Colour is no bar for Hollywood actors

Recently, pictures of the cast of 'Harry Potter and The Cursed Child', a play based on JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series, were released. They caused a huge uproar, as Swaziland-born English actress Noma Dumezweni, was cast as Hermione Granger. Rowling silenced racial critics when she tweeted, “Canon: brown eyes, frizzy hair, very clever. White skin was never specified. Rowling loves black Hermione,” adding a kissing emoji at the end.
But this is not the first time that racial ethnicity was not regarded when it came to casting actors as characters. Pune Times brings you a list of African-American actors who were cast in roles traditionally written or described as Caucasian. One of Harry Potter’s best friends at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is Hermione Granger. As JK Rowling and several other experts have pointed out time and again, Hermione was never specified to be of Caucasian descent. Yet, some fans of the fantasy-fiction series were outraged when Noma Dumezweni was cast as Hermione. Having grown up watching Emma Watson play the role of the ‘brightest witch of her age’, many of them felt that the casting of Noma was wrong and stooped low to pass racist comments. Since then, Emma as well as other actors who played significant roles in the original series have voiced their support for the new cast.

Don’t get us wrong, but Halle Berry did look brilliant as Catwoman in the eponymous film based on the DC Comic’s character, of the same name. But many fans were miffed with the casting of the actor who’d also played the first African American Bond Girl in Die Another Day. Catwoman was panned not only by critics but also fans of the series. Especially because the character does not resemble the comic stip at all, but was a messy mash-up of The Crow and The Devil Wears Prada. Fans were certainly grateful when Anne Hathway reprised the role for The Dark Knight trilogy, which ended in 2012.

A decade ago, Chris Evans, who now struts around in his red and blue Captain America suit, was cast as The Human Torch aka Johnny Storm in Tim Story’s 2005 adaptation of the Marvel Comics’ Fantastic Four. Last year, the reboot of the series saw director Josh Trank cast Michael B Jordan as The Human Torch. Needless to say, not many fans took the news kindly. Silencing the racial trolls, Marvel Comic’s creator Stan Lee said he was happy with Jordan as Storm, adding, “But I think they’re gonna get to love this character. So I’m not the least bit worried about it. I always tried to pepper these groups with as much racial diversity as possible because that’s the way the world is.”

When it comes to playing a Marvel comics character, Samuel L Jackson wasn’t the only actor of African American descent to play the character which was originally Caucasian. All thanks to his physical resemblance to the character, Michael Clarke Duncan played Wilson ‘The Kingpin’ Fisk in the 2003 film, Daredevil. Known as the gentle giant, Duncan, who passed away in 2012, aptly fit the gargantuan shoes of the Kingpin. The only snitch being the fact that the character originally appeared as a hulking and pale-faced crime lord. Once the film was out, no one remembered the fact though!

The made for television musical film Cindrella, directed by Robert Iscove, saw a multi-racial casting which included Brandy Norwood as Cinderella as well as Whitney Houston as Fairy Godmother. Although the character is mainly portrayed as one with blonde hair and blue eyes, singer-actors Houston and Norwood together added some serious star power to the remake of the Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella television musical. Praised for its music as well as its multi-racial cast, the film was a semi-hit. Lily James reprised the role in the Kenneth Branagh film of 2015.