"Hollywood whitewashes everything"

[Shadow00]

With the Exodus movie nearing and people already boycotting cause white people play the Egyptians (who by the way are closer to caucasian than most of you would think, scientifically speaking, but for the sake of this topic consider them black as the majority of racially sensitive people do) we have this dilemma.

Should we have a problem about black people being portrayed by white actors?(and vice versa, of course)
Is race so important that you would actually risk hiring actors you don't see fit as a director just so they fit the color description?

IMO, it depends on what role we are talking about.
Ancient Egyptian color is AT BEST just a hypothesis, which is leaning towards white don't forget. I would totally disagree on (eg) Daniel Day-Lewis, one of my favorite actors in the role of Nelson Mandela because IT OBVIOUSLY DOESNT FIT.

And them again if we have a fictional character, of course everything goes.
I couldn't care less if superman was portrayed by will smith, or aquaman by Jason momoa (OH SNAP).

Anyhow, opinions?

[Shadowstar1922]

The Egyptians were light skinned but they were tanned, keep in mind that. When the Arabs came and invaded around what, 600 or 700 AD? The Arabs became the new culture and the people in the area became darker.

But, when it comes to making historical movies, you need to get the people right. Imagine the outcry of Americans if there was a movie where George Washington was portrayed black. People would be livid! Do you know how much the Republicans would have a fit? Even democrats, the country would flare up.

If you make a historical movie it has to be historically accurate. Common sense.

The only movie i've seen to be historically accurate when it comes to race and skin color are the Night at the Museum movies, their recent one is really good.

but seriously, why is this a question?? You want an Arab woman playing Queen Elizabeth? Some random white french dude playing Ataturk of Turkey? there's probably not any movies about these two leaders but still.

[Shadow00]

My point is, as far as history is concerned ok, I get it and I totally agree, I said it in my original post too.

But are we really facing a scenario where Hollywood movies place white actors on purpoce to force the black actors out of Hollywood, as is being said by countless people today?

Especially a year after 12 years a slave won Best picture?

[The Dice Man]

If it's historical movie, Colour matters.
If it isn't, get the hell over it any colour is ok.

[Tycoon]

If it's historical movie, Colour matters.
If it isn't, get the hell over it any colour is ok.

i agree to some extent... it shouldn't be an all-white cast if that can be helped, so it depends on the style of movie.
if it contains a random selection of people (eg the hunger games - ignore the book) then it should contain a random selection of people, including race (rue and thresh were dark-skinned and i think 2-3 other tributes were)
if it has lots of extras, definitely do not make them all white as even if it's not meant to be, it will look discriminating

[The Divine Potato]

If it's historical movie, Colour matters.
If it isn't, get the hell over it any colour is ok.

I agree with that, you don't expect to see too many (and I don't mean none because the specific film does have them) white people in Hotel Rwanda.

Whereas even Sherlock Holmes could be black, hell the BBC version made Watson a girl I think, citation needed. And Watson used to be this:

So it doesn't matter what the character is or used to be, it is called a movie portrayal for a reason.

[Foopzheart]

If it's historical movie, Colour matters.
If it isn't, get the hell over it any colour is ok.

I agree with that, you don't expect to see too many (and I don't mean none because the specific film does have them) white people in Hotel Rwanda.

Whereas even Sherlock Holmes could be black, hell the BBC version made Watson a girl I think, citation needed. And Watson used to be this:

So it doesn't matter what the character is or used to be, it is called a movie portrayal for a reason.

BBC Sherlock cast Watson as a man-American Sherlock (show named Elementary) cast Watson as a woman. I think it's different with fiction and literature though, because they're open to interpretation.

And just for the record, Elementary sucked and it may or may not be because John Watson was recast as an Asian woman. If she had been a blonde woman named Lyssa Watson, maybe...