White Actress Cast as African Queen—Again

Why is Angelina Jolie, a white woman, playing Cleopatra, an African queen? “Just when we thought there weren't enough leading roles for black women in Hollywood , they create one and give it to a white woman,” writes Shirea L. Carroll for Essence. “I don't care how full Angelina Jolie's lips are, how many African children she adopts, or how bronzed her skin will become for the film, I firmly believe this role should have gone to a black woman.”

Carroll points out that three white actresses have already played Cleopatra and notes that this is far from the first time Hollywood has cast white women in similarly inappropriate roles. “While historically there is no concrete confirmation that Cleopatra was of a darker complexion, there is more evidence than not that she was black, and not entirely of Macedonian Greek ancestry, as Shakespeare, leagues of painters, and now Hollywood would have us believe. Jolie—not so perfect.”
(More Cleopatra stories.)