Some netizens strongly criticized this choice. In question, the skin color that should have, according to them, the queen of Egypt whose appearance remains a mystery despite archaeological studies.
What was Cleopatra’s skin color? This is the subject of the weekend controversy, after the broadcast of the first images of the Netflix documentary series Queen Cleopatra.
For this program expected on May 10 on the platform, the producer Jada Pinkett Smith – wife of Will Smith – has given the role of the Queen of Egypt to the black British actress, Adele James. A choice that has provoked the violent anger of disgruntled Internet users, some accusing Netflix of “cancel culture” or “rewriting history”.
The controversy is such that a petition has even been put online to request the removal of the series from Netflix. To date, it has more than 18,000 signatures. Comedian Adele James has spoken on the networks to denounce the criticism and insults she has received since the broadcast of the trailer.
“This kind of behavior will not be tolerated on my account. You will be blocked without hesitation. If you don’t like the cast, don’t watch the show,” she wrote on Twitter.
Historical disagreements
What does history say? According to Professor Emeritus at the University of Tours and specialist in Antiquity and the Eastern Roman world, Maurice Sartre interviewed by le magazines Geo in 2021, “the texts say practically nothing” about Cleopatra’s physical appearance.
As a result, specialists are far from agreeing among themselves on the appearance and ancestry of the queen of Egypt. According to the few reliable studies established on the subject, Cleopatra reigned over Egypt but she is not Egyptian, she is a Greco-Macedonian queen since she is the daughter of Ptolemy XII. And it is on these origins that some of the detractors of the series rely to assert that the queen of Egypt was white in skin.
“When we know that Alexander the Great was probably blond, we cannot exclude that Cleopatra was a blond with blue eyes, since the Macedonians are rather people with complexion and light eyes”, explained in October 2022Anne Bielman Sánchez, professor of ancient history at the University of Lausanne.
But a mystery persists: that of the identity of Cleopatra’s mother. In 2009, the Austrian Academy of Sciences analyzed the remains of Arsinoe IV, a sister of Cleopatra, whose tomb was found in Turkey and claims their mother was “African”. However, this research is not unanimously accepted by historians, which has left room for debate for many years.
This controversy is reminiscent of the wave of insults received by Halle Bailey when the African-American actress was announced to play The little Mermaid in the live-action adaptation of the Disney classic.
The actress and singer was then the target of hateful and racist comments claiming, among other things, that Princess Ariel could not be played by a black-skinned woman.
In 2019, the main interested party reacted to criticism ensuring that she focused more on her role than on the insults against her. “I feel like I’m dreaming, I’m just grateful and I don’t pay attention to what people say that’s negative. I feel that this role is bigger than me, that it will be beautiful, and I I’m thrilled to be a part of it,” she said.
