A Mad Dash for Diversity

Wendy Davis has portrayed many people--a grief-stricken probation officer in the police drama series “High Incident.” A detective in the gritty street saga “EZ Streets.” A femme fatale in the upcoming BET movie, “Rendezvous.”

But even with her curly hair, blinding smile and striking features, imagining Davis as a Swedish scientist has to be considered a stretch for the African American actress.

Swedish scientist, however, was suddenly what Davis found herself in the running for in a recent audition for an upcoming TV movie and proposed series called “Y2K.” Davis, who was not getting many calls for work just a few months ago, says these days her phone won’t stop ringing, and the days that she’s not auditioning are rare.

Her experience illustrates how fortunes and opportunities have dramatically increased for ethnic actors in the wake of the recent controversy surrounding the lack of diversity in the new fall season’s prime-time shows. After initially unveiling their dramas and comedies in the spring--the major networks faced a tidal wave of criticism and have been in a mad scramble to quickly insert a black face here, a Latino or an Asian American face there in what was an almost completely white landscape of characters.

In the past few weeks, network executives have voiced a commitment to diversity, announcing the addition of several minority performers to comedies and dramas including ABC’s “ Fox’s “Manchester Prep,” and NBC’s “The West Wing.” By the time the new season launches on Sept. 20, at least eight of the 26 new shows that were introduced by ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox expect to have added an ethnic actor to their casts. Even veteran shows are adding minority actors including Jon Huertas, a Latino who joins the cast of “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” and Ming-Na, an Asian American actress who is joining “ER.”

Scott Sassa, president of NBC West Coast, said in a recent interview, “Things have really changed. There is a much higher awareness of the situation. If there’s even a 10% difference in what’s going on, that’s great.”

Davis is just one of hundreds of other actors and actresses in the minority talent pool of Hollywood to feel the trickle-down effect, though thus far black actors are benefiting in greater numbers than Latinos or Asian Americans. “Now I’m auditioning every day, which is certainly rare and is certainly not what was happening before [the backlash],” said Davis last week. “It’s like night and day. I’ve even been auditioning for roles that I’m completely wrong for, like this Swedish scientist. She is supposed to have a Swedish accent . . . I mean, they would have to totally rewrite the role.”

The actress said she and her acting colleagues trace the change in studios’ and networks’ interest to a May 28 report in The Times that detailed the absence of minorities in leading roles in the new network series.

The report sparked an attack and threatened legal action from the NAACP, which denounced what they called “a virtual whitewash in programming.” A national coalition of Latino groups, protesting the dearth of Latino faces, has called for a viewer boycott Sept 12. A local coalition of community groups has also vowed to protest the trend when the season starts.

The networks have moved quickly to respond to the protests that followed what one executive termed the “white world on television.”

Doug Herzog, president of Fox Entertainment, said incorporating diversity into the network’s programs “will not be a short-term, knee-jerk thing. It’s clearly a much bigger problem and it needs a thorough and long-term strategy. As a corporation, we’re looking at long-term things, and ultimately change will come from having a more diverse workplace inside.”

Herzog added that shows such as “Time of Your Life,” a spinoff of “Party of Five,” and “Manchester Prep,” set at a ritzy New York prep school, would have minorities in their cast. Referring to “Manchester Prep,” which was criticized for having an all-white cast, Herzog pointed out, “We didn’t need the NAACP to bring that to our attention. We had always planned on diversifying the show if we picked it up.”

For now, though, increased opportunities for minority performers has not resulted in increased opportunities for minority writers, according to Sharon D. Johnson, head of the Writers Guild of America Committee of Black Writers, and Julie Friedgen, head of the Latino Writers Committee of the Writers Guild.

“There doesn’t seem to be a rush to bring us on as writers,” said Johnson. “The powers that be can increase the number of performers, because that’s a very visible move. But I don’t think the situation with writers will be addressed because that’s harder to police.”

NBC, however, has just announced development deals with Keenen Ivory Wayans (“In Living Color” and his short-lived, self-titled syndicated talk show) and with Yvette Lee Bowser (“Living Single” and “For Your Love”).

“It’s really great for Yvette and Keenen, but the networks are just going to the same people,” Johnson said. “They’re not looking for lesser-known or new voices. They’re not making a real effort to reach out.”

This has not been an easy public discussion for network executives and those who created and produced the new shows. Kevin Williamson, creator and executive producer of “Wasteland” about six 20somethings in New York City, was pressed during the recent Television Critics Assn. gathering about how he could set a show in New York and not have one minority character in his main cast. At the “Wasteland” session, ABC and Williamson countered by introducing Jeffrey D. Sams, an African American actor, as a new member of the cast.

Williamson insisted then that the character played by Sams was always going to be in the series. This came as a surprise given that none of ABC’s press materials had mentioned Sams and, indeed, when asked about the casting issue in May, ABC executives indicated there was no recasting in mind. At that time Williamson declined to talk to reporters.

The situation has been so embarrassing, say several producers and executives, that even those shows that were planning to add minority characters before the controversy broke, have been closed-mouthed about their intentions for fear of being misinterpreted.

Nevertheless, for performers like Davis, the surge of interest--no matter what the reason--is welcome news.

“What all this means is that the conversation has started,” said Davis. “Before, all these shows had been comfortable in not auditioning minorities. But because of all the heat, they now definitely want to see--or at least feel obligated to see--other kinds of people.”

The increased opportunities have also been met by concerns and fears among performers, managers, writers and others in the industry that minority characters are being arbitrarily plugged into shows as a quick-fix solution, and that the additions are not necessarily organic or natural.

“A lot of people are just jumping on the bandwagon now, and it’s going to take a whole lot more than plugging a lot of black faces on the screen to turn this whole thing around,” said Jesse L. Martin, an African American actor who has joined the cast of NBC’s hit drama, “Law & Order.” Martin was previously a recurring character on Fox’s “Ally McBeal,” where he played the love interest of the white title character.

“All of a sudden, a lot of people I know who were not getting those phone calls before offering them work are getting those calls,” Martin said. “It’s great, but it’s not necessarily the way to go. They’re being called now for their color rather than for their talent. That might be fine for the time being, but until the executive infrastructure at the networks changes, this will only be a short-term solution.”

Nina Pakula, an agent with Pakula/King and Associates, which has several minority performers as clients, said, “Yes, all the networks are adding ethnic people in guest and recurring roles. But it just isn’t the way to do it.”

Delores Robinson, a talent manager and producer, added, “It really doesn’t matter what happens now. I want to see what happens during development season. Right now they’re fitting in a few token faces here and there. That alone tells me that they’re not serious.”

Davis said that even in her auditions with producers, “There is a little bit of hesitancy. When change is introduced, it’s a little hard at first.”

As the networks continue the recasting process, the NAACP is regarding the situation with cautious optimism. NAACP president and CEO, Kweisi Mfume, is paying close attention to the promises from network executives, according to a spokesman for the group.

“We take all of this as a positive,” said the spokesman. “But we want to make it absolutely clear that it’s going to take a lot more than just a few black faces to turn this around. It’s in the boardrooms where we really want change. That’s where the decisions are made.”

Said Davis: “I don’t think this is going away. But it’s moving in the right direction at least for now.”