In a new interview with Pink News, actor Penn Badgley spoke up about diversity, or lack thereof in Hollywood and the strides that the entertainment industry still has to make in order to be sure that marginalized communities are represented and represented well.
In the sit-down, the 32-year-old explained his strife with white actors and actresses portraying marginalized characters, effectively taking opportunities from actors who are members of such communities.
"If anybody exists at any kind of intersection of oppression beyond the box of white male, I'd say let's make f*cking sure that they're being represented by the people who have lived this experience [and] not have people who haven't lived the experience portraying them," Badgley tells the outlet. "Because then at the end of the day you're getting a real portrayal."
Writer Ella Braidwood goes on to bring up specific examples such as Disney's controversial casting of Jack Whitehall as the studio's first openly gay character on Jungle Cruise and the moment in which Scarlett Johannsen backed out of the role of a trans man in Rub & Tug after receiving backlash.
"In reality, we have basically, like, privileged ass white people playing everybody, and so we need to stop that," he adds. "We live in a world that does not recognize virtually anyone outside of the white male or the beautiful white woman who has to be an object of desire and affection."