“Chicken Run 2” Hits Ageism Controversy – Dark Horizons

Aardman Animation and Netflix’s “Chicken Run” sequel made headlines with an announcement the other week which indicated Mel Gibson would not be returning to voice the lead character of Rocky.
His re-casting was not unexpected, but today has come word of one that is – the film’s female lead character of Ginger. Actress Julia Sawalha, whom many will best remember as the long-suffering daughter in “Absolutely Fabulous” and whose still working to this day, has also found herself recast.
However it is Sawalha herself who revealed the news in an open letter on social media, hitting out against the producers and accusing them of ageism for dropping her from the much-anticipated sequel. She says she was told via an email from her agent that she would not be cast in the follow up, the reasoning being “my voice now sounds ‘too old’ and they want a younger actress to reprise the role.”
Sawalha, who was 30 at the time of the first film and is now 51, says usually in these circumstances an actress would be “given the chance to do a voice test in order to determine the suitability of their pitch and tone, I however was not given this opportunity.”
So she’s done the next best thing – she recorded a voice test herself and posted it online. The test includes some of her line readings from the original film and then reads them again today with the two voices effectively indistinguishable.
She also says a member of the production team agreed she didn’t sound any older but they are “going ahead to re-cast the voice of Ginger”. She says her dismissal came before it was announced that Gibson was also being recast with the official reason being the same – “his voice was too old”. She says:
“If they will be using some of the original cast members… let’s be frank, I feel I have been unfairly dismissed. To say I am devastated and furious would be an understatement. I feel totally powerless, something in all of this doesn’t quite ring true. I trust my instincts and they are waving red flags. I am saddened that I have lost the chance to work with Nick Park and Peter Lord from whom I learnt so much. The three of us, together, created Ginger.”
It’s doubly odd as cinema’s leading animation house Pixar has no issue with its actors ageing – Craig T. Nelson and Holly Hunter returned 14 years later for “Incredibles 2,” while Annie Potts has been voicing Bo Peep in the “Toy Story” films for over two decades.
The full letter can be read on Twitter.

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