Bucking the trend
After all of the brou-ha-ha over privileged Hollywood actors taking roles from minorities—by, erm…acting—and calls for them to get back in their lane, there comes a refreshing change in the shape of Chad. In this new TV comedy series, Nasim Pedrad plays the titular character, a fourteen-year-old Persian boy dealing with family relationships and cultural identity, as he tries to navigate highschool.
She may be fast-approaching forty, but at least Pedrad was born in Iran. So casting ticked the ethnicity box with aplomb, even if there was no choice.* Everything else about Pedrad getting into character—overcoming the twenty-five year age gap and the lack of any wedding tackle—is pure, unadulterated acting. That's what actors do, folks. Even the bad ones.
Enjoy it while you can though…if the IMDb user rating (2.2) and Rotten Tomatoes audience score (13%) are anything to go by, it may not be around for long.
I thought the show's premise was a middle-aged woman trying to pass herself off as a teenager. I didn't even think that a middle-aged woman was actually trying to pass herself off as a teenager.
ulibarriL, commenting on CHAD Trailer (2021) Nasim Pedrad, Comedy Series, Movie Coverage
Can't wait for the series finale when Chad hits menopause during the Senior Prom.
Brandon Muse, commenting on Woke Trash "Chad" Totally TANKS! Critics Outright LYING About The Show As Fans DEMOLISH It In Review, TheQuartering
About Chad I was wondering why he looked like a really ugly girl. Then I found out why.
brammerwendy, commenting on Chad (2021– ), IMDb
Skip To My Loo
On a more serious note, how long will it be before someone realises that able-bodied Alexa Loo, who hopes that one day soon we will see more diversity and Asian representation in film and television
, is taking a role from a disabled actress? There's a word for that.
Unless, of course, she accepts that acting is just pretending, and is happy for said diversity and Asian representation
to include the pretending of people like Tilda Swinton and Sidney Toler; in much the same way that an abled-bodied actress can sit in a motorised wheelchair. In which case, all's good; no hypocrisy there at all!
At least Loo, who was 15 when she was cast for her role in Chad, is of highschool age. So that's something, I suppose.
Liane Hentscher, WarnerMedia
* Since Pedrad produced, created, co-developed, and co-wrote the series, casting may have had little say in her playing the role. It might also explain why Chad is Persian in the first place, otherwise how many shits would be given?