The young lady who played Mary is olive skinned, dark-haired and dark eyed.
She looks perfectly acceptable to me. Now, I would have had a problem if they had chosen a blonde haired blue eyed girl to play Mary or an African-Amercan girl because that doesn't make sense.
Me too. My question was, however, why pick someone who "looks like" when there is a truckload of actresses from that area?
As it turns out, a Catholic filmmaker from Hollywood said it had to do with money and who-do-you-know. The usual. I am sure she is a good actress and pretty at that, but again why not pick someone genuine?
Back in the 1920's the filmmakers used to use white actors with painted faces to play Native and African Americans. Now isn't that as silly as a blue-eyed Jesus?
A Caucasian, European girl would definitely not be the right choice. I agree with you that Middle Eastern Jews of that time looked very different from Europeans. The races were a lot more distinct in those days than they are today.