Period dramas with multiracial casts

Cafe Society
1

So I noticed Mrs. Cardigan watching a costume drama on Netflix recently (think it was called Bridgerton) in which a number of roles depicting English gentry were played by black actors. This is not the first such time this has happened recently, and there have been several other shows, such as: Belle, Hamilton, and The Spanish Princess.

I’m unsure how to feel about this. On the one hand, it’s great that POC are getting more numerous and notable roles on screen. The entertainment industry has been slowly making progress on this front over the decades, but on the other hand, couldn’t it be argued that this recent trend in period dramas could also be viewed as a blatant attempt to ‘whitewash’ the past?

2

Hamilton is not quite the same as period dramas. It’s a musical, and typically for those you hire the best actor/singer for the part, and allow suspension of disbelief to shoulder the burden as to why Aaron Burr suddenly has dark skin.

As to period dramas - Europe was pretty diverse in the middle ages and renaissance. I mean, Moorish Spain was right there.

3

In the case of Bridgerton, Mrs. solost watched it but I did not, so I could be wrong, but I think that, instead of just casting black actors despite it not being historicaliy accurate, it was actually supposed to be an alternate reality in which black people had been able to be part of the aristocracy and royalty of the time.

4

I admit I didn’t really watch the show or follow the premise. If the show’s writers made clear in the beginning they’re depicting an alternate reality, then I stand corrected.

5

How so? Bridgerton, in particular, doesn’t make any claims to be accurate history. And Belle, while a fictional account, is about a real person. What’s “whitewashing” about a film loosely based on her story?

And in any case, the old way (absence of PoCs in European historical drama) is also inaccurate. There have been PoCs in Europe, and Britain specifically, since Roman times and including the Middle Ages and after.

6

In Bridgerton, are you referring to Queen Charlotte? If so, there was some debate that she might have had some sub-Saharan ancestry. And I haven’t seen the second season but I think some characters were Indian. As for Belle, it’s also historical, sort of (based on a painting).

7

“Accuracy” in a period-set story is a fantasy. It’s unattainable, and it’s undesirable besides. Anything that observes absolutely strict accuracy to the historical period in which it’s set would be incomprehensible and inaccessible to its audience.

Every story is ultimately and fundamentally about the time in which it was created. It will always, always reflect the interests and preoccupations of its contemporary audience, and it should be perceived and evaluated as such.

8

Different media have different standards I think and things are pretty loose on the stage. I could go see King Lear and he could be played by an Inuit and his three daughters could be played by an African American, a Pakistani, and a Dutch woman, all with different accents even, and I wouldn’t bat an eye.

In regards to period drams with “colorblind” casting, I did hear one commentator say something, “It’s great that they’re casting people of color, but those still arent our stories being told.”

9

I remember people losing their shit when Branagh cast Denzel Washington in Much Ado About Nothing.

10

The thing that started this trend, I think, was the Broadway production Jesus Christ, Superstar in 1971. It had Ben Vereen as Judas. On the album, Murray Head, a white guy, had that part, so putting a black performer in his place, in a part generally thought of as “white” was a pretty bold move.

(Pearl Bailey had played Dolly Levi in Hello Dolly on Broadway in 1967 – but they had the entire cast switched to black performers. Vereen was, aside from chorus and dancers, the only black performer in the cast AFAICR)

the next year Vereen appeared in another Broadway production – Pippin – which was very (VERY) loosely based on the life of Pepin the Short, son of Charlemagne. The play was blatantly anachronistic and ahistorical, and Vereen was given the part of the “Leading Player” of a performing troupe telling the life of Pippin. Again, having a black performer in the part was bold and unexpected, but a.) Vereeen was spectacularly talented and b.) it was another opportunity to expand the parts a black actor could inhabit. When others played the part, they were black actors, too (when I saw the show Vereen’s part was taken by Northern Calloway from Sesame Street). One reason was that they played off the character. When he is among a group of revolutionaries (lead by Pippin), the other revolutionaries are dressed in dark cloaks, like Sneak, Snoop, and Snitch from the cartoon Gulliver’s Travels, but Vereen’s character was in a black leather jacket and shades, like a Black Power figure.

After that black actors started getting snuck into a lot of roles where the characters were traditionally white, generally without any attempt to explain or rationalize things. Whoopi Goldberg played Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (a part previously played by a white guy. Phil Silvers played the part with anachronistic glasses). They put Morgan Freeman in as a black character in Kevin Costner’s Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, where he was arguably the best character there. (There was a sliver of justification, in that Robin was returning from the Crusades, and Freeman’s character was a Moor) This started a new tradition – Robin Hood films started including black characters, something they hadn’t done before.

