Angelina Jolie playing Cleopatra angers black community

Angelina Jolie Playing Cleopatra Angers Black Community
Posted: June 21st, 2010 by WorstPreviews.com Staff

It was recently reported that Angelina Jolie has been hired to play Cleopatra in the upcoming biopic. Some in the African-American community found this as an insult, stating that the actress is "too white" to play the famous Egyptian pharaoh.

Essence magazine commentator stated: "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."

Others are simply tired of seeing white actresses playing Cleopatra, including Claudette Colbert in 1934, Vivien Leigh in 1945 and Elizabeth Taylor in 1963.

Experts believe that Cleopatra didn't look anything like Angelina Jolie, but she also didn't have any African lineage. Instead, she was a descendant of aristocratic Greeks. Historians says that the pharaoh was "short, fat and homely," with a pointy chin, thin lips and a hooked nose. :smt078
Source: Examiner



http://www.worstpreviews.com/headline.php?id=18078&count=0

 

Black folk.

 

I wonder how many times Cleopatra has been portrayed by white women.

 

Isn't that like asking how many times Ceasar has been layed by a white man? I mean who cares if Ceasar (and Cleopatra) were white? There is evidence out there that many of the ancient Egyptian leaders were what we would refer to as "black" but Cleopatra isn't one of them. Even the man who wrote the most respected volume regarding African antiquity/African ancestry in ancient Egypt ("Black Athena") always contended that Cleopatra, who wasn't much of a ruler or leader, was white. She was of Greek ancestry; the dynasty she was part of was started by a Greek soldier who used to protect Alexander the Great and was given control of Egypt. This dynasty lasted for 300 years and Cleopatra was the last ruler of this dynasty. And considering how back in those days ruling families/clans essentially married other family members to keep the bloodlines strong and that Cleopatra was spawned under these very same circumstances, most evidence suggests that Cleopatra did not have any African blood.

But why would I expect my people to understand that? That would require reading and relying on hard data rather than wish fulfillments. ::roll eyes::
Black women have an argument regarding Nefertiti perhaps but not Cleopatra.

 

Thanks for the history lesson, but I wasn't looking for an actual answer. You seem to be more butt-hurt than the people bitch about it. I don't give a shit about "wish fulfillments" that aren't even MY wishes. Throw that shit at somebody who is actually interested.

 

I am as hurt about this as I am hurt when an Irish man from America played a greek in 300. It is a movie. Their job is to lie to you! Don't want to be lied to then don't go see the movie. Egypt has no relations to me and I could care less what happens then and now.

 

Cleopatra and the rest of the scions of the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt were of Greek (Macedonian) extraction. That ignoramus from Essence needs to crack a history book.

Regardless, this is a non-story.

 

Tell me seriously who really gives a fuck. Why should it matter? Since when do we care if movies are accurate? Do you think 300 really happened that way or the Patriot? No but we were entertained because its a damn drama not a documentary. Sheesh

 

I hereby nominate the we suspend the usage of "Black Community" until further review of it's usage. :?

 

I second that motion. Instead let's just focus on the word community.

 

I will not see it unless it is a freebee.

 

Yeah, agreed.

Moreover, nobody's forcing anybody at gunpoint to attend this movie...


I, for one, couldn't care less....

Just pass the boxoffice right on by...



'Nuff Said!!!!






















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Yeah, I didn't realize that one historically challenged magazine writer represented the collective opinion of said "Black Community."

 

Never said it was YOUR wish fulfillment, dude. You should read more carefully. And next time take your own advice and don't be so "butt-hurt" and such.

 

Give me a break. Did any of you grow up in the black community? Well, I did and this belief about Cleopatra being a "sista" is wide spread in the community in question. The writers of Essence can't help themselves. They are simply expressing the misguided and inaccurate views that they've grown with. Hell, this is America; the most ignorant and undereducated of all first world nations. We basically have a false notion of our own history; our understanding of world history is even more fucked up. You can go to places in America that are lily white and they have a distorted view of the history of, say, Jim Crow. They know nothing about it except for the revisionism that has been passed down in their community for generations. And if it make some of you sensitive folks feel better, the majority of the white American community think Jesus Christ was some blue-eyed blond. If there was a JC, he certainly didn't fit THAT description.

At work when this Cleopatra story was discussed I was around three other co-workers who are black. They were from different generations and different education backgrounds. And all of them were surprised when I told them evidence suggests Cleopatra was not black. They were all "told" she was black when they were growing up. But there isn't one credible book out there to ever make such a claim about Cleopatra being black. So who told them? Where did they learn this information from? The same place I learned this inaccurate info from as well: the black community. If you have a problem me using that phrase then get over it. Nothing I have ever written on this site ever suggested I was anti-black or that I was full of self-hatred. But I will call it as I see it even if it means calling my own people out. many of you guys do that in regards to black women. I'm simply extending the finger pointing to the entire community in this particular case.

And while no one writer can represent every member of the black community, a writer can represent the overall sentiment and beliefs of the majority of the black community. And I feel that these writers for Essence fit that bill. At the every least they represent the likely majority view of black women when it comes to the Cleopatra issue.

 

There was another movie Angelina Jolie plays as a biracial woman.

People were pissed about that too.


The movie is called 'A Mighty Heart'.

 

Yes, and even the critics questioned the wisdom behing casting Jolie in the widow of journalist Daniel Pearl.


Needless to say, no major studio wanted to know about it, an indie cxompany handled distribution, and the film tanked at the boxoffice.






Life's a bitch. Then you die.




















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huh. most egyptians are not black

 

And there was justification of the anger over this particular casting. No argument there.