Why Calling The Casting Of Gal Gadot As Cleopatra 'Whitewashing' Is Just Ignorant
In my newsfeed yesterday was a story about actress Gal Gadot being cast as the legendary Egyptian ruler Cleopatra, It appears that some people took offence to the casting calling it 'whitewashing', a term used when a Caucasian is hired to play character, or in this case historical figure of a different ethnicity. On it's face this sounded down right stupid because Gadot is an Israeli. This means that the actress is of middle eastern lineage and isn't technically white. If you also take into account that Egypt and Israel are adjacent to each other geographically so the casting makes sense. Besides, who could possibly make a more beautiful Cleopatra than Gal Gadot? The argument to the contrary is that the role should go to a Arab or African actress. Here is an except from a BBC article: Writer on Africa, James Hall, said he thought the filmmakers should find an African actress, of any race. US writer Morgan Jerkins tweeted that Cleopatra should be played by s...