What if you want a one-legged black woman in your film?

[LoungeLizard]

I'm curious to know whether or not organisations that employ actors (working as actors) are exempt from the disability, race and sex discrimination acts. 

[ann_h]

No-one is actually exempt from the acts.

Discrimination law applies in the situation of all else being equal, and exemptions refer to situations where the race/sex/disability is an essence of the job.

It is OK to insist on female staff for washing a female patient, or on hiring Chinese waiting staff in a Chinese restaurant. You can refuse someone on the grounds of their disability if it makes them unable to do the job - for example, if you had severe mobility problems, you could be a manager of a nightclub but not a bouncer.

If you need a character to be black then that's what the actor should be. But if Eastenders wants a teenage tearaway, there is no reason to specify race, nor to refuse a disabled actor UNLESS their disability directly affects their playing the part.

So the general principle is upheld.

[LoungeLizard]

Thank you, ann_h.

So would the BNP be acting lawfully if it insisted on hiring a white DJ for its Christmas party?  Purely hypothetical question, I am not suggesting that this has actually happened or would happen.

[ann_h]

Probably not, directly. They could get round it by hiring a Santa Claus who happened to play a few tunes while he was there.