UK Activists Raise Awareness By Replacing White Actors With Black Leads In Movie Posters
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Diversity is still a hot issue in the modern world and a group of young activists from the UK took upon themselves to make a difference.
LegallyBlack is a group of Advocates for Social Justice who came together to fight the way black people are represented in the media. “We have all been affected by the issue directly and indirectly, and can see first hand the damage it causes,” they write on their website.
For their first project, LegallyBlack chose to recreate posters of popular movies and TV shows by replacing the white actors with black leads. “The aim of the project is to increase awareness surrounding the lack of black representation in the media and furthermore create dialogue and discussion around the often inaccurate and harmful depictions that do occur.”
What do you think about the project? Let us know in the comment section down below.
More info: twitter.com | legallyblack.space | Instagram
LegallyBlack recreated posters of popular movies and TV shows by replacing the white actors with black leads
Titanic
Harry Potter
Doctor Who
Bridget Jones
Skyfall
The Inbetweeners
Skins
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What do you think ?
With original movie work, I kind of agree. But with adaptations of books, I disagree. If the main character in the book is white, it would be silly to make a black person play that character. And vice versa.
Plus, please: Don't ignore historical context. Rose in Titanic was British upper class. I would doubt that in 1912 there was a black British upper class, and even if, they probably would have had a lot of different problems with the snobs in the first class, so it would have been a completely different movie.
The historical context is important. The new BBC television series The Musketeers is a great series with many talented actors but the main problem with that series is that the diversity of the characters is not historically accurate. For example Porthos is black and Aramis is Latino.
I agree that sometimes there is a compelling social/historical/geographical reason for a character to be of a particular race, gender or age. If there is none then the casting should be representative of the society it portrays. Many contemporary book characters could be cast as non-white simply because the book never actually specifies skin colour or the references are inconsequential to the story.
A black man {Will Smith} played a white character {James West} in the movie Wild, Wild West and no one cared. I like that no one took notice.
Yes same with Roland the gunslinger in the Dark Tower. I obsessively read the books and he is clearly a white, cowboy-style gunslinger. It's just a fact. In the movie, he's black and doesn't even dress correctly.
I agree with you 100%. It's like in The Darkest Minds movie. If any of you have read that book, even though it doesn't say the main character Ruby is white, you can tell as a reader she is. But, in the movie, they cast a black actress. I don't have a problem with that, but it just doesn't feel right to me. Does that make any sense? I hope so. I'm sure there are other examples, but this is the only one I could think of.
I have sometimes seen a black actor/actress play a role of a white character and that has sometimes worked very well. For example Netflix movie Death Note is a terrible movie and they changed all characters of the original manga to American people. But at least the actor of L (Lakeith Stanfield) was surprisingly good. I am a fan of the original Death Note manga and I did not mind that the actor of L was black.
What a of bullshit.
Lol am a woman of colour and I don't see colour. I totally agree with that comment. There are bigger fish to fry!
Then we should do this for hispanic, latinos, and asian people too... usually, if you're NOT white, you get stuck in the same kind of roles. I bet that when you think of a latino in a movie, you think about the role of an illegal immigrant, the housemaid, the gang member, someone poor, uneducated, someone who doesn't speak English... right?
Actually, I think of Rosario Dawson and Danny Trejo, both of whom have played many different roles, and done so remarkable well!
Of course. But in my point is not that there are NO good actors or some movies with non-white starring roles, but that MOST of the time, actors get stuck in the same kind of roles because of their race, whether they're asian, black, latino, or whatever.
Well this looks like the work of a group of people who just got up and started changing things. Up you get sunny, it will be hard work, you will probably meet some fantastic people. At times it will be heartbreaking. " We" can change things. This is another way volunteers are so fantastic. * yes yes i chose to volunteer at my heart's thing. No sorry no more details i'm also a slightly paranoid person.
sorry: Edit. so realllly behind on the current Dr episodes.
I beg to differ... Examples of the contrary are: Jessica Alba, Andy Garcia, Benicio Del Toro, Javier Bardem, Aubrey Plaza, Freddie Prinze Jr, David Gallagher (cuban on his mother's side), Penelope Cruz, Sofia Vergara, Salma Hayek, Edward James Olmos... I can keep going...
sunnyrei82 - It's not THAT common... I'm saying this AS a hispanic person. Also, the actors can choose NOT to play the role. If the writer wrote the role with a certain look in mind, then it should be cast that way. Not sure what the big deal is.
Zoe Saldana, Michelle Rodriguez, Cameron Diaz, Eva Mendez, Antonio Banderas, Benjamin Bratt, Diego Luna... ok, I'll stop now lol.
