Gal Gadot Responds to ‘Whitewashing’ Backlash After ‘Cleopatra’ Casting

New York Post ^ | December 23, 2020

[nickcarraway]

Gal Gadot has defended her casting as Cleopatra after she was met with accusations of “whitewashing” the upcoming biopic.

Critics have said that an Arab or African actress should play the role of the iconic Egyptian leader instead of the 35-year-old Israeli actress.

“First of all, if you want to be true to the facts, then Cleopatra was Macedonian,” Gadot told BBC Arabic. “We were looking for a Macedonian actress that could fit Cleopatra. She wasn’t there. And I was very passionate about Cleopatra.”

[nickcarraway]

Give me my robe, put on my crown; I have
Immortal longings in me: now no more
The juice of Egypt's grape shall moist this lip:
Yare, yare, good Iras; quick. Methinks I hear
Antony call; I see him rouse himself
To praise my noble act; I hear him mock
The luck of Caesar, which the gods give men
To excuse their after wrath: husband, I come:
Now to that name my courage prove my title!
I am fire and air; my other elements
I give to baser life. So; have you done?
Come then, and take the last warmth of my lips.
Farewell, kind Charmian; Iras, long farewell.
Have I the aspic in my lips? Dost fall?
If thou and nature can so gently part,
The stroke of death is as a lover's pinch,
Which hurts, and is desired. Dost thou lie still?
If thus thou vanishest, thou tell'st the world
It is not worth leave-taking.

[DoughtyOne]

Funny, I didn’t hear any comments about Will Smith playing
James West in the Wild Wild West movie.

Hmmm, what race what Bob Conrad again?

[Hypo2]

I will love when the cancel culture comes for Hollywood...

[Hambone 1934]

They don’t get it..IT is a business and wonder woman fans may watch this crap....That’s what the studio is thinking....

[pepsi_junkie]

The real point is that even if you buy that the ancient Egyptians were black (Something their own artwork refutes), Alexander the Great conquered Egypt and installed his own General as the new Pharoh. This started the Ptolemaic dynasty, which was Greeks ruling Egypt. That ended when Cleopatra died.

she was indisputably white.

[Secret Agent Man]

yup

[mass55th]

"Funny, I didn’t hear any comments about Will Smith playing James West in the Wild Wild West movie."

Or when Zoe Saldana and Patrick J. Adams, portrayed a bi-racial couple (Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse) in the 2014 "Rosemary's Baby" mini series.

Or Thomas Mann and Kiersey Clemons also playing a bi-racial couple of Jim Dear and Darling in the remake of "Lady and the Tramp," which takes place in the year "1910."

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks for the mention. I wasn’t aware of that.

It has never rally mattered to me.

Didn’t mean that as a put-down. It is interesting.

[DoughtyOne]

I’m sure there are a lot of examples.

Another, although gender and not racial, the Timelord
is now a woman.

As I understand it, they were pretty serious about
changing James Bond to a woman also.

I’ll be they aren’t thinking misappropriation there.

[wildcard_redneck]

Cleopatra was a Greek. She was a member of the Ptolemaic Dynasty which was founded by one of Alexander the Great's generals named Ptolemy after Alexander and his greek army conquered Egypt.

Sad to see that leftists and black supremacists are too stupid to know that. You would think that education would be better in Wakanda with all that technology and vibranium metal export revenue. /sarc

[Varsity Flight]

Annie

[DoughtyOne]

Another poster mentioned this earlier. That’s interesting.

It’s one of those things I’ve never had presented to me
before several months ago.

[a fool in paradise]

Little Orphan Annie was a red haired white girl and Daddy Warbucks was anti-FDR anti-Socialist.

[a fool in paradise]

Nick Fury agent of SHIELD had been Sgt. Fury of WWII

[Impala64ssa]

Cleopatra was BLACK? WHO KNEW?!? So does this mean the ancient Egyptians were Black? Are the wokesters sure they want reparations? We can play that game too. We can pay them back for slavery, IF they pay US back for the enslavement of our Hebrew ancestors 5000 years ago. Anything we owe them would be chump change compared to just the accrued interest on a on such an old debt.

[Varsity Flight]

Curly
Laurey

Baron Von Trapp
Maria

[wildcard_redneck]

Alexander conquered the Balkans, Greece, Phoenicia, the Persian Empire, Egypt, Babylon, what is now Afghanistan and Pakistan and then in invaded India.

[Varsity Flight]

Ensign Nellie Forbush

[Redmen4ever]

Cleopatra was the last ruler of Ptolemaic or Hellenistic Egypt (305 BC to 30 BC).

Ptolemaic refer to Ptolemy I, an associate of Alexander the Great. The first ruler of this dynasty. He moved the capital to Alexandria, a city founded by Alexander the Great.

From 30 BC to 641 AD, Egypt was ruled by Rome or the Byzantine Empire. Then, Egypt was ruled for hundreds of years by a series of Arab and Turkic rulers. Only in the recent two hundred or so years, did Egypt gains its independence from the Ottoman Empire and European influence.

The idea that Cleopatra should be Arab is displaced by 671 years. The idea that she should be “African” is completely wild, an Afrocentric fantasy that ancient Egypt was black or sub-Sahara Africa, instead of being distinctly Egyptian.

As for Gadot, she is an Ashkenazi Jew, meaning part of the Jewish people who migrated to Germanic and Slavic Europe from the Middle East. The largest number of these people today live in the U.S., and the second largest number today live in Israel.

I myself would have no problem with almost any actress playing Cleopatra as long as she were beautiful. North African, Arab, Mediterranean, Northern European, South Asian or Central Asian. A sub-Saharan African or an East Asian would be a stretch, but I wouldn’t completely rule it out.

Yul Brynner, a Russian-American with some Mongol blood, made a magnificent Pharaoh (and with his exotic looks, he could play almost any part). Elizabeth Taylor made up in beauty any lack of ethnic authenticity in her portrayal of Cleopatra. A great actor or actress can project.

[gasport]

Sgt. Preston of the Yukon