What is it with Hollywood and its newfound habit of blackwashing historical figures? The second season of the Netflix series African Queens is about to drop in mid-May, but there’s a slight problem. The depiction of the last pharaoh, Cleopatra VII, is incorrect as a mixed-race actress is playing her. While there is nothing with Adele James, the lady playing the famed Queen, her casting is inappropriate as it does not reflect reality but gives into a theory that hasn’t been proven. Moreover, the physical attributes of this woman in history should remain the same in most retellings.
The last Egyptian Queen is descended from Greeks through her father, Ptolemy XIII Auletes, presumably born in Cyprus. Cleopatra was Caucasian. She had no known black features. However, it needs to be mentioned that African Queens is not the first time this controversy has arisen. In 2002, an article in the magazine Ebony appeared where an article called “Is Cleopatra black?” emerged. In it, a professor named Mary Lefkowitz traced the theory’s origins back to the 1940s, though the suggestion could’ve gone as far back as the 19th Century.
One notable attribute often left out of most dramatisations of Cleopatra and her history is her Greek ancestry. The story of the Queen of Egypt and Marc Antony is one of the most iconic stories ever told.
From Cleopatra To Anne Boleyn
The blackwashing controversy with Queen Cleopatra is not the first time Hollywood has pulled a stunt like this. In another iteration of the Anne Boleyn story, they cast a black actress, Jodie Turner-Smith, in the role.
Again, like Cleopatra, Anne Boleyn was NOT black. She was Caucasian.
History should be honoured as anyone who has never researched who Anne Boleyn was; the project would cause depiction and make the viewer think that the show was accurate in its iteration when it wasn’t. There are plenty of portraits that show Anne was white.
If you know anything about the Tudor dynasty, you will not find a single black person in that family with ties to Anne Boleyn or Henry VIII. That’s not us being racist; it’s the truth about how history works. You can even type it into Google.
Queen Charlotte
Bridgerton has become a massive hit on Netflix under the Shondaland umbrella. It’s so popular that they’ve done a limited series on one of the main show’s main characters, Queen Charlotte.
Bridgerton is a fictional story, but Queen Charlotte is a real person. She was married to King George III. We’ve written a few times about her regarding the drama surrounding Meghan Markle’s claims that the British royal family are racist, or rather, has “unconscious bias,” which is more or less the same thing, but whatever. It’s woke, essentially.
Anyway, Queen Charlotte allegedly had African ancestors. But all portraits of her depict her as being Caucasian. However, this belief came about in the early 20th Century and is unfounded. Also, Charlotte was a minor German royal who spoke no English when she arrived in England to marry George.
However, the one aspect that Bridgerton did get right is that George and Charlotte did have a happy marriage. Their union produced 15 children, with two dying in childhood. The writers on Bridgerton likely saw the claim that Charlotte was black and ran with it despite being inaccurate to the Queen’s history. Also, it would prevent them from being called out for lack of diversity.
Fictional Adaptations
This is where we dive into different territories, though the context is similar. Adaptations are never going to be one hundred accurate. If they were, they’d be documentaries, depending on the subject matter. So the adaptations we’re going to be talking about here are a mixed bag.
Fictional adaptations work differently from those of history. Much of the time, the rules are different depending on the situation.
If an adapted character is made black instead of white, it shouldn’t be too much of an issue, though it depends on the story’s age. Also, a ca
Hellboy
So, when it comes to adaptations, fans are often incredibly passionate. One such example is the recently failed reboot of Hellboy. There was an uproar when the character Ben Daimio was announced to be played by Ed Skrein.
Why?
The character in Mike Mignola’s Hellboy comics is Japanese-American. Skrein is Caucasian. The creatives behind the decision were accused of whitewashing the character. The actor gracefully stepped down and allowed Daniel Dae Kim to be cast in his place. Daniel Dae Kim is Korean-American. Any actor of Asian descent would have been able to play the part.
Now, Hollywood has a habit of underrepresenting minorities. Having Ed Skrein be cast in a role written as Asian is a massive no-no, as there are plenty of white parts and not a ton of Asian parts.
Percy Jackson And The Olympians
This next one caused an issue with some fans but is backed by the author, who is also heavily involved in the project.
The casting of Leah Jeffries as Annabeth Chase in the upcoming television adaptation of Percy Jackson and the Olympians caused some die-hards to scream in outrage. For those who aren’t aware, Leah is African-American. However, the character in Rick Riordan’s books is Caucasian.
Now, Rick is involved with the television series as a writer and producer alongside his wife, Becky. When the casting for Annabeth was announced, Riordan jumped on his website to pacify the racist mob. First, he clarified that his thoughts were his own, not those of Disney or anyone else involved in production.
Rick said that he made it clear long before casting started for the show that there would be OPEN casting calls. He also expressed that Leah was cast purely on her ability to play the part of Annabeth, not for her appearance.
Moreover, no one had a problem with the late Lance Reddick (who was black) being cast as Zeus. Zeus is usually written as white. So how is Leah being cast as Annabeth a problem? Oh, wait. It’s because she’s a lead character. Also, not one person complained about Aryan Simhadri being Grover. Come to think of it, no one complained about Brendan T Jackson playing the role in the movies either. For those who don’t know, Grover in the books is Caucasian.
Different Times
People fail to realise that the original PJO books started dropping in the mid-2000s when diversity wasn’t as enormous. If you think back, almost all the characters in those original books were white. The Lightning Thief was released in 2005, and so on. The later books in the franchise (Heroes of Olympus, Magnus Chase, Trials of Apollo) included different nationalities, such as Mexican, Asian, African-American and Native American.
If the books had been written today, they would’ve been more diverse. That is what is going on with the television series. They are making it as close to the books as possible while adding elements that don’t hinder it, like having Annabeth and Zeus being of different ethnicities to their book counterparts, that’s all.
Harry Potter
Finally, regardless of how you feel about JK Rowling and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child stage play, this next bit confused us why people were suddenly upset. We all know that Emma Watson played Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films.
However, when the stage play cast was announced for the first time, people were upset that a black actress was playing Hermione.
For those who remember the books, Hermione’s ethnicity and skin colour wasn’t mentioned; it was left ambiguous. Only her hair and teeth played a part in the story. If they wanted to cast a black actress for the play or even the upcoming television series, then so be it. There is nothing wrong with that. It’s not like the books were specific. Also, it’s illegal to discriminate against other races by many studios.
Given that Warner Brothers has been under strain with many of their decisions over the past few years, they wouldn’t want another mark against them. The last thing they would want is for their audience abandoning unfair ethics.
