Stopthatgirl7Apr 6, 2024

‘Romeo & Juliet’ Play Starring Tom Holland and Francesca Amewaduh-Rivers Faces ‘Barrage of Racial Abuse,’ Producer Says ‘This Must Stop’

https://lemmy.world/post/13958294

‘Romeo & Juliet’ Play Starring Tom Holland and Francesca Amewaduh-Rivers Faces ‘Barrage of Racial Abuse,’ Producer Says ‘This Must Stop’ - Lemmy.World

The Jamie Lloyd Company has hit back after its production of Shakespeare’s “Romeo & Juliet” has been the subject of what they call a “barrage of deplorable racial abuse” aimed at an unnamed cast member. The play, directed by Jamie Lloyd (“Sunset Boulevard”), stars “Spider-Man: No Way Home” star Tom Holland [https://variety.com/t/tom-holland/] as Romeo and Francesca Amewaduh-Rivers [https://variety.com/t/francesca-amewaduh-rivers/] (“Sex Education”) as Juliet.  On Friday, the Jamie Lloyd Company issued a statement [https://twitter.com/RomeoJulietLDN/status/1776223269777011049], saying: “Following the announcement of our ‘Romeo & Juliet’ cast, there has been a barrage of deplorable racial abuse online directed towards a member of our company. This must stop.”

Show threadLerajeApr 6, 2024
Unless a characters race or gender or ethnicity or (dis)ability is a key component of either their arc or the story as whole (e.g. the plot depends on it), who the fuck cares who’s playing who? I saw the same thing happen when the Dune movie had the Liet-Kynes character portrayed by a black woman. It makes absolutely zero difference to the story what gender or race Liet-Kynes was and she was really good anyway.
Show threadSon_of_dadApr 6, 2024
I only dislike it when historical shows or movies race swap, cause it kinda ignores the racism of that community at that point in time. Like a black woman playing queen Elizabeth wouldn’t make sense. Or Cleopatra for that matter
Show threadSupremeFuzzler
I’ve been white guys play samurai and pharaohs and Jesus my whole life. It’s not that hard to get used to someone with historically inaccurate pigment playing a role. But for some strange reason, it’s only a political choice when the actor with the “wrong” skin color is dark.
Apr 6, 2024 at 11:03pmWeb
Show threadSon_of_dadApr 7, 2024
No it’s always been weird with white guys too. John Wayne playing Asian us fucked up, so is all the blackface throughout Hollywood’s history. I don’t expect them to go find an Aramaic Jewish actor from the middle east for a Jesus movie, but don’t make him Korean and act like it’s accurate or something
Show threadSupremeFuzzlerApr 7, 2024

I guess what I’m getting at is that, when you watch John Wayne playing an Asian guy, do you spend the whole movie wondering why the other characters aren’t constantly asking about his skin color and facial features? Probably not, since we can easily accept that while the actor is white, the character is still Asian.

But when a black actor plays a white character in a historical piece, you want to know why everyone isn’t constantly asking about their skin color and facial features. The answer is exactly the same: the character hasn’t changed. The other characters in the film don’t see the actor, they see the character.

Show threadSon_of_dadApr 7, 2024
Ok but by that logic why can’t we get Cyllian Murphy to play Martin Luther King? Or hell, forget gender too, maybe we can get Allison Brie to play Pancho Villa, and it won’t be distracting cause all the other character in the movie are gonna act like it’s normal
Show threadSupremeFuzzlerApr 7, 2024
Well, why not indeed? Both of those could be interesting films, depending on who was involved in making them, and what they were trying to say.
Show threadLeroyJenkinsApr 7, 2024
wait a minute. are you saying everyone accepts white washing? just because you do doesn’t mean we should all just get used to it. people are tired of their classic ethnic stories being played by a bunch of white dudes or changed to a full white cast for the sake of palpability for the west. nobody aside from white people want that shit…