Social media users are outraged over the decision to cast Gal Gadot for the leading role in the up and coming film, Cleopatra The Queen of The Nile. The Israeli actress has been slammed online for accepting the leading role and Hollywood has been accused of whitewashing a part that should be played by an actress of colour.
It’s not the first time Hollywood has been accused of whitewashing. In 2007 Angelina Jolie starred in the film A Mighty Heart as Mariane Pearl, the wife of French journalist Danny Pearl who was kidnapped and murdered by the Taliban – only Mariane was half Cuban and certainly not white.
Similarly, in 2013 Johnny Depp played a native American in The Lone Ranger – with his face painted in a stylised version of Crow face paint, using black and white stripes.
Cleopatra was a descendant of Ptolemy I, a Macedonian Greek who established himself as a king of Egypt. Although Cleopatra’s father was Greek, her mother’s identity is unknown, and some have argued that coinage found of her suggests she had black features.
So why cast a white woman? Unfortunately the casting of Gadot is another missed opportunity for Hollywood to stand up for representation. The recent success of the Marvel Black Panther movie marked a positivity step forward in the industry, and this sadly, represents two steps back.