It's no more surprising than if she looked like Ted Burnett.
She is hired to play the character not sleep with director... it's the 21st century so hopefully that sort of thing doesn't happen any more ;-i
It's a bit sad that an non-caucasian actor is not physically on screen again.
Hopefully this time they would have learned from the Stepin Fetchit fiasco and not coached her to play the alien in the mode of Hattie McDaniel.