A black Saturday Night Live actor fed up with the show’s years long lack of any black female cast members says he refuses to dress in drag to fill the gap.
Kenan Thompson played many notable black women like Whoopi Goldberg during his first seven seasons on SNL but, as he show enters its sixth straight year without a black woman, Thompson says someone else can pick up the slack.
With just one other black man in this season’s cast and with six new cast members—all of them white—the person who will play this year’s Whoopis and Oprahs and Michelle Obamas remains to be seen.
In a chat with TV Guide, Keenan suggested there’s a lack of top-notch black female talent making it to SNL auditions.
‘It's just a tough part of the business,’ Thompson says. ‘Like in auditions, they just never find ones that are ready.’
Over its nearly 40 years on the air, SNL has had a grand total of four black women on its cast: Yvonne Hudson, Danitra Vance, Ellen Cleghorne and Maya Rudolph.
After Rudolph’s departure in 2007, the show lacked a female of color and has ever since.
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That's a shame. I think they are not looking hard enough. If Mad TV can find them, why can't SNL?
