ABC is criticized over casting for Maggie after white actress cast in role for Latinx actress

ABC is criticized over casting for new show Maggie after white actress Rebecca Rittenhouse cast in role written for Latinx actress

ABC has been criticized over their casting for the show Maggie, after white actress Rebecca Rittenhouse was cast in a role written for a Latinx actress.

According to EW, the lead character was written as Latinx character Maggie Moreno in the show’s pilot script for the show, which is produced by 20th Television. 

The outlet spoke with a number of Latinx actresses who are in the running for a role as a best friend on the show, all of whom stayed anonymous amid fear of professional retribution.

The latest: ABC has been criticized over their sitcom pilot for the show Maggie, after white actress Rebecca Rittenhouse was cast in a role written for a Latinx actress 

‘It’s so challenging for Latinx actors to find work in Hollywood as it is,’ one actress told the outlet, ‘but it’s a real slap in the face when a project centers on us then changes their mind as if we didn’t matter.’

‘Many of us know each other and those of us who auditioned were told we weren’t funny enough. Really, none of us were funny? Now they’re scrambling to hire one of us to play the lead’s best friend. Maggie went from centering on a Latinx character to relinquishing us back to playing the friend. When will Hollywood wake up?’

Another told the outlet: ‘I couldn’t believe it when I saw the announcement this morning because I was excited about the potential of a new Latinx show being greenlit for network television. 

‘The point is not that I didn’t get the role, but that they seem to prefer to erase us than invest the time to finding the right actress. It’s one thing to write a Latinx character and a whole other situation when writing an open ethnicity character.’

Details: Rittenhouse has past appeared on shows such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Suits, The Mindy Project and The Handmaid's Tale

Details: Rittenhouse has past appeared on shows such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Suits, The Mindy Project and The Handmaid’s Tale

Maggie Mull and Justin Adler, writers credited in the initial script, are still linked to the pilot, and executive producers on the project.

Insiders linked to the project told EW that that casting had explicitly included people of all ethnic backgrounds to play the role of Maggie.

Deadline reported that the show’s material comes from short film from Tim Curcio, showing the comic events surrounding a woman with psychic abilities.

Rittenhouse has past appeared on shows such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Suits, The Mindy Project and The Handmaid’s Tale, as well as playing the Mamas and the Papas singer Michelle Phillips in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood.