As Universal Pictures prepares for production of the film about rap group N.W.A, the casting company involved received backlash over a casting call for the biopic Straight Outta Compton, which looked to cast black woman that fit certain racial stereotypes. They have since issued an apology.
When the casting call notice was created by Sande Alessing Casting its released last week on July 16th stated that the film was looking to cast black women that fit into one of four categories. The first category referred to A-Girls, asking for women of various ethnicities with real hair. Next were B-Girls: light skinned ladies who fit a Beyoncé prototype. C-Girls were medium to light skinned African American women with a weave in their hair. And the D-Girls were described as being dark skinned, and in poor shape.
This weekend, Kristan Berona of Sande Alessing Casting issued an apology on behalf of the casting company stating, “I’ve been wanting to say this for two days and now I can. I would like to sincerely apologize for recently posting a casting announcement that used offensive language to recruit women for a film our agency is working on. My intention was not to offend anyone and I’m so deeply sorry for not realizing the insensitivity in its content.”
Universal Pictures also released a statement apologizing saying, ““Universal Pictures and the filmmakers for Straight Outta Compton did not approve and do not condone the information in this casting notice. We regret and sincerely apologize for being in any way associated with the offensive descriptions it contained.”
Universal Pictures has scheduled the release of Straight Outta Compton for August 14th, 2015. N.W.A members Dr. Dre and Ice Cube both serve as producers of the biopic.
