Does the Character Need to Match the Actor?
Is a body all we are?
What is Body Knowledge?
Body knowledge is a concept that has been theorised by Italian screendance professor Letizia Gioia Monda, with a focus on the Motion Bank Community of William Forsythe, which Monda observed as she described a body in motion as a carrier of information—a medium, even.
We can assume that videodance choreo-graphy is the art of writing dance. It deals with the organisation of the presence and the absence of subjects and objects within an environment governed by grammatical rules able set up in its spatial-temporal content.1
An audiovisual medium, as explained by Stuart Hall, is a language per se: it has shared rules, modes of communication, systems of representation, and every part of said language is to be contextualised in connection with the medium itself2. If we were to tell the same story through different media, we would need to focus on their specific tools of representation: in a novel, we’d focus on writing style and descriptions while, in a movie, we’d focus on cinematography and quality of image. If one was to ignore those fundamental tools of representation and communication, the story and its message would be lost in the gap between the source and the audience. The two communicants would not connect.
Both dance and audiovisual media include bodies in motion, which tell their stories through their specific, contextualised tools. Consider, now, the words of Brasilian choreographer Ismael Ivo:
Library of the body… what is this? I should say that the inspiration came from a short story from this great author, South American writer: Jorge Luis Borges. A short story, one of his fictions, was called Babel’s library, where there’s this fascinating description of a world that is this library but is a Babel tower at the same time. Where languages get mixed up, where people try to communicate. […] Each person is a book in itself.
We can see how the choreographer considers the body as a medium, and the consequences that this has on choreography itself. In the same way, if a body in motion can exist both on stage and inside the screen, the character can be interpreted as an archive of body knowledge, that is the compound of embodied information that one person has accumulated during their life in regards of their job, interests, identity, upbringing and social network. This affects their decisions, perception of the world and stories to consume, together with other forms of limitations such as economic, social and cultural ones.
Casting Equivalent Bodies
In “Convergence culture. Where old and new media collide”, Henry Jenkins states:
Stories are basic to all human cultures, the primary means by which we structure, share, and make sense of our common experiences.3
On the other hand, Joseph Campbell claims:
Although we use our minds to process and interpret stories, much is going on throughout the rest of the body as we interact with a narrative.4
This means that the way we engage with stories, on any level, is not merely intellectual but rather depends on how we physically perceive it. And by putting the body into the equation, we clearly see why the debate about the casting of diverse characters becomes that passionate: for some, the diversification of casting is the only way to connect with a story on screen.
Consider blackface. It’s a racist practice perceived to be exclusive to the USA, but it was (and still is) practised worldwide, with the exaggerated, red lips and black painted face that perpetrate an ostracising, violent representation aimed at reaffirming white supremacy. However, we do know that blackface is not welcomed anymore and that, when it does resurface, it gets pushed underground once again. In a similar way, people who push for greater inclusivity and accountability in casting matters would want similar treatment.
For example, when songwriter Sia’s movie, “Music”, was announced, autistic communities worldwide asked for clarification on the casting choice (Maddie Ziegler as the autistic non-verbal protagonist). This gave birth to a beast of a conversation, ended with Sia asking for forgiveness by saying she got suicidal after the backlash. As the discourse died off, after the release of the movies and the director’s statements, only autistic people seemed to have gotten to the core of the issue—because autistic people have autistic body knowledge. In fact, even if the casting of a matching actor is not needed for a good movie or tv show to be made, it is clear as day that the good embodiment of a character’s identity is very much linked to the actor’s body knowledge that allows it. This cannot be fully compensated by bizarre choices like Jared Leto constantly being on a wheelchair for “Morbius”, since body knowledge is almost deeply rooted in long-term life experiences. It cannot be replaced by tricks.
Effort Makes Opportunity
Of course, acting is a craft that allows one to play roles that could be the exact opposite of one’s personality (if we didn’t believe this, we would be convinced that every actor playing a supervillain should be in jail). However, acting is also a job, and disabled, queer and non-white actors are workers that deserve an occupation. If we put this perspective into the picture, we understand how complex the issue of “accurate casting” is and how extensive the consequences of ignoring it are.
Examples like Everything’s gonna be okay (2019), a show about autistic people by autistic people, demonstrate how positive making body knowledges match, delivering genuine and authentic performances for audiences that often exist outside of the autistic experience but that can benefit from shut a layered, non-didactic performance. An opposite example could be Atypical (2017), which puts most of its effort in acctively explaining the autistic experience since it cannot translate it only in writing and performance.
In conclusion, a character can be much more than itself and genuinely connect with their audience while expressing and moving inside the screen. But this can only happen if the body of information (body knowledge) is properly translated for the audience in a sincere performance.
Or it could just be good acting. But what if it isn't?
Sara Giudice
L. G. Monda, What are we talking about when we talk about videodance?, in “Music in Art. International journal for music iconography”, vol. XLV, no. 1-2, p. 261.
Cfr. S. Hall, Representation. Cultural representation and signifying practices, SAGE Publications, 1997.
H. Jenkins, Convergence culture. Where old and new media collide, New York University Press, 2008, p. 118.
J. Campbell, The writer’s journey. Mythic structure for writers, Michael Wiese Productions, 2003, p. 355.