Anne Boleyn as a black woman

[Frustratedbeyondbelief]

Am anyone explain why ? I know this question raises the issue of race which is highly controversial. It is not meant to be goady.. just perplexed by what they are trying to achieve. To me like playing GHandi and Martin Luther King as while men..

For context I hope my non racial credentials as a mother of mixed race children assist in not seeing this as an 'anti black' thread ... I genuinely would like to be educated as to why this is thought to be a 'good thing' when simply factually incorrect . ? Her home at Hever is less than a mile away, I have never had any idea she was black or mixed race. Just seems a bit 'trendy' ...

I think my main issue with this is that I don't really understand what it's trying to achieve.
Yes I get the whole best actress for the job thing. As I said - loved the colourblind casting in the entirely fictional Bridgerton. There is no Duke of Hastings , Queen Charlotte was allegedly mixed race - it was only a small step to suspend my disbelief and go with the fact that no one was judged by the colour of their skin in Regency England. A situation that was far from the case.

I guess I need to watch it. For me a fantasy drama would probably work. Any attempt at historical docu-drama and I call a woke step too far that harms racial integration and tolerance rather than assists.

Maybe it’s not trying to achieve anything except entertainment.

Bridgerton was FICTIONAL. Anne Boleyn was a real person her family seat was Hever and her father was Lord Rochford, very near to me.
I won't be watching just as I would not watch a film/drama about Barack Obama played by a white guy. Portraying real characters by actors of same ethnicity is NOT racist. All the wokes are doing is confusing everyone about real history.....trying to rewrite it.

@Lottiethelemming

As a black female I'm honestly sick of this. Yes, we know they are just acting but to me acting is portraying another personality. Picking somebody who has zero resemblance to the very real person they are portraying is unnecessary and divisive.

I hope the 'woke' type realise they are creating even more racism.

Yeah I think that this whole thing is going to backfire and make people more racist.

Something like bridgerton was a bit of fun, fictional characters in a fictional universe - therefore the characters can be of any race (it was a bit too black/white though, but Asian characters are being brought in in season 2 thankfully!).

Someone portraying an historical figure to play with race there is laughable, and in some cases can be offensive. If it was a white actor playing a black or Asian person there would be uproar.

If it stunt casting, surely they would have been better off making a drama about Elizabeth l? A strong Queen ruling on her own terms.
Instead it runs the risk of being a drama about a black woman 'rising above her status' and ultimately being executed by a white man...

I’m not black but would be interested to know how a majority of black people really feel about it.

Fwiw I think It’s good to get more great roles for black people but isn’t it really offensive to suggest it was so easy for black people back then that they could marry the king and it was all fine? Surely there are loads of fascinating stories of real black people living in England in the time of Henry VIII - couldn’t we hear their stories?

I don't understand the logic as it's historical drama surely the actors are chosen to reflect the. Henry vlll is always portrayed as over weight - either the actor is overweight or made to look overweight so Ann Boleyn is white.

Katherine Hunter- Richard iii, also played a 9 year old in Spoonface Steinberg

www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/kathryn-hunter-gender-bender-58741.html%3famp

Katherine Hunter- Richard iii, also played a 9 year old in Spoonface Steinberg

www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/kathryn-hunter-gender-bender-58741.html%3famp

Don’t see the issue.

It’s happened the other way before:
www.huffpost.com/entry/26-times-white-actors-played-people-of-color-and-no-one-really-gave-a-sht_n_56cf57e2e4b0bf0dab313ffc

WHEN they create more roles for black women I might be able to get het up about a black woman playing a well known white historical character....but until then...

So let's make and watch dramatisations about actual historical black figures instead of yet another programme/film about the fucking Tudors.

THIS!!! oh my god! why are we so bloody obsessed with the sodding Tudors?

I absolutely love anything Tudor and will lap anything they churn out on them (except the travesty that was The Other Boleyn Girl) but even I’m at the point where I’d like to see less Tudor dramas.

[quote Faithless12]Don’t see the issue.

It’s happened the other way before:
www.huffpost.com/entry/26-times-white-actors-played-people-of-color-and-no-one-really-gave-a-sht_n_56cf57e2e4b0bf0dab313ffc[/quote]
The latest of those films was 2016. It wouldn't happen today without a huge outcry and the actor having to resign the role, publicly beat themselves with a stick and give a massive apology on Twitter.

Personally, I think if they're going to do this, they should have made the entire cast black, instead of just one person. Instead, it's the woman who has been vilified and slandered throughout history as an adulteress and witch. If she's also the only POC, that makes it an entirely different story.

I don't know the data but if you were to take the percentage of different groups in the U.K. and the the percentage of parts in all dramas that could be played by non-white actors given the historical context there is likely to be no issue with regard to parts. It is only historical/published works where the character is described. The same could be argued for any group. As I understood it acting parts have occupational discrimination in that if you employing someone to play a old grandfather being an old male is a requirement for that role

Some of those films were already controversial at the time.
Definitely Moses- Joel Edgerton was cast as the Pharaoh, which was also noted.
The Pearl story got a lot of backlash too- the excuse at the time was that Angelina Jolie had befriended Marianne Pearl and that Pearl herself had asked that she played her.

I don't think anyone could be Anne Boleyn after Claire Foy in Wolf Hall.

St George was Palestinian, so an Arab/Middle Eastern person. Not mixed race 😏

That's incorrect. St George's mother was Greek Christian - from Palestine but the area wasn't Arab back then. His father was a Greek from Cappadochia, inhabited by Greek Christians.

Class, not race, is the big dividing line in the British arts. Just look at how many actors went to private schools, when only 7% of the general population does. But of course, directors and casting agents aren't interested in drawing attention to that, as they mostly come from the same background. Hence scoring 'diversity' points with stunt casting like this

Excellent point, with a healthy dose of nepotism thrown in for good measure. Emily Mortimer of the recent BBC production of The Pursuit of Love has openly admitted that she cast friends and family in the roles.

Vinto

I'm curious to know if they're just doing it as a colour blind production, much like The personal history of David Copperfield with Dev Patel was (really enjoyed and would recommend if anyone's interested) or if they'll be casting her family as black also?“

I really enjoyed that production too but it was fictional. Casting an historical character with an actor of a different colour doesn’t make sense to me. Would be like making a film about Mary Seacole and casting Nicole Kidman.

Casting Anne Boleyn as black is nothing more than a ridiculous sop to today's politically correct society. If you think of 'The Crown,' the actors were chosen for their ability to resemble, or to be made up to resemble, the real people.
Anne Boleyn was real, and definitely white.

I didn't even like a black actor playing David Copperfield, and the adaptation of 'Anne with an E' would have L.M. Montgomery turning in her grave.

I’m not black but would be interested to know how a majority of black people really feel about it
Please read my post, above. I am mixed race.

@Norked

St George was Palestinian, so an Arab/Middle Eastern person. Not mixed race 😏

That's incorrect. St George's mother was Greek Christian - from Palestine but the area wasn't Arab back then. His father was a Greek from Cappadochia, inhabited by Greek Christians.

Yes that’s correct. Palestine was Greek Christian at the time, it’s why the crusades started hundreds of years later to counter when the Arabs invaded.

I get irritated when people refer to St George as an Arab. my DNA results came back with 'Turkish' ancestry but it was before the Islamic invasion....very much Greek.