And Hamilton really expanded the concept, using lots of diverse actors in its cast. The 2019 movie The Personal History of David Copperfield was all over the map, as far as diversity went, with Dev Patel in the lead (of Indian ancestry, although his parents were from Kenya and he was born in Britain), Benedict Wong as Mr. Wickfield, Nikki Amuka-Bird as Mrs. Steerforth, and others.

So Bridgerton carried it further with even more roles being filled without regard to background, race, or ethnicity. It was pretty clear to me what they were doing even without explanation.

11

Personally, I find it jarring when someone tries to portray reality as what they wish it were rather than what it actually is.

Imagine a movie set in the 1860s South, but the slave masters refer to their slaves as “African-American” instead of the N-word. If the intent is to oppose racism, it achieves exactly the opposite effect - it’s just undermined itself by making a bad thing (slavery) not seem as bad.

12

Hamilton is completely different from those other titles, as that show was specifically written to have the entire cast other than King George be people of color. It wasn’t a case of “this guy is the best actor we found and he happened to be Black,” it was “these roles are consciously written to be played by non-whites.”

13

There’s a London West End production going on on Best of Enemies, about political opposites William F Buckley and Gore Vidal. Zachary Quinto (of Heroes/Star Trek fame) is playing Vidal, while staunch paleoconservative Buckley is being played by David Harewood (of, I dunno, various things. Wasn’t he in Supergirl?).

I can only image what Buckley would have thought, but it amuses me to do so.

14

I’d find that kind of casting odd in a biopic that’s presumably aiming to be mostly accurate, but it doesn’t seem particularly unusual in something that’s clearly meant to be fiction (like Bridgerton, say).

15

I think people have such a minimal idea of how much the wealth of western people 100, 200, 300 years ago derived either directly or indirectly from slavery and colonialism that any “whitewashing” is insignificant compared to the benefit of increased representation in our oh-so-white popular media.

16

Yeah I agree about this, showing people of color being treated equitably and fairly by white people in periods when people of color were absolutely not treated equitably and fairly is not particularly progressive. Though it is complicated, there were plenty of people of color in Europe prior to the 20th century and the idea of “racism” as we know it (as in the dichotomy of dividing the human race into “white people” who are “good” and “black people” who are “bad”) was an enlightment invention. So prior to late 18th century it would not be anachronistic to show people without racist attitudes.

There is another aspect to this, which always strikes me, when you have people of color cast in earlier medieval periods (e.g. the recent adaptation of The Green Knight with Dev Patel) which is its really just continuing European colonial prejudices. The idea that someone from Gujarat India (where Dev Patel’s family is from) would want to travel to England in the early Medieval period is pretty anachronistic. Britain was backwards island ruled by petty brutal warlords, Gujarat was a prosperous advanced civilization at center of a major international trading system with indoor plumbing. I guess someone from there might want to check out the uncivilized primitive tribes at the edge of the world, but there should definitely be a scene where he has to use the bathroom and comes out shocked and shaking his head muttering about primitive barabarians :slight_smile:

17

The other issue I have is it tends to be a case of casting a token person of color, or two, in what is otherwise a totally white European story about white European history. Rather than telling the actual stories of people of color people in history.

One story that I am amazed (well not that amazed cos you know institutional racism) has never been hollywood-ized is the story of Thomas-Alexandre_Dumas Alexandre Dumas’ father (and many scenes in Dumas’ writings are based on events in his father’s life, including his captivity in Naples). The son of a Haitian slave (though prior to the Haitian revolution, obviously) and a french aristocrat who rose to be a general in the revolutionary army. He actually lived through the invention of racism, at the start of his career he did not (despite the obvious prevalence of chattel slavery) have to deal with the assumption of inferiority because of his race, by the end of his career he did (and suffered because of it)

18

A number of years ago we saw the touring version of Annie, which is a period drama of a sort. The WTF moment is when there was a mix of black and white characters supposedly from the same family. I think it was Nell Carter in the role of Miss Hannigan but her sister was white and was claiming to be Annie’s mother (or some such). After a minute or two or was obvious that it didn’t really matter.

19

But that was the case with the Leading Player in Pippin, as I observed. It was also the case to have a diverse cast play all sexes and races in Cloud Atlas (2012) (Can you accuse a film of whiteface and yellowface if you also have the Asian actors and black actors playing Caucasian and Asian characters at the same time?)

20

Meh, that’s just more woke activism by white people complaining about the meritocracy rewarding more talented Black actors with leading roles. I’m sure if any of the lazy white people had bothered to put in the effort, they might have qualified for the role. Society works best when the best roles go to the best actors! Demanding affirmative action for weak white performers drags down the whole industry!

/s