Remy Hii questions lack of diversity on Wonderland
Better Man star tweets about the anglo cast on Wonderland but gets a curt reminder from FremantleMedia.
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under News
Better Man and Neighbours actor Remy Hii couldn’t help but speak his mind when he saw a tweet from TV Week asking about “Thoughts so far?” on Wonderland.
He questioned the show’s lack of diversity.
But that prompted a response from FremantleMedia’s Head of Communications Steve Murphy, subtly reminding him about loyalties.
@TVWEEKmag Thoughts so far: Wonderland is about how ten people living in Bondi have got by without befriending 1 person of non-anglo descent
— Remy Hii (@RemyHii) August 21, 2013
@RemyHii Wonderland is made by same company who makes Neighbours and Better Man.
— Steven Murphy (@StMurphy) August 25, 2013
Wonderland is also on the same networks as Neighbours, in which Hii has been appearing in a guest role.
He isn’t the first to question the predominantly white cast of the new show after Jay Laga’aia also took to Twitter.
Dear Channel 10, your new Drama, Wonderland seems to only have white people in it! Are there any ethnics, that aren’t cabbies in your show?
— Jay Laga’aia (@JayLagaaia) August 18, 2013
@JayLagaaia If I wanted to see a show about a group of straight white people living together, I still have my ‘Friends’ DVDs.
— Jeremy Talumin (@talumin) August 18, 2013
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- Tagged with Better Man, Neighbours
38 Responses
Watching Australian tv in the 1990s was more diverse than tv in the UK, watching SBS and Heartbreak High, Wildside and also Police Resuce and Neighbours slowly adapt, Neighbours was introducing actors such as Michelle Ang etc, it does same to have gone a little backwards, Neighbours should have kept Remy and should also introduce chris pappas greek cousins.
In all of this there is also the lack of indigenous actors on our screens & esp in our reality shows.
Can’t we just have diversity of diversity?
Remy is definitely correct.
Neighbours has just got rid of all their Asian cast and Remy only appears as a guest – not a permament cast member.
And the so called ‘ethnics’ in Wonderland are played by caucasian actors,
Steve Murphy ows Remy an apology and he should apologise to all viewers of his shows.
Good on you Remy. Australian drama television commissioners should be called to account for their complete failure to bring non Anglo actors into the mainstream. It is a brave producer who tries to pitch a show with an ethnic lead to a free to air commercial broadcaster, Foxtel or the ABC. And it is time the ABC admitted it is as white bread as the others (excluding its distinct indigenous initiatives). The adopted daughter in TOOL is yet another ethnic cliché. I feel extremely sorry for young actors such as Remy trying to build a career but inevitably cast as outsiders or in guest roles, or adopted. So keep up the fight Remy, Jay and all those non Anglos actors out there and start lobbying a few politicians. Get your union to commission research of dramas over the past decade across all the networks. If you doing nothing things will never change.
The best response to this sort of stuff was Lena Dunham. When left wing activists trying to whip up outrage about Girls being a show about middle class white girls in NY and dictate what she could write about, she added a token black republican, then wrote him out.
What matters is that writers are creating a range of interesting shows. Not that each show follows some allowable formula for racial and sexual diversity or faces an outrage campaign is waged to try and get the show axed or the creators fired (as happened to Brian True-May when he told it like it is with Midsomer Murders).
Brian True-May: “We just don’t have ethnic minorities involved. Because it wouldn’t be the English village with them….It just wouldn’t work. Suddenly we might be in Slough … We’re the last bastion of Englishness and I want to keep it that way.”
ITV spokesman said: “We are shocked and appalled at these personal comments by Brian True-May which are absolutely not shared by anyone at ITV.”
As for Murphy’s comment. That kind of condescending attitude towards one of his artist’s observations makes my stomach turn.
Bravo Remy! If you walk through most suburbs in Sydney today it’s much more diverse than the casts on television programs set in Sydney. This debate has to continue until producers of all forms admit that the cultures outside of their immediate clique exist. As for it being tokenistic to have a non-Anglo represented: well, write the roles as fully rounded characters -not racial stereotypes, and then it won’t be tokenistic.
If people like the character on a show, then they are likely to be upset when other people say those characters shouldn’t exist because they are the wrong race.That would apply if they are white or not white.
This is people trying to whip out outrage and force their views on writers for their own agendas. What they want, what might make them richer.
Writers create the characters they want, and there is nothing worse than token characters that don’t fit the story and that the writers don’t know how to write well. It doesn’t matter how diverse the cast is if the show once the show is axed and taken off air.
You would think the head of communications would be smart enough not to chastise an actor on the internet. Extraordinary communications strategy. Now he’s become part of the story.
Haha! I thought his Tweet was hilarious! Why are some people here so hostile to this subject even being brought up? This reminds me of Next Stop Hollywood’s HaiHa Le & the whole reason why she was leaving Australia to seek acting work in LA. As an Asian she just wasn’t getting enough work here, apart from the odd stereotypical role here & there.
It’s time for commercial TV to grow up already!