Director of Netflix Docudrama on ‘Black Cleopatra’ Defends Casting: ‘Why Do Some People Need Cleopatra To Be White?’

Amid fierce backlash over the casting of an upcoming Nexflix docudrama on Egypt’s famed ruler, Cleopatra, the director, Tina Gharavi, is defending her decision to cast a Black actress, Adele James, to play the tragic figure. In an article for Variety magazine, Ms. Gharavi says her decision to portray Cleopatra as a Black woman stems from witnessing how Hollywood has misrepresented the pharaoh by choosing white actresses to play her part. The possibilities of Cleopatra being white “are somewhat unlikely,” Ms. Gharavi says.“I remember as a kid seeing Elizabeth Taylor play Cleopatra,” Ms. Ghavani, who was born in Iran and is Persian, says. “I was captivated, but even then, I felt the image was not right,” she adds, as she says she questioned if Cleopatra’s skin was white. The docudrama “Queen Cleopatra” will air on Netflix on May 10. It is part of the documentary series “African Queens,” produced by Jada Pinkett Smith, that explores the lives of “prominent and iconic African Queens.”In the official trailer released this month, an interviewee says: “I remember my grandmother saying to me: ‘I don’t care what they tell you in school, Cleopatra was Black.’”Ms. Gharavi also mentions the rumored casting of actresses Gal Gadot or Angelina Jolie to play Cleopatra in a future biopic based on the 2010 biography by Stacey Schiff as examples of white actresses being considered for a role she thought should go to a Black woman.Last week, Egypt citizens and academics voiced their disapproval of the documentary as they believe Cleopatra, who was born in early 69 B.C. into a dynasty of Egyptian kings, was Macedonian Greek and not Black. According to historians, Cleopatra was descended from one of Alexander the Great’s generals, Ptolemy, who took control of Egypt after the great conqueror’s death. She has been depicted on coins from that period with Mediterranean features such as a long, hooked nose and pointy chin.While Egypt has had Black pharaohs, from Nubia to Egypt’s south, during its long history, Cleopatra was not one of them, according to historians.Some Egyptians put up petitions against the documentary. An Egyptian lawyer, Mahmoud al-Semary, filed a lawsuit against it and demanded legal action against Netflix and the documentary producers to preserve Egypt’s history and cultural identity, the Egypt Independent reported.In her article, Ms. Ghavani says that she has been the target of a “huge online hate campaign” from Egyptians accusing her of “blackwashing” and “stealing” their identity. She adds that some threatened to ruin her career, “which I wanted to tell them was laughable,” Ms. Ghavani says. “I was ruining it very well for myself, thank you very much.”Ms. Ghavani also writes that during the production of the documentary she realized the “political act” it would be to have a Black actress play Cleopatra. Yet, she kept asking herself why Cleopatra couldn’t “be a melanated sister” and why for some Egyptians it matters that she is white. “Perhaps, it’s not that I’ve directed a series that portrays Cleopatra as Black, but that I have asked Egyptians to see themselves as Africans, and they are furious at me for that,” Ms. Ghavani says. “I am okay with this.”According to an American archaeologist, Duane Roller, Cleopatra’s ancestor, Ptolemy I, who established himself as the king of Egypt, was Macedonian Greek. After six successors, the descent reached Cleopatra’s father, meaning that Cleopatra “was no more than eight generations away from being pure Macedonian Greek,” Mr. Roller said in an article published by Oxford University Press.Regarding Cleopatra’s mother, Mr. Roller said the wives of the ruling Ptolemies came from the same Macedonian background as their husbands. Yet, he also mentioned that Cleopatra’s father had several wives, but were all from a significant status. Cleopatra’s mother was either Macedonian Greek or Mediterranean Egyptian, the two ethnic groups where women of status came from, Mr. Roller said.“It is quite possible that Cleopatra was pure Macedonian Greek. But it is probable that she had some Egyptian blood,” Mr. Roller said. “There is no room for anything else, certainly not for any black African blood.”Ms. Ghavani asks her readers to “liberate” their imaginations and explore historical figures “without fearing the complexity that comes with their depiction.” She says she is “proud” of having re-created a world where there once was “an exceptional woman who ruled.” Lastly, she draws a “direct line” between women who rose in Egypt during the Arab uprisings to women in Iran who are rebelling against the regime. Ms. Ghavani says: “Never before has it been more important to have women leaders: white or Black.”

Director of Netflix Docudrama on ‘Black Cleopatra’ Defends Casting: ‘Why Do Some People Need Cleopatra To Be White?’

Director of Netflix Docudrama on ‘Black Cleopatra’ Defends Casting: ‘Why Do Some People Need Cleopatra To Be White?’

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