‘Raceswaping’ is a new term describing a trend in American media, in which studios cast actors portraying characters traditionally depicted as people from a different race. ‘Curiously’, only non-white actors tend to get traditionally white roles these days, and never the other way around…
We have another interesting case of a raceswapping casting choice for you.
This one comes from the world of theatre, not film—hopefully, film studios have learnt for a while not to pour a lot of money into a project that would likely turn away half the population with a single casting choice. Theatre, however, requires a smaller level of investment, so woke artists can probably indulge in their fantasy of erasing white people from history a little longer.
This time it was Juliet Capulet from the classic 16th-century drama Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare who got the racewapping treatment.
British actress Francesca Amewudah-Rivers was cast in the iconic role. She is black of Ghanaian-Nigerian ancestry. The other titular role, Romeo, will be played by white British actor Tom Holland, best known for portraying Spider-man in American Marvel movies.
Romeo & Juliet, put on by the Jamie Lloyd Company, will begin its 12-week run at the Duke of York’s Theatre in London, United Kingdom next month.
Juliet is a fictional character, not a historical figure. However, she is from an aristocratic family in 14th–15th Verona, a city in today’s Italy, in the original play, so she would have to be portrayed as white for historical authenticity. Shakespeare did include a few non-white characters in his works. Most notably, the titular character in his play Othello was a Moor, meaning a Muslim person from North Africa. Numerous references are included in the play to his black skin tone—unlike Juliet, who has always been portrayed by white actresses in any popular production until now.
Evidently, the casting choice has garnered plenty of ridicule on social media. Many users are pointing out that in addition to being black, the actress is also oddly masculine-looking, despite having to portray a young, beautiful maiden.
Previous instances of raceswapping that got a lot of attention online (for all the wrong reasons) include casting Latina actress Rachel Zegler as Snow White in an upcoming Disney film, the casting of black actress Adele James as Cleopatra in a mini series by Netflix, or African-American singer and actress Halle Bailey playing the role of Ariel the mermaid in the 2023 Disney film The Little Mermaid.
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