Was Egypt's Queen Cleopatra Black?
That's the hotly debated question surrounding Netflix's "Queen Cleopatra," a drama-documentary series about the pharaonic ruler narrated and executive produced by Jada Pinkett Smith. And the series' director had a few choice words Friday about the racist and colorist backlash she received for casting a Black actor as the titular queen, a decision she made following decades of academic discourse about Cleopatra's enigmatic roots.
"After 300 years, surely, we can safely say Cleopatra was Egyptian. She was no more Greek or Macedonian than Rita Wilson or Jennifer Aniston. Both are one generation from Greece," filmmaker Tina Gharavi wrote in an essay for Variety. "Doing the research, I realized what a political act it would be to see Cleopatra portrayed by a Black actress. For me, the idea that people had gotten it so incredibly wrong before — historically, from Theda Bara to Monica Bellucci, and recently, with Angelina Jolie and Gal Gadot in the running to play her — meant we had to get it even more right."
