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At ‘David Copperfield’ premiere, someone asked about colorblind casting. Hugh Laurie is still not having it

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There’s a question that still bugs Hugh Laurie after the world premiere of “The Personal History of David Copperfield.”

Following the screening at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival, an audience member asked director Armando Iannucci why he employed colorblind casting in the playful adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic tale. Hugh Laurie shot back, “Can I ask why you’ve asked that?”

Dev Patel, director Armando Iannucci and Hugh Laurie.
Dev Patel, director Armando Iannucci and Hugh Laurie, from the film “The Personal History of David Copperfield,” pose in the L.A. Times photo and video studio at the Toronto International Film Festival.
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
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“It just seemed to me an odd thing to raise at the end of the film,” he clarified to The Times the following day. “I could sort of understand it, maybe understand it, before the film because people are trying to grasp what will it sound like, what it will look like and feel like. ... But I would say 90 seconds into the film, you are just in it!

“I just thought that was odd because, to me, it was just not a thing. And I don’t think it should be a thing.”

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