Like I said in other reply: I am not saying that latinos ONLY and EXCLUSIVELY get those stereotyped roles, but it is very common that people relate latinos to the roles I enlisted before. It's like saying to those activists from the original post that we differ and that black people ALSO get starring roles, so they're wrong. It is not that non-white people NEVER EVER get good roles, but that the percentage is very low, compared to what white people get.
Well, we got the motherfucking Aragorn.
When I try to think of latino's in films I immediately think of Jimmy Smits. You are right however that there probably have been many more latino's etc. stuck in those sorts of roles in white-lead movies I have watched and I have never even noticed.
With original movie work, I kind of agree. But with adaptations of books, I disagree. If the main character in the book is white, it would be silly to make a black person play that character. And vice versa.
Plus, please: Don't ignore historical context. Rose in Titanic was British upper class. I would doubt that in 1912 there was a black British upper class, and even if, they probably would have had a lot of different problems with the snobs in the first class, so it would have been a completely different movie.
The historical context is important. The new BBC television series The Musketeers is a great series with many talented actors but the main problem with that series is that the diversity of the characters is not historically accurate. For example Porthos is black and Aramis is Latino.
I agree that sometimes there is a compelling social/historical/geographical reason for a character to be of a particular race, gender or age. If there is none then the casting should be representative of the society it portrays. Many contemporary book characters could be cast as non-white simply because the book never actually specifies skin colour or the references are inconsequential to the story.
A black man {Will Smith} played a white character {James West} in the movie Wild, Wild West and no one cared. I like that no one took notice.
Yes same with Roland the gunslinger in the Dark Tower. I obsessively read the books and he is clearly a white, cowboy-style gunslinger. It's just a fact. In the movie, he's black and doesn't even dress correctly.
I agree with you 100%. It's like in The Darkest Minds movie. If any of you have read that book, even though it doesn't say the main character Ruby is white, you can tell as a reader she is. But, in the movie, they cast a black actress. I don't have a problem with that, but it just doesn't feel right to me. Does that make any sense? I hope so. I'm sure there are other examples, but this is the only one I could think of.
I have sometimes seen a black actor/actress play a role of a white character and that has sometimes worked very well. For example Netflix movie Death Note is a terrible movie and they changed all characters of the original manga to American people. But at least the actor of L (Lakeith Stanfield) was surprisingly good. I am a fan of the original Death Note manga and I did not mind that the actor of L was black.
What a of bullshit.
Lol am a woman of colour and I don't see colour. I totally agree with that comment. There are bigger fish to fry!
Then we should do this for hispanic, latinos, and asian people too... usually, if you're NOT white, you get stuck in the same kind of roles. I bet that when you think of a latino in a movie, you think about the role of an illegal immigrant, the housemaid, the gang member, someone poor, uneducated, someone who doesn't speak English... right?
Actually, I think of Rosario Dawson and Danny Trejo, both of whom have played many different roles, and done so remarkable well!
Of course. But in my point is not that there are NO good actors or some movies with non-white starring roles, but that MOST of the time, actors get stuck in the same kind of roles because of their race, whether they're asian, black, latino, or whatever.
Well this looks like the work of a group of people who just got up and started changing things. Up you get sunny, it will be hard work, you will probably meet some fantastic people. At times it will be heartbreaking. " We" can change things. This is another way volunteers are so fantastic. * yes yes i chose to volunteer at my heart's thing. No sorry no more details i'm also a slightly paranoid person.
sorry: Edit. so realllly behind on the current Dr episodes.
I beg to differ... Examples of the contrary are: Jessica Alba, Andy Garcia, Benicio Del Toro, Javier Bardem, Aubrey Plaza, Freddie Prinze Jr, David Gallagher (cuban on his mother's side), Penelope Cruz, Sofia Vergara, Salma Hayek, Edward James Olmos... I can keep going...
sunnyrei82 - It's not THAT common... I'm saying this AS a hispanic person. Also, the actors can choose NOT to play the role. If the writer wrote the role with a certain look in mind, then it should be cast that way. Not sure what the big deal is.
Zoe Saldana, Michelle Rodriguez, Cameron Diaz, Eva Mendez, Antonio Banderas, Benjamin Bratt, Diego Luna... ok, I'll stop now lol.
Like I said in other reply: I am not saying that latinos ONLY and EXCLUSIVELY get those stereotyped roles, but it is very common that people relate latinos to the roles I enlisted before. It's like saying to those activists from the original post that we differ and that black people ALSO get starring roles, so they're wrong. It is not that non-white people NEVER EVER get good roles, but that the percentage is very low, compared to what white people get.
Well, we got the motherfucking Aragorn.
When I try to think of latino's in films I immediately think of Jimmy Smits. You are right however that there probably have been many more latino's etc. stuck in those sorts of roles in white-lead movies I have watched and I have never even noticed.