Angelina in black face?

Posted Jul 2nd 2007 at 11:45AM by Anne Metz (Subscribe to Anne Metz's posts)

Filed under: CELEBRITY STYLE, Beauty, Celebrity, News, Makeup

Despite disappointing box office sales, Angelina Jolie's latest movie A Mighty Heart has sparked its fair share of controversy in the media. At the heart of the matter is not whether Hollywood exploited the tragic death of journalist Daniel Pearl to make summer blockbuster cashola (my beef with the movie, for the record).

Rather, critics are up in arms about the decision to cast a very white Angelina Jolie as a woman of color. Insult, they say, was added to injury by the production company's decision to darken Jolie skin, change her eye color with contact lenses, and put her in a wig that resembled the Afro-Cuban-Dutch heroine Marianne Pearl's dark, thick, curly hair.

K. Emily Bond of the Huffington Post calls it "black-face" and goes on to suggest that "this casting choice illustrates the magnitude of the time warp Hollywood got sucked into or the vacuum within which it exists." Bond also makes the point that if they film wanted to downplay the interracial aspect of Daniel and Marianne's relationship, they should have left Angelina fair-skinned and blue-eyed.

But since the film obviously opted to portray Marianne's race, Bond suggests it would have been more "sensitive" to cast one of the many talented actresses of color such as Thandie Newton or Halle Barry, who she points out is just as hot as Jolie according to AskMen.com.

So what do you think? Is it acceptable for Hollywood to cast white actresses as women of color? If it is, how should they negotiate the difference in skin color? Is it better to leave the actress as she is, or to, as Bond puts, dress her up in black-face?

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Tags: A Mighty Heart, AMightyHeart, Angelina Jolie, AngelinaJolie, blackface, makeup

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Kay 7-02-2007 @ 1:45PM

i don't have a problem with casting people as different races. people who are "white" switch roles between americans and europeans all the time. when 'memoirs of a geisha' came out, people were upset because chinese women were casted instead of japanese women. movies require the viewer to exercise their suspension of disbelief and even though it's based on a true story, one has to remember that it's just that... a movie.

N. Suga 7-02-2007 @ 2:08PM

Oh, come ON. Marianne Pearl herself had no problems with the casting choice; I think she said that she was glad Angelina Jolie was playing her. If the subject in question doesn't mind at all (and I think Pearl is someone with strong convictions who wouldn't think twice about voicing her opinion), then why should anyone else?

Amadi 7-02-2007 @ 2:39PM

As an African-American, I actually do not have much of a problem with Angelina Jolie playing Marianne Pearl. Jolie has very ethnic features and she actually resembles Marianne. However, with so few roles in Hollywood for people of color, I think that it is unfortunate that this role didn't go someone like Thandie Newton.

Jojo 7-02-2007 @ 2:41PM

Although I agree her casting did take the role away from a plethera of black actresses, (some named, others not), at the same time an actor's role is to play characters other than themselves. Actors act. They wear costumes, change their body mass, change their accent, their hair color, etc.

I'm not sure this is so different from Julia Roberts' (attempted) Irish accent in Mary Riley, or the casting of two Chinese actresses (of which Gong Li) to play Japanese characters in "Memoires of a Geisha." And don't forget Tom Hanks portraying an Iranian in "The Terminal" or Jack Black playing a Mexican in "Nacho Libre." If you want to go further, how about Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal (both assumed to be straight) playing gay men in "Brokeback Mountain"? Or Jamie-Lynn Seigler (a Jew) playing Meadow Soprano (a Christian) in the series "The Sopranos"? Or Sacha Baron Cohen (a Jew) playing a Jew-fearing Kazakh in "Borat"?

In fact, you could come up with a hundred examples such as these. If Bond wants total accuracy, it would have been necessary to find not a black actress, as she suggests, but an Afro-Cuban-Dutch actress (preferrably in the exact genetic percentages as Ms. Pearl). Otherwise, putting a black actress (or Cuban, why not?) would also be a misrepresentation of the character portrayed. Add this to the fact that Marianne herself selected (or at least agreed with) Jolie as the lead actress, and Bond's argument quickly loses steam.

Worse, Bond's attack takes away from the true meaning and message of this film. A journalist was kidnapped and killed while reporting. Powerful governments were helpless to save him. This film has both personal and societal implications that instantly become lost in this controversy. This film is meant to provoke discussion, but of a different kind.

One final comment: Bond suggesting that Halle Berry would have been the better choice simply because she is just as hot as Jolie according to AskMen.com is insulting. This story is about a real life killing, not a beauty pageant.