Zendaya cast as Cleopatra in upcoming biopic, backlash for 'blackwashing' inevitably ensues

Apparently Hollywood has more authority than history when it comes to determining what historical figures looked like.

“Thanks to Hollywood, it's just an established fact at this point that Cleopatra was in fact black, and if you don't like it, well, then you're clearly a racist,” says Lauren Chen sarcastically.

Earlier this year, “we were gifted by the cringe content gods a Netflix miniseries that claimed to be a documentary focusing on the life of the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra,” which was “produced by Jada Pinkett Smith,” says Lauren.

“Now I'm not a historian, nor do I claim to be,” she admits. “However, according to people who are actual historians, there's really not a lot of debate out there. … Cleopatra was not black; she was in fact Greek, and we know this not only because we are familiar with Cleopatra's lineage but because we also have in our possession actual busts of what she looked like.”

Lauren then displays an example of a stone bust of Cleopatra to show that the Egyptian queen was “not a black woman by any stretch of the imagination.”

What’s perhaps even more upsetting is that Pinkett’s film labeled itself a documentary, which according to the Oxford dictionary “provides a factual record or report.”

“Debate surrounding the series really revolved around the concept of blackwashing, i.e. taking figures who were not black but making them black in order to have increased diversity and representation,” Lauren explains.

But clearly Hollywood glossed over the backlash from Pinkett’s “documentary,” as now Zendaya is projected to play the next Cleopatra in an upcoming feature film.

According to Newsweek, “people are divided over the casting choice,” with some “[slamming] the reported casting as ‘blackwashing’ because the historical queen who ruled over the Ptolemaic kingdom of Egypt descended from a companion of Alexander the Great.”

Further, Cleopatra’s “ethnic roots were Macedonian Greek,” while Zendaya “is a mixed race actress whose father is African American, with Nigerian ancestry,” and whose mother is “white.”

Despite Zendaya’s obvious beauty and talent, “not every actor or actress is suitable for every role,” says Lauren, who does not approve of the casting choice.

“I don't believe that it's necessary for the actress who is playing Cleopatra to be actually ethnically Greek, [but] I think it's pretty reasonable to want an actress who could at least pass for being Greek,” she adds.

And for those who think the producer might be going for “race-blind casting,” you might want to consider the fact that “Timothée Chalamet has been offered the role of Octavius, and Daniel Craig might be playing Caesar.”

Granted both of these actors “could reasonably and ethnically look like the figures they're portraying,” it’s pretty safe to say “this is not about race-blind casting; this is about a concerted effort to blackwash Cleopatra and almost rewrite history,” says Lauren.

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