“The Hobbit” Casting Director Fired For Rejecting “Dark-Skinned” Actors

In Middle Earth, Must All Hobbits Be White?

This week, the casting director of "The Hobbit" was firedfor turning away a woman of Pakistani descent for being too dark to play a hobbit. The agent also placed an advertisement in a New Zealand newspaper seeking extras with "light skin tones." 

"We are looking for light-skinned people. I’m not trying to be … whatever. It’s just the brief. You’ve got to look like a Hobbit," said the agent in video footage captured during auditions. After the person in question was fired, producer and director Peter Jackson distanced himself from the casting director, who remains unnamed.

"The crew member in question took it upon themselves to do that and it’s not something we instructed or condoned,” said a spokesman from Jackson's production company. "No such instructions were given."

Considering the film's origins as a book series rooted in Anglo-Saxon, Northern European lore, should the casting director have been fired? Bloggers debate whether this was an instance of racism or political correctness: