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 🙄🙄

In terms of race (and I know not everyone's race can be distinguished just by looking at them), If Anne Boleyn was black, it would infer a different history, heritage and story to the one we know about and I'm sure is well recorded.

It wouldn't imply a super different history, though. She was a lady-in-waiting to Catherine of Aragon; Catalina de Cardonnes, another of Catherine's ladies in waiting, was black.

I think historical figures should be left as they were. If they are so stuck on making Tudor tv stuff, maybe they could just change the viewpoint?
www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/29/tudor-english-black-not-slave-in-sight-miranda-kaufmann-history

I said Europeans. Arab traders certainly went, and Central Asians. But Marco Polo was later, and may have not even made it.

Here you go:

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/meeting-civilisations-mystery-china-s-celtic-mummies-5330366.html

As you say - actors frequently don't look like their historical counterparts. Not just JRM in the Tudors but also Henry Cavill as Charles Brandon. That invented romance with the French woman would have looked quite different with an old, overweight actor (how Brandon actually looked in the 1540s).

In some ways I prefer this historical inaccuracy because it is obvious. We know Anne Boleyn was white so we know this is not what she looked like.

So many historical dramas have inaccuracies that people don't notice if they don't know the period. The Cate Blanchett is almost entirely factually inaccurate but that is not visibly obvious (I suspect the earl of Arundel wouldn't be happy to know he was shown as an executed traitor when he wasn't) so people can end up believing that version of history.

I don't really agree with it but I do agree with a pp that there are plenty of Tudor dramas with a white Anne to watch instead! I also speak as someone who loathed Jonathan Rhys Meyers in the Tudors - Damian Lewis is the only person that should be playing Henry at the moment - he's even got the right mouth!

I think the problem I have with colour blind casting is that it glosses over the real experience of black or Asian people at that time. I would rather see a drama that actually showed us what that was like, so we could actually learn something. And the idea of a Mary Seacole drama is great - there must be other, less well known people too. If Small Axe worked, why not?

Yes, odd choice choosing and actor or actress of a different ethnicity to an historical person. Doesn't just take them being a different skin colour - as mentioned JRM was a woeful casting as Henry VIII, for so many reason short, wrong fair colour and questionable acting ability.

Also, casting Orthello as a white man isn't the same. Him being a fictional character. Also he has been played by many, many white men so that adds another flaw to the argument.

They could cast a black actor as either Romeo or Juliet without much issue. Them being fictional too.

NB Henry Cavill can play whoever he likes though

Damian Lewis is the only person that should be playing Henry at the moment - he's even got the right mouth!
Agreed!

It's frustrating to me because there are so many other stories they could tell and many of them are the stories of black communities or people. They aren't getting told because of stuff like this.

www.vogue.co.uk/arts-and-lifestyle/article/black-women-british-history%3famp

[quote PicsInRed]I said Europeans. Arab traders certainly went, and Central Asians. But Marco Polo was later, and may have not even made it.

Here you go:

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/meeting-civilisations-mystery-china-s-celtic-mummies-5330366.html[/quote]
Lol the Tarim mummies.

You said Silk Road. This is Bronze Age before there was even a ‘China’. This is a region incredibly far from the proto-Chinese cultures of the Yellow River Valley.

And they disappeared or were assimilated before having an impact on Chinese culture as we know it. You still see the rare person with red hair in Xinjiang. They are still not European ....

Certainly no reason to stick whitey in the Qin court or within a Tang-era drama.

Whilst I don't mind the casting per se, I do agree with the various posters with have said that it would be better to have a drama about actual black Tudor characters. There's more to history than the Tudors and more to the Tudors than Anne Boleyn. We don't need another rehash of her story (and the programme description doesn't fill me with hope for the series). I would rather watch a drama about Catalina de Cardonnes to be honest.

So with a no deal Brexit looming and mutant Covid spreading, some white people are creating online threads complaining about one black actress being cast in a show they haven't seen or read the script for. Wow.

Completely agree we don't need more Tudor dramas. Dramas about UK black history would be great. The as already mentioned Mary Seacole or Olaudah Equiano would be interesting

For me, AB was a real person. She was white, she was brunette, she wasn't all that pretty. That's where i struggle with the actress they have playing her. I mean tbh they tend to suspend most elements of fact when they do these 'based in fact' period dramas anyway. But i can imagine the uproar if say, a white woman, was cast to play Maya Angelou. Why? Because her skin colour mattered in the story of her life. It is an integral part of who she is. Henry the 8th married all white women.
Now if it had been purely a work of fiction then hey ho, crack on with the interpretation of who plays what.
It seems like history whereby those in it were white is up for being interpreted however those in the woke want to. But woe betide if a white person takes on the role of an actual black person in history.
People may say 'oh well its about suspending belief and you should look beyond a persons skin colour, they're acting, you don't see it'. Ok lets have that drama about Mary Seacole and lets cast a white woman in the role. I wonder how that would play out?

I fail to see how rewriting history to try to be "woke" is doing anyone any favour, quite the opposite actually.

Because there are only just the one or two threads about Brexit and Covid...

Does that mean there shouldn’t be a discussion on anything else until Brexit has been finalised and Covid has been eradicated?

It’s the double standards that annoys me. We had massive pushback recently that trans people should only be depicted by trans people, Jewish characters should only be characterised by Jewish actors. Black historical figures had to be played by black actors. All very worthy stuff.

Then you get this and I think it just jars. I don’t care as I doubt I’ll watch it, but I can see why this pisses people off.

So with a no deal Brexit looming and mutant Covid spreading, some white people are creating online threads complaining about one black actress being cast in a show they haven't seen or read the script for. Wow.

And

Oh my fucking god, must you with the cobid and brexit EVERYWHERE? Must you?!🙄

@SchrodingersImmigrant

Damian Lewis is the only person that should be playing Henry at the moment - he's even got the right mouth! Agreed!

Steven Waddington would have been my choice. Just need a become a casting agent and get a time machine.

Anything but JRM and that "angry" voice he does.

And they disappeared or were assimilated before having an impact on Chinese culture as we know it. You still see the rare person with red hair in Xinjiang. They are still not European ....

Rather similar to how the Roman and subsequent Black and other non-White communities were assimilated into British families in the Victorian age until they were forgotten. Nevertheless, they existed as discrete (and integrated) society at the time and were relevant participants to events of the time.

The fact remains - they were there in notable numbers. Why would anyone go out of their way to fight hard to conceal that? Why the anger? Why the panic about actually greater historical accuracy? Why indeed? 🤔

@HitthatroadJack

I fail to see how rewriting history to try to be "woke" is doing anyone any favour, quite the opposite actually.

I mean I presume they are just going to not mention skin colour or ethnicity rather than claim she was from Africa/of African descent.

Being cynical there probably is an element of the producers doing this because they know that it will be controversial and will get people talking where another run of the mill Anne Boleyn drama wouldn't attract as much attention (good or bad)

Maybe if we want historical accuracy we should stop portraying jesus as white with blue eyes?

@CherryValanc

Yes, odd choice choosing and actor or actress of a different ethnicity to an historical person. Doesn't just take them being a different skin colour - as mentioned JRM was a woeful casting as Henry VIII, for so many reason short, wrong fair colour and questionable acting ability.

Also, casting Orthello as a white man isn't the same. Him being a fictional character. Also he has been played by many, many white men so that adds another flaw to the argument.

They could cast a black actor as either Romeo or Juliet without much issue. Them being fictional too.

Have you ever read Othello?

@heyjude12

Maybe if we want historical accuracy we should stop portraying jesus as white with blue eyes?

Touche.