Alexander Dumas Played by a White Man

[synthesis]

Sorry if this is already a topic, but if not, I figured it deserved one. Consciously or not, this is a literal whitewashing of history and I think it should be made common knowledge.

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/02/22/gerard-depardieus-the-other-dumas-drums-up-race-controversy/

[Hampton]

http://www.sexualfables.com/images/Alexandre_Dumas.jpg

How things have changed.

[Nierneduj]

Plato, Jesus Christ, Beethoven and now Dumas. This is simply white people imposing their warped and racist view of history.

[Frank Zapatista]

Actually, wouldnt choosing another actor based soley on the colour of his skin be racist? If race truly is a social construct the point should be to choose whichever actor plays the part the best.

[CartCollector]

Actually, wouldnt choosing another actor based soley on the colour of his skin be racist? If race truly is a social construct the point should be to choose whichever actor plays the part the best.

With nonfiction films you want to choose actors that look the most like the people they represent. That's not racism, that's representing history accurately.

[Physicist]

With nonfiction films you want to choose actors that look the most like the people they represent. That's not racism, that's representing history accurately.

That's one opinion about how directors should handle nonfiction, but not all portrayals have to be physically adaptive. And let's not forget that while appearing black, Dumas was mixed...
Plato, Jesus Christ, Beethoven and now Dumas. This is simply white people imposing their warped and racist view of history. Depicting someone of a different race as something else is not racist. That's an abuse of the term. Jesus has been depicted as Caucasian, African, and Asian for centuries despite centuries of evidence that indicate he most likely appeared brown - if he existed. Beethoven did appear white; he may have had Flemish history, but it's not whitewashing to suggest that he appears like a casual southern European. White most distinguished him from his peers was a dark complexion and black hair.

[Sendo]

Since you can never look exact for the parts I say forget about race entirely unless it is tied to the character and conflict. You obviously can't have a white actor playing a black victim of racism.

But I find it racist to cast red, brown, black, and yellow people (yes yellow, that's the term. Asia is a large continent and represents origin NOT race) as if everyone in the group is identical.

For example, casting a Han Chinese actor in a role for say, the Dalai Lama seems just as silly and just as serious as casting a mestizo Mexican actor in the same role.

Why not have a black man portray Julius Caesar since race was not in any way a part of his identity and was largely ignored in ancient Rome as it was in ancient Egypt? Why not have a yellow man portray a Persian king? What is wrong with, say, a Greek movie studio using a Greek cast on a film on the Nepali revolution?

However, given the white chauvinism in the world, I say that this case results from rather poor judgment, until we allow blacks to play white roles we should stop having whites playing non-white roles.....but I feel conflicted.

And no, I'm not advocating a return to blackface and yellowface. Just play the role straight. What if a middle school theater group disallowed a black boy from appearing in Hamlet? Should the black boy really be held back? What about white makeup? What if you just had a black boy in a school production of Hamlet? Would it really detract from anything? Or should they only let Nordic whites be cast?