Netflix Courts Controversy With Casting Choice in Cleopatra Documentary

Adele James in "Queen Cleopatra"

A fairly polarizing topic in entertainment these days is “race-swapping,” or intentionally changing the race of established characters. Recent examples include “Velma” from Scooby-Doo (an originally white character being depicted as Indian in the new HBO Max series), and the Little Mermaid (an originally white character in the Disney animated movie being portrayed by an African-American actress in the live-action version, later this year).  Given the cultural and political changes of the last few years, it should come as no surprise where the backlash is coming from--there are certain segments of society who cherish purist (to put it kindly) ideals and don’t like agendas being pushed on them.

However, a more recent trend has had filmmakers race-swapping actual historical figures. A notable example is Cleopatra from an upcoming Netflix series. Cleopatra’s ancestry has been traced to the Macedonian Ptolemaic dynasty — these are people generally considered bronze, olive or honey-skinned. When the trailer dropped last week for “Queen Cleopatra,” people noticed Cleopatra was a black woman, played by Adele James.

The film’s director defended her casting choice by saying it was very intentionally conceived, saying, "Why shouldn’t Cleopatra be a melanated sister? And why do some people need Cleopatra to be white? Her proximity to whiteness seems to give her value, and for some Egyptians it seems to really matter,” Gharavi told Variety. “We need to have a conversation with ourselves about our colorism, and the internalized white supremacy that Hollywood has indoctrinated us with,” Gharavi added.

To be clear-- Cleopatra was neither white nor black. But Gharavi doesn’t seem to care because, by the sounds of it, she’s fighting racism with her decision to cast a black actress. No one needs Cleopatra to be anything-- it's a question of what she was. If you're making a documentary, the only thing anyone needs is accuracy.

Regardless, Egypt has decided that they’ve had enough with the rewriting of their history-- and they might be suing. According to Newsweek, top-dog Egyptian lawyer Mahmoud al-Semary is asking the country’s public prosecutor to sue Netflix and the makers of the docuseries. “Most of what [the] Netflix platform displays [does] not conform to Islamic and societal values and principles, especially Egyptian ones,” al-Semary said.

Cleopatra was a source for pride for Egyptians and it shouldn't be unexpected that they’re going to take offense when you decide to blackwash her. The show advertises itself as a documentary on “prominent and iconic African queens”. Then in the trailer itself, somebody is heard saying “I don’t care what they teach you in school: Cleopatra was black”.

And that is the problem. If Cleopatra was a fictional character where race wasn’t important then race-swap as much as you want. But if you're going to base something on a historical figure you should probably stick with their actual race.