Colour Film

Hay and I were talking about race and acting. The recent adaptation of His Dark Materials shows the King of the Gyptians as a black man. Now the Gyptians are ethnically of Dutch origin, as evidenced by their names and slang, and are clearly based on a mixture of British narrowboat culture from the 18th and 19th century and gypsies. How could a black person come from such a culture? Does it actually matter?

Then we have an advert I saw recently (I think for beds), where the family comprises a black father, white mother and a child of Chinese ethnicity. 

In the case of His Dark Materials, the insertion of a black person into the narrative is clearly at odds with the original book. In the case of the advert, no advertising representation of a family is meant to be a real family anyway. But once again, does it actually matter?

I remember seeing a Kenneth Branagh, 90s adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing in which one character, Don Pedro - a prince of Aragon - is played by Denzil Washington.

Imagine an adaptation of A Man For All Seasons in which the part of Henty VIII is played by a black character. Would there be uproar, and if so, why? The part of Othello is increasingly being played by black actors, yet Lord Olivier famously blacked up for the part in 1965. Was that simply because there were no lead black actors available? One also has to consider that Othello is not necessarily black anyway - he is described as a Moor, which means of North African heritage and more likely a Berber. I would imagine 

Shakespeare had nothing other than white, protestant men in his troop of actors, and they even played the female roles, admittedly dressed as women.

Should we, in this day and age, be shocked at a black Henry VIII? Surely what is important is that the actor can inhabit the part, rather than the colour of the actor's skin or his/her ethnicity being paramount. If skin colour is important, then shouldn't other attributes have equal weight?

Should acting be colourblind, even if historical accuracy is sacrificed, or is that asking too much and would it sow character confusion? Is a determination to stick to the correct ethnicity of historical characters simply common sense, or covert racism? Are we, in the interests of accuracy, to have Muslims only played by Muslims, Shylock only played by a Jew, gay people played only by gay actors, etc., etc.? I can see it being rather confusing, if potentially explosive, to have an Afro-American slave character being played by a white actor.

Analyse and discuss.