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Actress Faces Racist Bullying for Starring as Juliet in "Romeo & Juliet"
BET ^ | 4/8/24

Posted on 04/08/2024 9:23:28 AM PDT by Impala64ssa

Francesca Amewudah-Rivers, starring alongside Tom Holland in "Romeo & Juliet," prompts The Jamie Lloyd Company to condemn racism and harassment in the industry.

Actress Francesca Amewudah-Rivers will play Juliet in the London West End production of "Romeo & Juliet." Because Rivers is the leading lady, she’s been the target of ongoing racist online bullying. This role as Juliet is Amewudah-Rivers’ West End debut, and what a warm welcome. Amewudah-Rivers is starring alongside “Spider-Man” leading man Tom Holland as Romeo.

The Jamie Lloyd Company released a statement: "Following the announcement of our Romeo & Juliet cast, there has been a barrage of deplorable racial abuse online directed towards a member of our company. This must stop. We are working with a remarkable group of artists. We insist that they are free to create work without facing online harassment."

The company continued, "We will continue to support and protect everyone in our company at all costs. Any abuse will not be tolerated and will be reported. Bullying and harassment have no place online, in our industry or in our wider communities."

(Excerpt) Read more at bet.com ...


TOPICS: Music/Entertainment
KEYWORDS: amewudahrivers; bet; blackwashing; romeoandjemima; romeoandjuliet; thatsracist; wokewhining
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To: Impala64ssa

I doubt she’s really being bullied or racially attacked. You’d have to be a moron to do that. Shakespeare took the Italian story and wrote an English play that was performed by English actors, until it was translated into various other languages and performed by other casts. Bernstein, Sondheim and Company turned it into a love story between a Puerto Rican girl and a white boy (Polish?).

Since it’s about lovers from two warring houses or families or backgrounds, a white/black mix shouldn’t be any problem. Nobody really thinks it’s a historical representation of what life in Renaissance Verona or Elizabethan England was really like. The play is bigger and different from that. It’s not like they’re making Anne Boleyn black in a supposed historical drama. It’s not like non-Italian and non-British actors haven’t been putting on the play for years and years.


81 posted on 04/08/2024 11:25:29 AM PDT by x
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To: DiogenesLamp

You might have a point if it were a film that went to great lengths to create the historical city of Verona. But it’s a play. You aren’t going there to see a recreation of Renaissance Italy. You’re going there to see Shakespeare. Resetting Shakespeare in different times and places and recasting it with actors of different backgrounds has been standard for years. Take it up with Claire Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio.


82 posted on 04/08/2024 11:30:43 AM PDT by x
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To: odawg

What are your plans for the part where Othello is described as black?
____

Make up, or imagination.


83 posted on 04/08/2024 12:04:26 PM PDT by heartwood (Someone has to play devil's advocate.)
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To: T.B. Yoits

Made by the “Zyklon Bee” film studios? I wonder how many will get the cringeworthy historical reference.


84 posted on 04/08/2024 12:09:57 PM PDT by Blennos ( Byaasea)
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To: LibertarianLiz

Denzel Washington played Macbeth some years ago. I believe he has had the starring roles in other Shakespeare plays.

Never saw any of them, so don’t exactly know how that was presented since English and Scottish kings descended from royal blood lines.


85 posted on 04/08/2024 12:20:10 PM PDT by odawg
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To: Palio di Siena

LMAO!!!!


86 posted on 04/08/2024 12:28:15 PM PDT by Enterprise
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To: Tell It Right

Looks suspiciously like Chris Tucker.


87 posted on 04/08/2024 12:30:03 PM PDT by Enterprise
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To: Tell It Right

LOL!!Bump.


88 posted on 04/08/2024 12:30:41 PM PDT by Enterprise
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To: Mr Rogers

LOL!! If she said Enterprise, Enterprise, wherefore art thou? I would say “Feets don’t fail me now.”


89 posted on 04/08/2024 12:33:55 PM PDT by Enterprise
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To: T.B. Yoits

LOL!!! Bump. This thread is too much fun!


90 posted on 04/08/2024 12:36:57 PM PDT by Enterprise
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To: Captainpaintball

LOL!!!


91 posted on 04/08/2024 12:38:41 PM PDT by Enterprise
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To: Jamestown1630
‘Fair’ isn’t part of the narrative.

Oh I know. I just enjoy confronting them with their rank hypocrisy at all times.

92 posted on 04/08/2024 12:51:00 PM PDT by FLT-bird
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To: Impala64ssa

In Shakespeare’s day, the role was played by a man.


93 posted on 04/08/2024 1:05:38 PM PDT by Timmy
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To: Tell It Right

Oogabooga, Romy!


94 posted on 04/08/2024 1:05:54 PM PDT by Noumenon (You're not voting your way out of this. KTF)
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To: x
You might have a point if it were a film that went to great lengths to create the historical city of Verona. But it’s a play.

I have been misinformed. From the commentary I read elsewhere, I thought it was a movie. In a movie it is silly, in a play, it doesn't really make any difference.

95 posted on 04/08/2024 1:12:51 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: Impala64ssa

One might wonder how her family found its way to fair Verona.


96 posted on 04/08/2024 1:19:20 PM PDT by higgmeister (In the Shadow of The Big Chicken! )
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To: Tell It Right
She does not look Italian.
97 posted on 04/08/2024 1:24:25 PM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear ( Roses are red, Violets are blue, I love being on the government watch list, along with all of you.)
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To: Impala64ssa

It’s way past time that we put pasty white people into movies about African and South American tribes isn’t it?


98 posted on 04/08/2024 1:54:31 PM PDT by vpintheak (Sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug. )
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To: Enterprise

“If she said Enterprise, Enterprise, wherefore art thou? I would say “Feets don’t fail me now.”

Maybe try ducking and replying, in a fake voice, “He went thataway!”


99 posted on 04/08/2024 2:00:09 PM PDT by Mr Rogers (We're a nation of feelings, not thoughts.)
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To: Enterprise

I'm not sure I could outrun him...er..."her"! Pity poor Romeo! No wonder he kills himself!

100 posted on 04/08/2024 2:04:49 PM PDT by Mr Rogers (We're a nation of feelings, not thoughts.)
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