Posted on 03/19/2017 8:13:22 AM PDT by Ennis85
Actress Thandie Newton has said she "can't work" in the UK because there are no roles for black and minority ethnic actors in historical dramas. London-born Newton said the number of costume dramas had led to "slim pickings for people of colour". Her criticism comes after British Film Institute research found that 59% of UK films since 2006 had no black actors in any role. Newton's next UK TV role will see her appear in BBC One's Line of Duty. Speaking to the Sunday Times Magazine, the mother-of-three said: "I love being here, but I can't work, because I can't do Downton Abbey, can't be in Victoria, can't be in Call The Midwife - well, I could, but I don't want to play someone who's being racially abused." "I'm not interested in that, don't want to do it... there just seems to be a desire for stuff about the Royal Family, stuff from the past, which is understandable, but it just makes it slim pickings for people of colour." Newton is one of many British actors who have complained about the lack of ethnic diversity in UK TV and film.
Former Spooks star David Oyelowo said there had been an exodus of black British actors to the USA, due to the lack of opportunities available in British drama. In 2015, the star of A United Kingdom said: "We make period dramas in Britain, but there are almost never black people in them, even though we've been on these shores for hundreds of years. "It's frustrating, because it doesn't have to be that way". On the US stage, black actors portrayed white historical figures like George Washington in Broadway musical Hamilton, which retells the story of American founding father Alexander Hamilton.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
The most ridiculous I think are those modern PC movies about Vikings that inevitably have black people in them, that’s totally ridiculous.
there were none for thousands of miles around. it’s very hard to take such some seriously at all.
it would be like a movie about ancient Wars in deep Africa with members of the Von Trapp Family all of the place.
It’s like arguing against gravity. What about the white actresses who can’t play a Swahili women fighting against the patriarchs of Africa?
Jump forward 100 years and imagine historical dramas of the time period around 2017. What roles would be available to future black actors?
Mostly criminals and rabble-rousers and community organizers.
Might want to fix your culture NOW so that you can have achievements that are worth portraying in the future.
I had to look up her picture, since I had no idea who she was (I don’t watch much regular TV, I’ve got Netflix and Amazon Prime).
Apparently we’ve taken a step backward in racial relations thanks to moronic liberals. The “one-drop” rule is back in effect, if my assessment of what’s-her-name’s ethnicity is correct.
I guess the next move is to extend “people of color” (colored people, LOL) safe spaces to entire school campuses, returning us to segregation. If it goes a little further, to outside the campus, then we’ll have apartheid.
Thank goodness all of this leftist claptrap is post-modern garbage that eschews logic and reason.
Your response if right on. I imagine if I lived I Japan, I would not be able to fill a role of n elderly Japanese woman.
I used to think she was adorable until I saw her on Westworld.
History is racist.
BBC’s Robin Hood 2006-2009 put random Black actors into the series and it didn’t really seem too disturbing. They just played the parts as if it was nothing unusual. Of course, that particular show was based on legend and was more about sword fights and melodrama than historicity.
Why not play a tribe member who capture other tribe members and sold them to Arab slave traders, Thandie. How about play a victim of the Mendala necklacing campaign,Thandie? Just trying to help out.
I’m willing to give the new girl on Dr. Who a chance.
Freema was good.
I hate to see Capaldi go but nothing lasts forever.
The irony is that black Americans had some of the most iconic and popular roles on TV from the late 60s, 70s, and throughout the 80s.
Good role models that were never seen as “token”, or window dressing to virtue signal. Jesus, dont these guys remember that the Cosby show was the most popular TV show in the nation for years?
Mod Squad, I-Spy, Room 222, Julia, Benson, the Jeffersons, Webster, Facts of Life, Different Strokes, Mr. T from the A-Team?
I guess they dont remember those since they didnt show blacks as “oppressed”, just as normal people.
so now history is racisss... feh
I get sick of seeing unrealistic shows. Every police captain is black, female, or both. Blacks are introduced into ridiculous old west settings, or the Revolutionary War, where the number of freed blacks who fought on either side was miniscule.
I get the plot in “Black Sails” that the pirates are trying to initiate a slave rebellion . . . but of course slave leader is a black woman and the person in charge of all the finances in Nassau is a white woman.
And black female judges have been populating the airwaves for years too.
If I see an ad for some medical device or potion the person will nearly always say, I asked my Dr. and “she” said.
It has gotten so prevalent that when I saw a guy say: I asked my Dr. and “He” said, that I was surprised.
Indeed, playing Richard III, Henry V, Charles I, or Macbeth as black is rather a bit much.
Bollywood refuses to hire me in their historical dramas. Unfair.
Also I never get male parts. I long to play a dashing hero, maybe a general. But I want to play him with boobs and makeup. It’s so sexist.
I think they should remake the Miracle with the USA hockey team all Japanese and the Russian team all Australian.
Interestingly enough regarding Washington’s Army I saw a quote attributed to a German officer in the British army (I assume a Hessian or some other German merc.!) at the Yorktown surrender. He claimed as much as 1/4 of Washington’s ranks were black. That’s a lot so I am a bit skeptical.
Has anyone else seen or heard of this quote?
I would like to find it source.
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