What’s with Hollywood making a character black even if it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. A black Roman Emperor? Really? The Romans were not that progressive. It feels so forced.
It’s like the producers heard emperor Macrinus was from Africa and they’re like “oh he was black!” No he was a Roman provincial born in Africa. He was not of African descent. It reminds me of that Cleopatra documentary. A complete ignorance of northern Africa and it’s ethnic populations, considering to this day northern Africans are not ethnically black.
Why not just make a movie about George Washington and hire Morgan Freeman?
Anyways, it’s weird when Hollywood race swaps. And as someone who loves roman history, the whole thing is really distracting.
I’m going to see the movie this weekend but reviews I’ve seen say he’s the main portion of the movie giving it gravitas and legitimacy and I love Denzel so I believe it
I think for something that’s clearly not meant to be very historically accurate race swapping is fine. If we always have strict racial rules then vaguely historical movies are always going to be contributing to role inequalities for non-white people.
The first movie was historical fiction (if anything they toned down Commodus and his brutality in the movie) but once you do something like make the Emperor black, now it’s complete fiction. And it does matter, otherwise we wouldn’t have issues with white actors playing roles that should go to people of color.
It’s too jarring to my historian heart I think. Like a white as fuck John Wayne playing Genghis Khan
It doesn’t work in the reverse direction because it’s an issue of equity in role availability. we have a cultural bias for movies with white characters, especially historical movies, so white actors don’t need to be taking what few roles there are for racial minorities.
on the other hand i think it’s fine for racial minorities to be taking roles in a fictional film that would otherwise be 100% white people.
He was half Roman half Phoenician which was a Semitic people, so problems swarthy and tanned.
There was one called Philip the Arab, who was born in an Arab province, but I don’t think his ethnicity is known.
Trajan was an earlier Emperor so the fact that he was a Spaniard provincial and not Italian was a bit of a scandal at the time.
Ex slaves, sons of slaves and other ethnic peoples could climb the ranks of Roman society and get pretty rich and respected in their own right. But there was always a ceiling for those seen as outsiders, Even in the military.
What’s with Hollywood making a character black even if it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. A black Roman Emperor? Really? The Romans were not that progressive. It feels so forced.
It’s like the producers heard emperor Macrinus was from Africa and they’re like “oh he was black!” No he was a Roman provincial born in Africa. He was not of African descent. It reminds me of that Cleopatra documentary. A complete ignorance of northern Africa and it’s ethnic populations, considering to this day northern Africans are not ethnically black.
Why not just make a movie about George Washington and hire Morgan Freeman?
Anyways, it’s weird when Hollywood race swaps. And as someone who loves roman history, the whole thing is really distracting.
Because it was more important to have Denzel than be historically accurate.
I actually think he’s the most distracting part of the movie. He doesn’t fit. He behaves every modern
I’m going to see the movie this weekend but reviews I’ve seen say he’s the main portion of the movie giving it gravitas and legitimacy and I love Denzel so I believe it
When he laughs in the trailer I just picture training day. I’m gonna watch it, the first is one of my top 3 movies, so I’m cautious.
I think for something that’s clearly not meant to be very historically accurate race swapping is fine. If we always have strict racial rules then vaguely historical movies are always going to be contributing to role inequalities for non-white people.
The first movie was historical fiction (if anything they toned down Commodus and his brutality in the movie) but once you do something like make the Emperor black, now it’s complete fiction. And it does matter, otherwise we wouldn’t have issues with white actors playing roles that should go to people of color.
It’s too jarring to my historian heart I think. Like a white as fuck John Wayne playing Genghis Khan
It doesn’t work in the reverse direction because it’s an issue of equity in role availability. we have a cultural bias for movies with white characters, especially historical movies, so white actors don’t need to be taking what few roles there are for racial minorities.
on the other hand i think it’s fine for racial minorities to be taking roles in a fictional film that would otherwise be 100% white people.
Wasnt Septimus Severus black or at least brown?
He was half Roman half Phoenician which was a Semitic people, so problems swarthy and tanned. There was one called Philip the Arab, who was born in an Arab province, but I don’t think his ethnicity is known. Trajan was an earlier Emperor so the fact that he was a Spaniard provincial and not Italian was a bit of a scandal at the time.
Ex slaves, sons of slaves and other ethnic peoples could climb the ranks of Roman society and get pretty rich and respected in their own right. But there was always a ceiling for those seen as outsiders, Even in the military.
He’s acting like a white guy