MOAR LIKE THIS?
Now, what I'm about to tell you, dear readers, may shock your fragile sensibilities to their very core, but the truth must be proclaimed: every actress Hollywood producers have cast as Cleopatra have been (brace yourselves) white. With a new biographical film about the life of Cleopatra in the works I wonder if you can guess the skin color of the woman producer Scott Rudin wants to play the titular role.
If you guessed white, well, give yourself a pat on the back and imagine it's my manly, sweaty hand. Specifically, Angelina Jolie has been tapped for the role and all indications are that she's accepted it. As one might imagine, this choice has caused some outcries from black media outlets who feel we live in an era when audiences aren't so sensitive to on-screen depictions of race that the casting of African royalty needs to be whitewashed. Essence.com's Shirea L. Carroll perhaps distills the sentiment best in her editorial on the matter that also lays out an obvious few black actresses who would probably kill in that role (Thandie Newton or Zoe Saldana top my list).
Perhaps I'm just noticing it more because it's my job now to report on entertainment, but these days it feels like accusations of racism seep into industry news on a monthly basis almost like clockwork. First it was The Last Airbender 's casting choices on both the hero and villain sides. Then black actor Idris Elba was picked to play Heimdall (known in Norse mythology as the "White God") in next year's Thor movie. And of course who could forget the Twitter-incited controversy over Donald Glover maybe-possibly-vaguely being considered to play Spider Man? It's definitely starting to seem like, as Boston might say, more than a feeling.
In the case of Cleopatra, though, I'm not even remotely convinced of blatant racism. For exactly the historical reasons I mentioned above, Cleopatra's actual skin color and facial features are anybody's guess. It's not even definitively known who her mother was. When given such an ambiguous and notable character to cast any producer anywhere would default to the highest-profile actress they can get their hands on, and right now Jolie's one of the hottest sure things in showbiz. Ultimately, I don't think Hollywood's such a racist place (anymore), it's merely greedy.
What I'm trying to say is: People need to stfu, calm down and put their race-cards back into their holsters.
That being said early last year archeologists do believe they have identified the body of the sister that Cleopatra had killed and she does in fact display both European and Egyptian features so there is finally some "maybe" evidence pointing towards the possibility of a mixed-race Cleopatra. But considering the fact that Jolie is of mixed race herself you would think the decision to go with her wouldn't be controversial.
Does nobody appreciate my headline? (Fishing, fishing, fishing...)
It has been mentioned before, but it never hurts to reiterate. Cleopatra was of Ptolemy descent. Ptolemy was a GREEK general of Alexander the Great. Alexander conquered Egypt, and after Alexander died, Ptolemy was in total control over Egypt. Cleopatra was Mediterranian, and spoke Coptic Greek.
Also, on an interesting side note, most historians now believe that Cleopatra's traditional "suicide" was in fact murder from Augustus. Augustus claimed the empire due to the fact that he was the adopted son of Julius Ceaser. Cleopatra had an illegitimate BIOLOGICAL son with Ceaser. Augustus likely killed them both to avoid a threat to his power.
I suppose the counter-argument would be something like, 'Everyone knows what race those people were, so no one can be accused of trying to confuse history.' But isn't wanting Cleopatra to be a played exclusively by black actresses doing just that if no one knows what she actually looked like anyway?
I wonder can she put her fist in her mouth.