Carry On Cleo
Writing for Smithsonian Magazine, following the premiere of Anne Boleyn, Meilan Solly harks back to the past when arguing that the controversy over Jodie Turner-Smith's casting is unnecessary and harmful
. In so doing, she trots out one of those tired old falsehoods:
Instances of Hollywood whitewashing real-life historical figures abound, from John Wayne as Genghis Khan in The Conqueror (1956) to Elizabeth Taylor as the title character in Cleopatra (1963).
Meilan Solly, Smithsonian Magazine
Nah! It'll be fine!
Smithsonian Magazine is associated with the Institute, so I expected better than misrepresenting Cleopatra's ethnicity. I submitted a comment on Solly's article correcting this error, which awaited review before being deleted. So much for historical authenticity. Perhaps it's just not important to the Smithsonian Institute.
Whitewashing undoubtedly occurred in the past, in Hollywood and elsewhere, but using that to justify blackwashing
is hypocrisy. Does it right the wrong
, or should we collectively learn from past errors and move on, rather than repeating them?
I wonder how blasé Solly and Turner-Smith's champions would be if Chris Pratt were to be cast as Nelson Mandela or Martin Luther King Jr, for example.
Incidentally, the problem with Wayne's portrayal of Khan was not limited to whitewashing. It was a serious case of miscasting, ethnicity notwithstanding. He was so bad and unbelievable in the role that the entire film suffered as a result. Ultimately, it failed so badly at the box-office that it led to the studio's demise. For his part, Wayne later regretted taking a role for which he was so unsuited.
I doubt that these clarifications will be important to Meilan Solly or the Smithsonian Institute though.