Hobbit embroiled in race row over casting restrictions

PETER Jackson’s troubled Hobbit project has become embroiled in a race row after a would-be extra was told she was too dark to play one of the Tolkien creatures.

Briton Naz Humphreys, who has Pakistani heritage, attended a casting session in the New Zealand city of Hamilton last week, queuing for three hours only to be told her skin tone was not suitable, the Waikato Times reported.

“It’s 2010 and I still can’t believe I’m being discriminated against because I have brown skin,” Humphreys told the newspaper.

“The casting manager basically said they weren’t having anybody who wasn’t pale-skinned.”

The paper said video footage shows the casting manager telling people: “We are looking for light-skinned people. I’m not trying to be — whatever. It’s just the brief. You’ve got to look like a hobbit.”

Humphreys said she was a huge fan of Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy and, at 5’ tall, had hoped for a bit part in The Hobbit.

“I would love to be an extra,” she said. “But it just seemed like a shame because obviously hobbits are not brown or black or any other colour. They all look kind of homogenised beige and all derived from the Caucasian gene pool.”

Humphreys has started a Facebook group called “Hire hobbits of all colours! Say no to hobbit racism!”

Jackson’s spokesman told the paper it was “an incredibly unfortunate error” the producers or the director were aware of: “They would never issue instructions of this kind to the casting crew. All people meeting the age and height requirements are welcome to audition.”