I would have sworn we’d left behind the days when a white actress in “Little Egyptian” make-up could pass for a woman of color. But I guess the ghost of Ava Gardner isn’t quite dead yet–not when you consider that Mother Angelina of the third world adoptions has decided to take on the role of Mariane Pearl the Afro-Cuban, Dutch-Jewish wife of journalist Daniel Pearl who met an untimely demise in enemy hands.
Sorry Angie, but having the lips doesn’t make you a sistah any more than having a dowager’s hump makes you a whale. Even if Mariane Pearl, given her mixed bag of heritages, doesn’t self-identify as as anything other than a “European woman” (and I haven’t done much checking to ascertain), here’s a note to you, Angie, hon: if you have to put on brown face and a kinky wig to play a role, perhaps that’s not the right part for you.
As for me, I won’t be watching it even if Netflix gives it out for free.
Here, here!
Thank you, my dear. All encouragement counts.
All the best,
Dee
From what I’ve read in various articles about Pearl she has a white European (Dutch) father, and a mother who was half Chinese and half Cuban. Presumably the Cuban half is where she gets the African ancestry that she talks about. So at best, Pearl is 1/4 black. Jolie is at least 1/4 AmerIndian. To my mind if being 1/4 black makes Pearl a ‘woman of color’ presumably being 1/4 Indian makes Jolie one as well.
Roslyn,
You and I both know ancestry is generally a bit more complicated then assigning fractions to our ethnic or racial make-ups. If you look at the woman, you know she’s not white, white–there’s something else in there. And besides, I already allowed that Pearl may view herself in some other world context than the one in which I see her. What really bothers me is the presumption that anyone of any nationality is free to portray anyone else as long as they get the wig and the make-up right. Puhleeze.
I have more to say on this, but no time. I’ll come back later.
All the best,
Dee
That would be fine Dee, if Pearl herself hadn’t chosen Jolie to play this part. They are friends, apparently close friends. Of course, one may wonder if she’s thinking more about the bottom line than physical accuracy. Clearly a movie starring an A-lister like Jolie will make more at the box office than if some more obscure actress played the part.
And I’m not sure what you mean by ancestry being more than fractions. All I said was that the woman has far more ‘white’ ancestry than she does any other.
I don’t get that Pearl was raised in a ‘culturally’ black household, or even as a ‘woman of color.’ I certainly don’t get that sense from her writings. From what I understand, she sees herself more as a ‘citizen of the world.’ Given her mixed ancestry and the line of work she’s in, that’s not surprising.
I just hate this idea of ‘one-droppism.’ Having black ancestry doesn’t make you black, anymore than having white ancestry makes you white. And I think its simply wrong to tell this woman who should or should not play her in a movie. Especially when she was given a choice and chose Jolie. If this were a decision made strictly by the studio, with no input from Pearl, I might feel differently. Especially if Pearl openly objected, but she did not. So frankly, I’m not sure what the problem is.
Okay, let’s get real here. A woman, your friend, an actress touted as one of the most beautiful women in the world comes to you and says she wants to play you in a movie and you say . . . no?
I never expected that to happen. Nor do I believe one drop of anything means anything. However, what I’m talking about is appearance not parsing anyone’s ethnic identity. (And dang, I wasn’t that serious about it when I started.) I’m just tired of any time a woman even remotely approaches looking like me we’ve got to find the fairest in the land (with minor modifications) to play her. Now you want to see a crack ho in a movie, we can handle that on our own. But anyone who can lay claim to a little class or nobility or brains we have to fight off the white women for the role.
Perhaps the greater question is why aren’t there more actresses to choose from already out there in Hollywood who look like Pearl–especially since reports indicate interracial marriages are up worldwide–to make Angelina’s portrayal unnecessary?
Marianne Pearl strikes me as a very determined, strong-willed person. At least that’s how she comes across in her writings. I doubt very seriously that anyone could’ve convinced her to have Jolie play her if she didn’t want it that way. Now, given that the book wasn’t a best seller I doubt she had cast approval, but she has said expressly that she wanted Jolie to do it. And certainly, we’ve seen from Anne Rice and Stephen King that if an author is displeased with the cast they can certainly make that known.
I don’t know whether Jolie’s portrayal was necessary or not. Certainly Hollywood is full of actresses of mixed-parentage. Brad Pitt bought the movie rights. The book wasn’t a best-seller, so I doubt they were horrifically expensive. Any of those mixed-race actresses could’ve bought the rights. Certainly there are plenty of black folk in Hollywood who would’ve had the same access to a book auction as anyone else.
Of course, its highly possible, that like me, they didn’t see Marianne Pearl as a black woman, or even as a ‘woman of color.’ When this tragedy occurred I really wasn’t thinking about her ancestry at all. It wasn’t until I saw all the brouhaha in the blogosphere about this ‘white’ woman portraying a ‘black’ woman that I went back to her book to see exactly what her ethnic makeup was.
I’m glad Jolie is playing the part. The movie will get a greater distribution based on her celebrity and presumably Marianne Pearl will make more money. And it may well be that she simply wants her story told, and obviously more people are going to see that with the Jolie/Pitt publicity machine behind it. If she’s okay with that, so am I.
Roslyn,
I’m not saying Jolie forced Pearl to let her portray her, I’m saying who is going to refuse? It’s a joke, ba dum dum. Lord, you are too damn earnest for me, woman.
You know I wasn’t all that serious about this topic when I started. Frankly I’m just sick of hearing about Angelina freaking Jolie and half the other denizens of Hollywood looking to saint themselves in the media.
But I think we make a mistake when we say that the story is more important than the characters (of whatever ethnicity, race, culture, what have you) that are being portrayed.
I’ve been around long enough to remember the quiet seething of black (and other) folks as white actors coopted the famous of many races. (John Wayne as Kubla Khan anyone?)
In my opinion how race, ethnicity, culture are portrayed in the media go beyond the predilections of one or two women no matter what their stories are. That’s why there’s all the sturm and drang on the blogosphere. It’s like please, not again. Oh, the humanity!
All the best,
Dee
Well, Halle Berry is playing a white woman, and I haven’t heard any hue and cry about that. I think she bought the movie rights to some woman’s story. Of course, there’s some hue and cry about her playing the lead in ‘Nappily Ever After.’ She bought the rights to that book, too.
Yanno, 50 years ago, the beef about whites playing black characters was legit, because blacks didn’t have access to those roles. Now, if a black or mixed race woman wanted that part all she had to do was buy the rights. I think Halle Berry has made several movies this way. That seems to be the way women are getting pictures made these days.
I agree that Jolie/Pitt are overexposed, as are most of celebrity Hollywood. But I do think this is an important story, and I’m glad its being told in the way Ms. Pearl wants it told.
I get it, I get it. You’ve got a hard on for Pearl and Jolie. Sheesh. I still don’t.
As for the white woman Halle Berry is portraying, What can I tell you? Life ain’t fair. But I have seen a couple of blogs discussing this, too.
Incidentally, Berry is also playing Vanita Gupta, an East Indian lawyer in Tulia. (Indians are Asian not Caucasian, just to clear up the confusion if there is any.) Ironically, she’s co-starring with Jolie’s train-wreck of a husband (and all around skeevy guy) Billy Bob Thornton. I guess there’s still no accounting for taste.
All the best,
Dee