Walking the tightrope of diverse, equitable and inclusive casting
JamarGig enhances the casting process by allowing professionals to evaluate and decide on talent suitability based on rich information provided by talent. This significantly streamlines the initial shortlisting phase before the expense of live auditions.
However when reviewing applications, it’s crucial for casting professionals to prioritize an individual’s skills, experience, and how well they align with the specific demands of the role. Performer attributes such as cultural background, weight, body type and other bio metrics are often irrelevant to an applicant’s ability and ideally should not factor into the evaluation. Using such details can lead to discriminatory practices, unfairly limiting opportunities based on factors unrelated to talent and qualifications.
A fair review process ensures everyone is judged solely on their merits as performers, fostering a more inclusive and artistically rich environment.
It’s important to acknowledge that while most casting professionals don’t consciously intend to discriminate based on available personal characteristics, unconscious biases can still play a significant role. These biases operate outside of conscious awareness, influencing evaluations even among those who genuinely value equity. While personal attributes will inevitably become apparent during live auditions, we recognize the need to address potential bias in the process.
Therefore, personal attributes should be collected not for making decisions about performers, but to measure an organization’s effectiveness in selecting the best talent while mitigating subconscious bias. JamarGig addresses this by allowing talent to input personal information that is visible to them but can be hidden from casting professionals. This limits the opportunity for potential subconscious bias to influence decisions before an audition.
To effectively report on how casting teams are selecting talent in a fair, equitable, and inclusive way, JamarGig enables administrators (separate from casting professionals) to generate statistical reports. These reports can track the representation of talent with specific personal characteristics (like gender or cultural background) in callbacks and final casting decisions.
This allows organizations to not only measure and improve their hiring practices based on merit but also provides stronger evidence of their commitment to improving DEI. Ultimately, the principle remains that measurement is essential for improvement.
