Minority Actors

Why should casting directors be concerned with Esther Riggin’s unconventional Eurasian look? Why would they want her to look “really Asian”? Do they not realize that ethnic mixtures exist (“Everyone Into the Talent Pool,” by Greg Braxton and Dana Calvo, March 17)?

As for casting her with white parents, well, they could cast her with parents that reflect her Eurasian heritage and thereby give yet another “minority” actor a role. Or cast her in a non-family part. Thank God I did not read that agents asked whether an actor spoke “ghetto” or “Chinese” as they have my daughter and her friends.

I still have my suspicions that the viewing habits of the “heartland” and the advertisers that cater to them have a great deal to do with the number of minority actors we see on screen. It is too bad that these, and numerous other, talented, nonminority actors do not have the familial and other connections that so many working actors have.

CHRISTINA WALDECK

Torrance