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12 Years a Slave is a powerful piece of filmmaking from director Steve McQueen. The film is both uncompromising and unflinching, masterfully made in all regards. The casting of 12 Years a Slave deserves to be applauded and lionized.
The film makes use of high profile actors and recognizable character-actors in very small roles. Doing this places extreme emphasis on even the smallest characters. Paul Giamatti, Michael K. Williams, Bill Camp, Garrett Dillahunt, Scoot McNairy, Brad Pitt, Paul Dano, even Benedict Cumberbatch’s role is a pretty small one in the grand scheme of things, and plenty of other accomplished actors play roles of a size typically relegated to up-and-coming, unproven, or new actors. So why do this?
Casting this way can add a bit more gravitas to the roles, sure, but it also adds an extra layer of importance to these small characters in the eyes of the audience. Seeing a face they recognize cues the audience to pay attention to this person in a somewhat meta way. It tells them that this character is important, otherwise they wouldn’t have cast such a recognizable actor in the role. Then when that character is either unceremoniously killed, or leaves the film without any sense of conclusion or closure on their behalf, we’re left with an…
