this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2024
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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 as Romeo and Francesca Amewaduh-Rivers (“Sex Education”) as Juliet. 

On Friday, the Jamie Lloyd Company issued a statement, 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.”

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (15 children)

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

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?

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

I'm not addressing you personally. But those who are vocal about stuff like this are sheer hypocrites.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (10 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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.

Intentionally doing it because of race is far more likely to be a positive thing than fishing for rage bait, even if the positive thing is getting more money because people like the increased diversity. Fishing for rage bait is way too risky for Hollywood.

[–] ArcoIris 1 points 7 months ago

People like increased diversity when it’s tasteful and meaningful and adds value to the finished product. Unfortunately, I keep seeing examples of people associated with movies continually adding distasteful and meaningless pandering instead, continually dangling rage bait by insulting men (especially white men) on camera, then continually acting surprised when their movies continually make no money because people won’t watch a movie if you continually tell them it’s “not for them”. So no, I would argue that it’s not “too risky”, because if it wasn’t, they wouldn’t keep doing it.

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