Should Anne Boleyn be played by a black actress ?

timetogo2016

Would some people be in uproar if our Queen or Diana was portrayed as black in a film ?.
Mmmmmm i wonder.

Just as silly as portraying Michelle Obama or Oprah Winfrey as white. They are all real people.

Er no, because she was white.

How is it new ? It’s identical to the other one.

Yes, identical in the question asked, and identical in that people are making exactly the same comments without reading what has gone before.

Chestnut

It's a ridiculous idea. Ann Boleyn was a real person who was white English. You cannot change history.

If there was a real black person whose story did NOT revolve about being black then the same would apply.

Agreed.

Obviously the series is about Royalty and I would have thought that as Anne Boleyn was a white person, that is the least historical fact that should be portrayed.
There have been films about Diana Ross and the Supremes and Tina Turner, Malcolm X, can you imagine what would be said if they had been played by white actors.
It would have been stupid, as is this!

This argument just demonstrates that skin colour (not race) is more important to some than others .

What if a mixed heritage, blonde haired blue eyed actress played Boleyn?
Would that provoke comments?

It's all about appearances isn't it?

I think it’s silly, but someone pointed out to me that black actors would have very very few parts in traditional English drama if they weren’t able to play people who were actually white.

Lucca ??

Grandma70s

I think it’s silly, but someone pointed out to me that black actors would have very very few parts in traditional English drama if they weren’t able to play people who were actually white.

Only where the characters are real people like Anne who existed and who are known to be white English. They can play plenty of other characters in historical drama and characters in fictional drama. I can't see that would provide 'very very few parts' as I'm sure there would be plenty.

FannyCornforth

This argument just demonstrates that skin colour (not race) is more important to some than others .

What if a mixed heritage, blonde haired blue eyed actress played Boleyn?
Would that provoke comments?

It's all about appearances isn't it?

No, it’s about portraying it as it was. If there was a film about the Queen and her dogs....you’d expect them to be corgis, not pit bulls! It’s nothing to do with skin colour being ‘ more important to some than others’. It’s about accuracy. Anne Boleyn was a white woman....end of.

I absolutely agree DiscoDancer....

FannyCornforth What if a mixed heritage, blonde haired blue eyed actress played Boleyn? Would that provoke comments? It's all about appearances isn't it?
Yes it is about appearances. What if that blonde haired, blue eyed actress played Tina Turner in a biographical drama? It would be equally daft. I want to see someone who looks like Tina Turner. In fact Anna Bassett portrayed her brilliantly in What's Love Got to Do With it and I would have been disappointed to see someone blonde and blue eyed who looked nothing like her in the role.

None of this is new is it? In the 60's Olivier was in trouble playing Othello with his makeup and mannerisms, now we have cultural appropriation the other way round, we should not be surprised.

M0nica

Crazygran I am not so sure. It has been suggested with viable background research that Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, wife of George III had part African ancestry.

You may find this link informative. www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/secret/famous/royalfamily.html

Maybe she had, but Ann Boleyn certainly wasn’t.

Rosie51

^Jesus is normally portrayed as a white man, just saying ;)^ Yes, when the artist was white, and it's very inaccurate. Ethiopian artists depict him differently.

Can we be blamed for our ancestors interpretation, but he was made in the image of man
During creation, “God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness’” (Genesis 1:26). We were created in God’s image—after . Our likeness, so white , black, brown, he is in our image wherever we may come from.

Grandma70s

I think it’s silly, but someone pointed out to me that black actors would have very very few parts in traditional English drama if they weren’t able to play people who were actually white.

So. Plenty of black actors play amazing roles in their own right, Idris Elba for one. They don’t need to portray someone who is white English to be able to act. There are surely more black roles that could be adapted to series, than to pretend a black actor as a white Queen, laziness and sensationalism as are want on Channel 5.

Anne Boleyn is pictured as having black hair and is white. I am a bit of a purist but a black actress playing her is just weird.

It’s all to do with money and awards.
I’m looking forward to seeing who will play MT in the forthcoming production of The Iron Lady. I don’t believe in ghosts, but . . .

Here is the thread from a couple of days ago when all this was discussed over and over ?

AGAA4

Anne Boleyn is pictured as having black hair and is white. I am a bit of a purist but a black actress playing her is just weird.

Yes, a weird box ticking exercise.
I would expect that anyone playing the part of Anne Boleyn to be slim, Caucasian and with dark hair, and attractive ( because she was.)Also young.
So the part cannot be played by a black actor or a blonde blue eyed actor, or a very plain one, overweight or middle aged.

If the cast were to be an all black one, that would be different.
A bit strange perhaps but it could work.

Doodledog

Here is the thread from a couple of days ago when all this was discussed over and over ?

Do all the threads about Harry and Meghan have to be referred to when a new one is started?

When I said traditional English drama I was thinking of writers like Shakespeare, Bernard Shaw. Not a lot of black characters.

I saw Olivier play Othello. I thought it was marvellous, but I was very young at the time, early twenties. I could only get a standing place and I stood all the way through. I’d be pushed to do that now!

DiscoDancer I don't think that you have understood my post.
And your dog analogy is a bit 'yuck'.
'End of' indeed.

Chestnut

Doodledog

Here is the thread from a couple of days ago when all this was discussed over and over ?

Do all the threads about Harry and Meghan have to be referred to when a new one is started?

No idea. I don't look at any of them.

Do they go round in circles with nobody reading one another's remarks, but just adding something that has already been answered numerous times already?

If so, perhaps referring to identical ones on the same page might be a plan.