Rizwan Manji wishes his 'Schitt’s Creek' character had been more ‘three-dimensional’

Many fans (not to mention Emmy voters) loved Canadian comedy Schitt’s Creek, and praised the Dan and Eugene Levy-created series for its portrayals of LGBTQ+ characters. However a contingent of fans was always concerned that one of the characters, Ray, may have been rooted in stereotypes. 

Now Rizwan Manji, the Torontonian who played the jack-of-all-trades Ray Butani, is speaking out about that criticism. In an interview with The Toronto Star, he responded to fans who feel the character—who is notably one of the few recurring characters of colour—was based on stereotypes of a South Asian male—especially considering Ray had an accent, while Manji himself does not.

“It is a very slight Indian accent—somebody who was probably raised in Canada, but probably was born in India or Pakistan,” Manji told the publication, noting that it was his choice to use it and producers never asked that of him. “I don’t regret that because I think it actually works for Ray. He wasn’t like everybody else in that town. He was from somewhere else.”

What Manji does wish is that Ray had been a little less cartoonish and slightly more realized, especially since he was a recurring character. Why didn’t he have a relationship or a family, for example? “If you want to criticize something, do that,” he said. “We need to have three-dimensional characters.”

Before starring on Schitt’s Creek, Manji appeared in a variety of TV shows and films including Charlie Wilson’s War, The Magicians and the short-lived NBC sitcom Outsourced, which debuted in 2010 and followed an American call centre manager (played by Ben Rappaport) who was sent to run a unit in India. Because Manji was asked if he wanted to play Ray without an audition and most of his demo tape consisted of material from that latter series, he told The Star that he assumed producers were looking for a similar take from him on Schitt’s.

“[After the first table read], I went up to Dan and said, ‘Hey just want to check in.’ He said, ‘I love what you did. It was funny.’ That ended up being the character for six years,” Manji added. 

After the article (which delved even deeper into the issue of TV accents) was published, Manji shared it on Twitter and wrote that he “loved playing Ray on @SchittsCreek! The accent question has been ever present in my career. It is hard to hear criticism but I want to thank [The Star] for the opportunity to share my thoughts.”

In a statement to the newspaper, showrunner Dan Levy also responded to the criticism and said that he believed Manji brought thoughtful choices to the character. “Ray was conceived as a character of Indian (descent) which we cast with Canadian-born actor Rizwan Manji, who is of Indian (descent). No accent was called for in the casting or specified in the scripts,” he wrote.

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“The thoughtful choices that Rizwan made in his portrayal… perfectly encapsulated the warmth and the energy of Ray. All characters on our show were created with love, respect and humanity. It has been gratifying to have these intentions reflected through the overwhelming audience support for these characters. That said, I welcome any perspectives that encourage conversations about diversity, especially in entertainment.”

Schitt’s Creek ran for six seasons before wrapping on CBC and Pop TV in the US earlier this year. At the September virtual Emmys, it made history by sweeping every category it was nominated in, including wins for all four lead actors, directing, writing, and the show itself. 

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