A and E TOLD the casting department to get someone who resembled Regina in order for that episodes thesis of relationships to make sense. In other words, the casting department went into casting adult Lily knowing that they had cast someone with Latina heritage. In order to compensate, they had to change Agnes Brukner’s look to make it “work.”
Sorry to butt in, but isn’t this an assumption in itself? Did Adam and Eddy ever specifically say this? I get why you would come to that conclusion, but unless there’s actual evidence from the two directly, it’s still speculation.
did they ever say it? No. Was it all over the entire episode? Yes. So I’ll retract and state again,
It was incredibly obvious that in the episode 405, Lily was meant to parallel Regina right down to her looks. They wanted to drive home the idea that Emma and Lily were Emma and Regina but with a different outcome. It was not subtle. Hence all the Lily is Robin and Regina’s daughter crack theories that came up.
Now, this doesn’t actually matter. The casting department still cast someone who has Latina heritage and has a certain look and then dismantled it when they cast the adult version. A and E did know who Lily was, they knew how they intended to use her. Trying to say that it was a break down in communication is simply letting everyone off the hook.