Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

Behind the Aegis

(53,823 posts)
Tue Oct 13, 2020, 03:14 PM Oct 2020

(Jewish Group) Gal Gadot to star as Egyptian queen Cleopatra in historical biopic

Gal Gadot will channel a real-life wonder woman as the star of a blockbuster film about the Egyptian queen Cleopatra.

The Israeli star will work on the film alongside “Wonder Woman” director Patty Jenkins, Deadline first reported.

Gadot’s husband Yaron Varsano and the couple’s Pilot Wave production company will be involved in the project as well. Universal, Warner Bros, Netflix and Apple also vied for the rights to the film, according to the report.

more...

As soon as my husband showed this to me a few days ago, I said: "Oh people are going to lose their collective shit! Whining about a variety of things which will amount to nothing more than their own bigotry." True to form:



Critics accuse Gal Gadot of cultural appropriation for accepting Cleopatra role

A social media storm has erupted after the announcement that Israeli actress Gal Gadot will portray the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra in a blockbuster film. Critics complained that Gadot is neither Egyptian nor Arab, while others are pointing out that Cleopatra wasn’t actually Arab.

Pakistani journalist Sameera Khan blasted the casting, which was reported Sunday, in a tweet that has stirred widespread discussion on the platform.

“Which Hollywood dumbass thought it would be a good idea to cast an Israeli actress as Cleopatra (a very bland looking one) instead of a stunning Arab actress like Nadine Njeim? And shame on you, Gal Gadot. Your country steals Arab land & you’re stealing their movie roles… smh,” Kahn wrote.

Njeim is a Lebanese and Tunisian actress who was elected Miss Lebanon 2004.

more...



Of course, it's not like this hasn't happened before....

Decades before Gal Gadot, Elizabeth Taylor fell into controversy playing Cleopatra as a Jewish actress

After Israeli actress Gal Gadot announced this weekend that she would play the legendary Egyptian queen in a blockbuster movie, it didn’t take long for the calls of cultural appropriation to start on social media.

One tweet in particular, which said Gadot is “stealing” the role from Arab actresses, started a robust debate. Some users pointed out that Cleopatra wasn’t Egyptian — as a Ptolemaic ruler, she was descended from a Macedonian father, and historians don’t know the ethnicity of her mother.

This is hardly the first time in recent memory when the ability of Jews to play non-Jewish roles has come into question. It’s also not the first time that a Jewish movie star playing the Egyptian ruler has caused controversy.

The most famous Cleopatra film was released in 1963 and starred Elizabeth Taylor. The film was hugely expensive for the time — Taylor was reportedly the first actress to get paid $1 million for a role — and hugely successful, even though it was plagued by rumors of Taylor’s affair with co-star Richard Burton and all kinds of other on-set drama.

more...



Thankfully, there are those striking back, with facts...

It seems Jews aren’t allowed to play Cleopatra despite Mid-East roots

An announcement that actress Gal Gadot, who is Jewish, would play the Egyptian queen Cleopatra has been met with shock and claims that an “Arab” woman or some European actress should have been chosen. In short, Jews are no longer allowed to be cast in most roles, or they are now accused somehow of displacing others. In the last century, antisemites told Jews they were rootless foreigners from the Middle East; now Jews are told they aren’t supposed to play Middle Eastern roles, no matter where they are from.

The bizarre controversy began on Sunday when reports indicated Gadot, famous for her role as Wonder Woman, would play the role. The most normal comments wondered why an Egyptian had not been chosen. Abdul el-Sayed, an expert in public health and apparently a commentator on CNN according to his Twitter bio, wondered why no Egyptian women had been cast to play an Egyptian queen.

Alexandra Halaby, who has 20,000 followers on Twitter noted that “we are now pushing for diverse and authentic representation in Hollywood.” Sameera Khan asked “Which Hollywood dumbass thought it would be a good idea to cast an Israeli actress as Cleopatra (a very bland looking one) instead of a stunning Arab actress like Nadine Njeim? And shame on you, Gal Gadot. Your country steals Arab land and you’re stealing their movie roles.”

Many of those who responded noted that Cleopatra was actually of Greek descent. Randa Jarrar, who describes herself as a “queer Egyptian Palestinian Muslim” wrote: “yeah Cleopatra was Greek. I get it. But casting a Zionist whose family is Polish/Austrian/Czech as the queen of Egypt in 2020?”

The message is clear: Jews are not permitted to play the role of a pagan Greek queen of Egypt from 2,000 years ago. It doesn’t matter that Jews have lived in Egypt for thousands of years. It doesn’t matter that Jews lived in Greece, they can never play Cleopatra. And it doesn’t matter where Gadot’s family is from, even if they were from Jerusalem for three thousand years, the message is that being Jewish or “Zionist” means one can play no roles of anyone from the Middle East or even southern Europe.

more...

Seems bigotry is bad, except when it comes to one group. Hmmm.

6 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
(Jewish Group) Gal Gadot to star as Egyptian queen Cleopatra in historical biopic (Original Post) Behind the Aegis Oct 2020 OP
Pardon the shallow comment but anyone who thinks that Gal Gadot is"bland looking" needs glasses. CentralMass Oct 2020 #1
IKR?! LuvLoogie Oct 2020 #4
Claudette Colbert was French-American. Jeebo Oct 2020 #2
so arabs and egyptians can't play macbeth or one of the henrys? hmmm nt msongs Oct 2020 #3
And I guess that lovely girl MosheFeingold Nov 2020 #6
I find the anti-GG rhetoric off-putting, and it kind of LuvLoogie Oct 2020 #5

Jeebo

(2,005 posts)
2. Claudette Colbert was French-American.
Tue Oct 13, 2020, 03:49 PM
Oct 2020

Mostly American, born in France in 1903 but her family moved to the U.S. when she was three and she grew up in the U.S. I just read up about her on the Independent Movie Data Base site and saw no mention of her religion. She was the best film Cleopatra, in my humble opinion, far better than Elizabeth Taylor 30 years later. And I think her 1934 version was good enough that any attempt to re-create that now would have a hard time improving on it.

-- Ron

MosheFeingold

(3,051 posts)
6. And I guess that lovely girl
Tue Nov 3, 2020, 11:05 AM
Nov 2020

Who plays Mrs. Maisel in the Amazon Prime series has to quit, as she is not Jewish.

And the Asian girl playing a Native American on Yellowstone has to quit, too.

Mel Brooks, as a Native American. Oy!

And the women who were in the Ghostbusters sequel shouldn't have been hired, too. (Oh, wait, I agree with that. They sucked. But not because they were women.)

Actors fake who they are. It's what they do. It's kind of the point.

I get some sensitivity to, say a white guy playing a black guy. But if they pull it off (like maybe Robert Downey Jr playing a white guy pretending to be a black guy), more power to them.

The idea is about respect.

(BTW, Cleopatra was Greek, not ethnically Egyptian.)

LuvLoogie

(6,854 posts)
5. I find the anti-GG rhetoric off-putting, and it kind of
Tue Oct 13, 2020, 06:13 PM
Oct 2020

weakens the point. I don't follow the cultural appropriation angle here. A bit over the top.

The suggested Lebanese actress looks too much like Angelina Jolie, but with some extra work.

That said, I just wonder if GG can pull off Cleopatra. No CGI slo-mo daring do to lean on.

Heck, Angelina could pull it off, though.

Latest Discussions»Alliance Forums»Jewish Group»(Jewish Group) Gal Gadot ...