Published: 20 October 2020
Last updated: 5 March 2024
FOLLOWING LAST WEEK’S announcement that the Israeli actress Gal Gadot will play ancient Egypt’s Queen Cleopatra in a new movie, social media erupted in a bitter battle between advocates for greater diversity in film, and opponents of what is perceived as political correctness gone mad.
Critics contend that a person of colour should have been cast as Cleopatra: an African, Arab or mixed-heritage actress should have been given the part – but not Gadot, a Jew of Eastern European descent.
The pro-Gadot camp countered that Cleopatra herself was apparently a white woman of Greek or Macedonian descent and that historical records show Arabs only reached Egypt centuries after Cleopatra’s death. The first century BCE queen was a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, distant descendants of Ptolemy, the general who ruled Egypt after Alexander the Great’s conquest of the country.
The more informed among Gadot’s detractors retorted that while Cleopatra was indeed the daughter and successor of King Ptolemy XII, her mother may have been of local African stock, meaning that the famed lover of Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony was possibly of mixed heritage.
Greater diversity in film is a reasonable and noble cause, but the backlash is tinged with heavy political and ideological undertones, and is accompanied by anti-Israel and anti-Semitic abuse against Gadot.
FULL STORY Gal Gadot as Cleopatra makes archaeological sense (Haaretz)
Photo: Gal Gadot (right) superimposed on photograph of Cleopatra VII statue fragment, at the Royal Ontario Museum (Cleopatra image by Daderot, Gal Gadot image by Martin Meissner/AP)
