"Noah" Screenwriter Ari Handel Addresses the Reason For An All White Cast: To Represent "Stand-ins for All People"

The biblical epic "Noah" hit the box office its opening weekend with a strong start but many movie goers left the theater secretly thinking the same thing: Wait a minute. Why was everyone white?

Journalist Christine A. Scheller sat down with the film's screenwriter, Ari Handel, to investigate why there was plenty of diversity with the animals but none when it came to the people in the film.

Here is how he responded:

"From the beginning, we were concerned about casting, the issue of race. What we realized is that this story is functioning at the level of myth, and as a mythical story, the race of the individuals doesn’t matter. They’re supposed to be stand-ins for all people. Either you end up with a Bennetton ad or the crew of the Starship Enterprise. You either try to put everything in there, which just calls attention to it, or you just say, 'Let’s make that not a factor, because we’re trying to deal with everyman.' Looking at this story through that kind of lens is the same as saying, 'Would the ark float and is it big enough to get all the species in there?' That’s irrelevant to the questions because the questions are operating on a different plane than that; they’re operating on the mythical plane."

It looks like Handel tried to take the easy way out with the interview but as expected, Twitter was not happy with his justification:

RT @elisehahn: @LisaBolekaja@NoahMovie What an incredibly disappointing response to a very important question.

— Film Fatale (@FilmFatale_NYC) April 12, 2014

@reelsistas so I'm supposed to believe a group of white people repopulated a world full of different colors and ethnicities? Um no...

— Film Fatale (@FilmFatale_NYC) April 12, 2014

Ari Handel says a "Myth," looking like a "Bennetton ad or the Starship Enterprise," is a bad thing. Internalized white supremacy, yo.

— Kristen McHugh (@kristenmchugh22) April 12, 2014

Also, Ari Handel co-wrote The Fountain as well, which would explain why both films are apparently of the same navel-gazing fail vein.

— Paige Kimble (@rhiannonrevolts) April 12, 2014

To read the complete interview with Ari Handel, click here.

[via THC]