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

I haven't watched the Netflix show. Do they actually cast western actors in the roles during the Chinese Cultural Revolution (purge)?

I understand what you’re going for, but it was likely played by a male because women weren’t allowed to perform.

You're almost there. Keep going!

To quote another Shakespeare play (The Tempest): "What's past is prologue".

The reason the black actor for Juliet is receiving threats is because they don't want her to be allowed to perform. So those historically that were so intolerant of a woman performing on stage that we see as silly and backwards are equally silly and backwards as today's racists threatening this modern day actor for the part of Juliet.

You keep repeating the claim that Romeo was not of similar age as Juliet yet there is no evidence for it.

As long as it is white -> something else since we have way too many decades of minority characters being played by white people because of racism.

Edit: not really surprised by how many people are ignorant of racist casting in Hollywood.

I’ve been watching 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.

I find it a little interesting the effect of casting women and people of color as Imperials in the Star Wars universe. The Empire is explicitly supposed to be a fascist racist organization. The casting of all lily-white poncy British-accented dudes in the original trilogy is supposed to read to the audience as "These are the bad guys; see how colonialist they look?", while it's the rebels and outsiders who are ethnically and gender diverse. The existence of Thrawn and Isard in the expanded universe was supposed to highlight just how brutal and talented they were, that they were able to succeed in such a racist and sexist Empire, even given their backgrounds.

I understand the idea of wanting more diverse casting in modern Star Wars, but making the Empire diverse seems to confuse the visual metaphor just a tad. I suppose that they're keeping the "Empire is racist but only in the sense of it's human-supremacist," but it still seems a little odd.

You would hate "The Great". It's semi historical but humorous and they cast all sorts to play what would be 99% just Russians and it is fantastic.

Not that the skin tone matters much but you’ve obviously never been to northern Italy.

Well that explains why everyone was so up in arms like this over historical skin tone accuracy when Romeo and Juliet were played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. /s

How did you get down votes for that?

You know that she was portrayed by a non-Italian for the first few hundred years, right?

Honestly, I think the play would gain if they added racism as additional reason for the enmity between the 2 families. I’d be astonished if this hasn’t happened before.

Personally,

Do you feel equally uneasy when you watch old movies in which white actors portray non-white characters?

Holy shit, yes. I don't always notice it, but when I do, it absolutely makes me uncomfortable.

Or what about fiction, like "The Hunger Games," in which Katniss is described as "olive-skninned" in the book, but was played by Jennifer Lawrence?

I've always understood "olive-skinned" to refer to people from the European Mediterranean area, which, from an American perspective, are often considered white. As such, it doesn't really bother me that much. However, if the author meant for her to be middle-eastern or northern African, then yeah, that does kinda make me a bit uncomfortable.

Have you ever expressed your discomfort at the portrayals of Jesus as a white dude with blue eyes all over the place?

I grew up with blue-eyed Jesus so it doesn't bother me because I'm used to it. If I was used to seeing black or middle-eastern Jesus, then yeah, I'd be uncomfortable with it. As it is, I'm more amused by the fact that Christians can't get it right than I am uncomfortable with it.

Tbh when it comes to this specific example, I don't really care. I generally think it's better to cast characters as they were originally intended (black characters should be black people, queer characters should be queer people, etc), though I also understand that sometimes exceptions have to be made. I'm mainly replying because I wanted to chime in and say, "hey, not everyone who thinks characters should be cast in accordance with their original race, sex, gender, etc, is a bigot."

Or at least I don't think of myself as one. Maybe I still have things to work on though.

Edit: tbh I think a lot of these kinds of casting choices are rage-bait. They're not doing it because they want to give minorities more opportunities to perform, they're doing it because it generates free advertising. Because of that, I honestly wonder if it's doing more harm than good.

I see your point, but it is also a little weird when a previously established black character is made white, or at least less black, in the casting. Apparently during TMNT's grimdark period, before the cartoon, their April O'Neil was bi-racial. Baxter Stockman was black, but when the TMNT cartoon came out in 1987, both were white.

I wasn't familiar with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles until the very kid-friendly cartoon, so it didn't bother me. I mean, this was my first introduction to these characters, right? I had no idea. But fast forward to now, when it's very strongly canon that Baxter Stockman is black, and the 1987 Baxter Stockman, who's a hybrid of Dr. Brown from Back to the Future and Jeff Goldblum's bug in The Fly, does seem a little... off.

No? You're thinking of No Time To Die where they replace Bond with someone else (who happens to be a black woman) in the movie. She's not Bond, but she's the new 007.

Or you could be thinking of when they were considering recasting the role with Idris Elba?

Either way you're wrong.

The "underwater therefore white" doesn't hold much water, in my opinion.

What about all those dark-colored creatures? Tuna, whales, squids?

Do black people lose their pigmentation completely if they stay indoors?

I know, the "they" in my comment is the Jamie Lloyd Company. Super weird to be willing to say the nature/motivation of the abuse is racism, but then be unwilling to name which cast member it is, if it is in fact Amewaduh-Rivers.

Something is not adding up.

I took the time to google the claim and it’s bullshit.

One of the source materials of Shakespeare mentions his soft skin and lack of facial hair which would mean he’s younger than 15.

I would stick with the original play: Shakespeare died not mention his age but he is acting less mature than Juliet.

Well yes but at the same time the original little mermaid is Danish and from like the 15th century or something.

Gnomeo and Juliet changed a name and they weren't even human!