumptions that the default character must be straight, white and male — and that too much deviation from this archetype makes a product unsellable.
This article was edited to reflect the presence of a major LGBT character in Damien.