February 28th, 2008 -- Written by John Campea
You feel bad about thinking about it… but you DO think about it. When you see a movie or a TV show with someone really over weight, or ugly, or something else along those lines… you think to yourself: “How did they go about getting this person for this role when they were just going to be humiliated”?
I remember thinking that exact thought when watching Dodgeball… you know that scene where the kid trying out for the cheerleading team gets stuck with that really fat girl? They basically mock and humiliate her in the movie… so how on earth did they find this girl and get her to agree to do something like that? I tell ya… these casting directors have to be 1 part diplomat and another part salesmen. It can’t be easy.
So what happens when one crosses the line and flat out insults people? The folks over at Cinematical give us this:
Well, a couple days ago a casting notice went out for Shelter — a Julianne Moore/Jonathan Rhys Meyers thriller about to start filming in Pittsburgh — that began to answer those questions. It included a call for people to play West Virginia hillbillies. Specifically, they wanted “unusual body shapes, even physical abnormalities as long as there is normal mobility. Unusual facial features…. We are also looking for a … girl with an other-worldly look to her. Could be an albino or something along those lines…. ‘Regular-looking’ children should not attend this open call.”
The Pittsburgh-based casting director responsible for this, Donna Belajac, has now been fired — not because of the casting notice, but because of the uproar that followed her comments quoted in a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review story on Tuesday: “Some of these ‘holler’ people — because they are insular and clannish, and they don’t leave their area — there is literally inbreeding, and the people there often have a different kind of look. That’s what we’re trying to get.”
They got fired. YA THINK!?!?!
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i don’t see the problem.
if you are making a film about inbred people then obviously you are going to be looking for people who look inbred.
why lie about it? that is what you want, go hire those people.
since when has the word ‘inbred’ been a dirty word?
I don’t think it is fire worthy. Just show how completely stupid they are and ignorant. Maybe they are inbred…
Leave it to casting director Donna Belajac to say something that inflammatory. Everybody knows that whole Belajac family has a history of severe - oh, wait a minute. Never mind.
Anyone know what she meant by “holler” people?
Truth can be offensive sometimes. I wish more people said it. If there really is “literally inbreeding,” then why should she be fired for pointing that out?
Lame political correctness. I’m sure word would’ve gotten out about this comment and then everyone would’ve boycotted the movie right? Please.
These areas have a long history of inbreeding going on so I don’t see the problem. I guess the state doesn’t want to be known as the “Inbred state”.
Do you know why royalty is sometimes called “blue blooded”? Because of inbreeding, which was rampant in those circles and some of them actually had blue blood. There was a group of people down south called the Tennessee blues, if I remember correctly.
just desserts
HOLLER:
As a noun, holler has the specific meaning in the Appalachians of “a small valley between mountains”: They live up in the holler underneath Big Bald Mountain.
That picture is disturbing. It’s going to haunt me in my sleep.
I have relatives in the Virginia/West Virginia area. They’ll be the first to tell you that all the rumors about the inbreeding among the hillbillies are true. Some of those people are xenophobic to the point of complete paranoia, and shun the outside world. They have no choice but to be inbred! Sad but true. This woman did not deserve to be fired for stating the truth.
I was really expecting some wildly inflammatory comment to be quoted and then just some totally factual statement about inbreeding was quoted. What’s the big deal. Was their really an uproar over her comment? mind boggling how sensitive people can be.
That picture proves that cross-breeding is way better than in-breeding.