Rick and Morty creator addresses ‘whitewashing’ controversy: ‘Those conversations are minefields'

‘The best thing that people of privilege can do is not try to figure it out logically, take a flyer’

Two of the creators of Rick and Morty, Dan Harmon and Scott Marder, have spoken out about the controversy surrounding “whitewashing” in animation.

Several animated series, including Netflix’s Big Mouth and Disney’s The Simpsons, have announced that they will no longer have white actors voicing non-white characters. 

Harmon said: “That issue, they call it whitewashing if you will, that’s been going on for a while. The wave has gotten to the point where it’s huge now, but we’ve been in that water for a bit.

“I’ve – not even out of nobility, but out of pragmatism – I’ve always been of the mind that there’s a lot of actors out there; if we’re saying that it’s important part of a character they are of a certain background, the best way to do this is to find an actor of that background.”

Harmon was speaking backstage at the virtual Emmys, shortly after Rick and Morty’s win for Outstanding Animated Program. 

The former Community showrunner serves as the co-creator and executive producer on the acclaimed Adult Swim cartoon, which finished airing its fourth season earlier this year.

He continued: “But it gets into this weird question: ‘What if you didn’t find an actor from that particular group for representation purposes?’ Or, ‘What if that actor is the worst actor in the world?’

“Those conversations are minefields. The best thing that people of privilege can do is not try to figure it out logically, take a flyer; it sure feels like the right thing to do is to not write, ‘This guy looks like this’ and then cast someone that doesn’t to do an impression of someone that looks that way.” 

Harmon added: “That’s not throwing anyone under the bus that has been doing that, because that was normal for a long time.”

Marder, meanwhile, said: “I support the movement – and I think it’s moving in the right direction.”