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Black Actors playing White Heroes: WTF?
Most of you remember a month or so ago, when a rumor circled that Will Smith had been hired to play Captain America in the upcoming superhero film. Fortunately, this turned out ot be false. But since then, a number of black actors have been expressing interest in similar roles. For example, singer Beyoncé Knowles has resently expressed interest it playing Wonder Woman. And after Daniel Craig just announced that he wants his successor to the James Bond role to be African-American, rapper Sean Combs (a.k.a. P. Diddy) actually starting vying for the part.
WTF?
Don't get me wrong, I'm not racist in any way, but this is just plain ridiculous. These actors keep saying things like "I think the world is ready for a black Wonder Woman" or "a black James Bond" etc. They sound as if they were talking about Barack Obama again. I don't know if you realize this guys, but a black President and a black Wonder Woman are two VERY different issues! Sorry Beyoncé, your hot 'n all, but Wonder Woman is not black. She's an iconic image, and you don't mess with that. And don't even get me started about Diddy wanting to be Bond. At least Beyoncé has some acting experiance. Diddy's done nothing aside from a few commercials (and even those weren't good), not to mention he couldn't fake a British accent if his life depended on it (and if he gets the part it will, rest assured). God willing, these rumors will never become a reality.
What really ticks me off is the double standard here. I guarantee you, many of you have already labelled me a racist hatemonger for writing this blog. But imagine the upset were this situation reversed. What would happen if they cast a white actor to play, say, Shaft? or Luke Cage? or Storm? or John Stewart (a.k.a. Green Lantern)? Heads would roll! And believe me, I would be just as upset. Like I said these are all pop culture icons. Changing them like this is just plain wrong.
Comment
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Comment by Brady Baylis on May 8, 2009 at 4:54pm - I should play black cowboy roles-I'm certainly considered handsome enough for such parts!!!!
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Comment by Butters on November 12, 2008 at 12:59am - If there's gonna be a black superhero it better be Morgan Freeman!
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Comment by Keith on November 11, 2008 at 2:08am -
Time for some Devil's Advocation: Though I would also hate for Diddy to be Bond, I have to mention that he's probably right up there with Beyonce in the acting game... whatever that means. I'm pretty sure he was in "Monster's Ball," "Made," and "A Raisin In The Sun" (both the Broadway stage show and the made-for-TV movie).
And Kent is right about Colin Salmon... that dude is a badass. Fellow Brit Lennie James might be able to pull off a good black Bond too (he was awesome in "Snatch," the show "Jericho," and various other stuff). And frankly, there's tons of great black British actors who could eat up the role and do it justice.
I also think that the movie paradigm that the Bond character is part of allows him to be a multi-faceted and multi-FACEd icon. Half of the fun of that series now is seeing how different actors will approach him. So all of them are white... big deal. The fact is that no one will mistake Moore for Connery, Brosnan for Craig, Dalton for Lazenby, or Peter Sellers for any of the others. As long as he's from England, can balance being suave with being a son-of-a-bitch, gets the girl(s), and digs tuxs and martinis, I won't initially complain.
Initially, that is. (That means you, Dalton.)
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Comment by c_bear on November 10, 2008 at 7:03pm -
a white Shaft would struke fear in the hearts of.....
no bad guys. haha
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Comment by Brock on November 10, 2008 at 4:45pm - I Blame Robert Downey Jr.
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