I always credit my sources.
From the Kansas City Star
Can white actors play black?
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Angelina Jolie might land an Oscar nomination for her performance as Mariane Pearl in “A Mighty Heart” (opening Friday). She’s that good.
To some “good” is beside the point.
Jolie portrays the wife of
Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped and murdered by Islamic extremists in Pakistan. Mariane Pearl is a French journalist of Dutch, African and Cuban heritage.
Jolie is white. In the film she wears a curly wig and makeup that darkens her complexion (though I certainly wouldn’t call it a case of blackface). That has led to charges of “whitewashing.”
“With talent such as Halle Berry, Thandie Newton and Jennifer Beals available — just to mention a few — what is Hollywood’s excuse for casting a white woman this time?” one blogger wrote. “Anyone who has seen a photo of Mariane Pearl can tell she is a woman of color.”
Another wrote: “It is 2006, and I had assumed that the days when white actors took on roles of black people had long passed away.”
This raises interesting issues.
Economically speaking, Jolie is the reason “A Mighty Heart” got made. She and Brad Pitt produced it, and the star power she brings was essential to getting financing for a downbeat movie that will appeal to only a small sliver of the public. Moreover, she’s a friend of the real Mariane Pearl, who gave her blessing.
But it’s the cultural/moral component of all this that fascinates me.
Consider: Othello is one of several Shakespearean protagonists that for 500 years classical actors thought they had to play.
Today, good luck with that if you’re white. For the last 30 or so years the role has been reserved for black actors. No pasty dudes in shoe polish, please, no matter how good their acting chops.
Limiting portrayers of Othello to black actors is a kind of penance for all those centuries when white-dominated culture prevented black actors from access to a wide variety of roles. It’s an unofficial form of affirmative action.
But I have to ask: Are we any richer culturally for denying white actors a crack at a great part?
At the same time, “nontraditional casting” has become the order of the day in live theater. You can see Greek tragedy, Shakespeare, even Chekhov and Moliere performed by mixed-race casts. Nobody thinks twice about black people, Asians or Hispanics taking classical roles.
In part that’s because the theater is an artificial environment from the get-go. We know these people are actors and the sets are painted flats. To enjoy the show we pretend it’s real. So who really cares if a black actor plays a role written with a Caucasian in mind? It’s just one more level of make-believe.
Things are less forgiving in the “realistic” world of film, but here, too, we’ve seen progress. Denzel Washington played Don Pedro in the 1993 film of “Much Ado About Nothing.” Historically there may have been no black nobility in Renaissance Italy, but I doubt many of the Bard’s fans were upset. Washington is a fine actor, which rendered his ethnicity irrelevant.
Increasingly Hollywood is color blind when it comes to casting. Lots of racially nonspecific roles are played by minority performers. Quentin Tarantino cast Pam Grier as the lead of “Jackie Brown.” In the book the character is white. I don’t recall anyone complaining.
I’m not saying the lot of a minority actor is easy, but progress is being made. And if it’s OK for black actors to play roles written for whites, how is it any different to have white actors play roles written for blacks?
In “A Mighty Heart,” Jolie gives an understated, carefully modulated and ultimately touching performance. The film isn’t about Mariane Pearl’s ethnicity. It’s about a woman navigating the knife blade between demoralizing fear and a determination to do all she can to save her husband.
Jolie delivers. And in the end, that’s all that matters.
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and thanks for your last post Scriptgirl.
