Jolie criticized over Cleopatra role
By IANSFriday, June 18, 2010
LOS ANGELES - Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie is being criticized for playing the role of Queen Cleopatra.
Usmagazine.com reported that African American blogs and message boards are full of comments criticizing the actress.
In an Essence.com story called “Another White Actress to Play Cleopatra?,” the author writes: “Honestly, I don’t care how full Angelina Jolie’s lips are, how many African children she adopts, or how bronzed her skin will become for the film, I firmly believe this role should have gone to a black woman.”
The writer went on: “Were Vanessa Williams, Halle Berry and Thandie Newton unavailable for auditions that day? Why does Hollywood think it’s even slightly plausible to cast white women in roles that would be more sensible to cast a black actress for? Especially when that role is an African queen.”
Clutchmagonline.com noted that the Egyptian queen had always been played by white women in the past: Claudette Colbert in 1934, Vivien Leigh in 1945 and the most famous Cleopatra to date, Elizabeth Taylor in 1963.
