Jodie Turner-Smith as Anne Boleyn

[Bitchysideisouttoplay]

www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-9071763/Director-TV-drama-Anne-Boleyn-says-best-person-role.html#article-9071763
Not and AIBU really but what does everyone think if this?
Personally I think if you are making a historical drama/film etc surely you should cast a person as close in looks to the historical figure.
Before anyone says I'm.being racist I'm not I had massive issues with the casting in the Tudors due to Johnathan Rhys Meyers being cast as Henry, he is short, not ginger and really does not look anything like Henry in portraits 🙄🙄

I've recently learned about Mary Seacole and I would so much rather have series or movie about her than this. She sounded like a really interesting person.
It has everything. Bravery, determination, war, travel.

Interesting to see so many acknowledging that they do see colour. I wonder if they are the same people that deny endemic racism because they don't see colour?

I don’t think it’s an issue

Didn’t they do a Pride and Prejudice and Zombies once?

Anything goes in entertainment , And it’s entertainment, not history gcse

@DecemberDiana

I never thought there would be a market for drama about Brummie gangsters but was proved wrong.

God yeah😂 There si a beer now too

Overdoing the Tudors is one debate
but on the colour blind casting, I’ve been to several productions where black actors have been cast in what would normally be seen as ‘white’ roles.
Josh Williams was cast as Joe Simpsin in Touching the Void. Joe Simpson is a living, very grumpy white man from Sheffield. After about 2 minutes you really didnt see it because he was such a good actor and I was totally wrapped up in the story

The next thing will be casting a woman as Henry.
Honestly, it’s just so much bullshit.
But yes, well done for them for garnering publicity whilst spectacularly missing the point.

I heard someone say of Hamilton: ‘it’s America then played by America now’ and I think that’s a good way to look at it.

Overdoing the Tudors is one debate

I think the two are very much linked, actually

I don't get why this is a problem at all - none of the actors are the real people, after all (especially in the case of fictional stories!), so why does it matter? I saw a production of Twelfth Night with an all-male cast in normal clothes, and it was the best one I've ever seen, because they were such good actors.

To a pp above - how exactly did a black Scrooge ruin the believability of A Christmas Carol, a story about ghosts?

@OppsUpsSide

The next thing will be casting a woman as Henry. Honestly, it’s just so much bullshit. But yes, well done for them for garnering publicity whilst spectacularly missing the point.

The story of Henrietta😂 God I wish The Asylum production made that!

I don't think it matters as long as she can play the part. I mean everyone knows AB wasn't black, but it's not an integral part of the drama that makes her screenworthy 500 years on - that'd be her nutter of a husband,and the bit where he lopped her head off.

I think it's different if the colour of the actor is integral to the plot in some way, but it's about a pretty woman who caught the eye of a total dickhead back in fifteen hundred and something, skin colour is secondary, it's a modern actress playing a Tudor queen. Should we knock out half her teeth and all a few smallpox scars for historical accuracy, if we're being picky?

How come asian actors never get a look in when it comes to boosting diversity?

@OppsUpsSide

The next thing will be casting a woman as Henry. Honestly, it’s just so much bullshit. But yes, well done for them for garnering publicity whilst spectacularly missing the point.

Next thing, a woman will be paying Peter Pan or a great big man taking the female comedic lead in annual Panto. What a mad, topsy turvy world that would be.

I think if they want diverse casting they should be a bit more inventive with the subject matter. For example a version of Jane Austens Emma set in India during the British Empire. Harriet Smith could be Anglo Indian, Emma not being able to marry her off to anyone except a farmer is due to her having mixed Indian mother. Mr Elton making racist remarks when telling Emma he can't marry anyone not totally white. I think it's much more interesting to have diverse casting for historical dramas in a realistic context. I'd love to see a version of Emma that explored race and colonialism. Emma being a rich girl clueless as to the struggles of Indian people. Just having a regular versions of stories or events and just sticking in diverse casting is lazy and puts off anyone who likes realistic costume dramas.

The next thing will be casting a woman as Henry.

That could actually be a really interesting take on the whole thing...Queen Henreitta and her 6 husbands.....

@Ponoka7

I think it takes any believability away from the drama. It ruined A Christmas Carol at the old Vic, for me, when they cast a black scrooge.

Yes, I felt the same way when they had a frog portray Tiny Tim in the muppet Christmas Carol. And a PIG played Mrs Cratchit!! Also weirdly Charles Dickens was played by another creature entirely. And he’s not even in the story! I couldn’t enjoy any of it because it was so unrealistic.

I do not get the fuss about colour-blind casting at all. All performance asks the audience to suspend their disbelief, if we can accept that Scrooge is visited by three actual ghosts surely we can accept that he is played by a black actor?

Actually I hate to burst your bubble @PicsInRed I would love to see dramas and historical shows about black communities is the 17 and 1800's and also when people for Asia started to migrate over here and lived in the port communities. The reason I posted about this "issue" is I was scrolling through the daily mail and saw this article and thought it would be good to see other opinions outside of my family/friends/collugues .

Indeed @Sparklesocks and three of the Cratchit DCs were frogs and three were pigs... that's just not how genetics works! Highly unrealistic. I must complain.

How about we recast Othello as a white bloke?.

Things ought to be accurate, it’s really hard to watch historical things anyway because they alter events to suit their timeline.

Anne Boleyn was a flat chested brunette as far as we know with a curvy older sister who put it about a LOT.

@LonnyVonnyWilsonFrickett

Indeed *@Sparklesocks* and three of the Cratchit DCs were frogs and three were pigs... that's just not how genetics works! Highly unrealistic. I must complain.

Outrageous. Also they added an extra Marley ghost. And don’t get me started on the talking rat.

Yeah as a woman I wouldnt be interested in the slightest in seeing "henrietta" and her six husbands. Hugely patronising.

This is ridiculous, she’s the wrong ethnicity and given the recent pearl clutching over white actors portraying those of colour, I’m actually amazed that this is happening. Bonkers.

[quote CrotchBurn]@Bitchysideisouttoplay
They should do a series set in the pirating age. When was that? 16th century? I'd watch that, we haven't had one of those. Could be really epic. Also the highwayman age (think it might be same era?).

But its always either Tudors, Jane Austen era or Downton Abbey era. So dull.[/quote]
Black Sails.

I second whoever said a series on Mary Secole. Much more interesting to do a series celebrating a real black woman and black history than doing yet another Tudor drama, and just making a black woman the lead. But the makers will know from experience that the tudors is popular whereas a Marry Secole series is more of a risk. Guess it comes down to £££££.