Britishwashing (fl. 2013- ) is where a British actor plays a non-British character. It is done not just in Britain, as you might expect, but even in the US by Hollywood!
British actors have played:
- White American characters like Abraham Lincoln, Batman, Superman, Spiderman, Richard Nixon, Andy Warhol, Hank Williams, etc.
and
- Black American characters like Martin Luther King, Coretta Scott King, Harriet Tubman, the lead characters in “12 Years a Slave” (2013), “Get Out” (2017), “Queen & Slim” (2019), etc. And, coming soon, Barack Obama and Fred Hampton.
Americanwashing: To be sure, Black Americans have played Africans, like Nelson Mandela and Idi Amin. And Jamaicans, cringily. But two wrongs hardly make a right.
Cheaper, better: British actors are seen as more highly trained – just ask Black American directors Ava DuVernay or Spike Lee! And, like immigrants in any field, British actors often work for less money. Ka-ching!
Ava DuVernay on British actors:
“I think there’s something about the stage, because they have that stage preparation. Their work is really steeped in theater. Our system of creating actors is a lot more commercial … there’s a depth in the character building that’s really wonderful.”
In her film “Selma” (2014) she had British actors play Martin Luther King, Coretta Scott King – and President Johnson!
Carmen Ejogo, who played Coretta Scott King, said:
“I’m not as entrenched in the history so immediately. […] I didn’t know who Coretta was until I played her the first time. […] It wasn’t as daunting as it might have been for an American actress. An African-American actress … that might have been a bit more of a challenge.”
David Oyelowo, who played Martin Luther King opposite her, made the same point:
“There’s something to be said for the fact that we are able to come at these films clean.”
David Harewood, a British actor who played Martin Luther King on stage, agreed:
“[British actors are able] to unshackle ourselves from the burden of racial realities – and simply play what’s on the page.”
In short, they can play Black Americans better than even Black Americans themselves – because they lack the lived experience of being Black American!
Acting, like singing, is more than mere technique.
Representation matters: Unlike Whites, Black Americans are not in control of their media image. Hollywood both under-represents and misrepresents them, strengthening stereotypes and racism. Having Black Americans played by foreigners on top of that adds insult to injury. It is not as bad as Whitewashing or blackface, but it is in that direction.
Piece of the pie: I want to see Black British actors succeed. I like Idris Elba, Sophie Okonedo and Freema Agyeman, for example. But Black Britain is equal in size to only 5% of Black America and yet they seem to be getting much more than 5% of the leading Black characters.
Fighting over crumbs: The deeper issue is the under-representation and misrepresentation of Blacks, of any sort. What all this boils down to, in effect, is fighting over who gets to tap dance for White Hollywood.
– Abagond, 2019.
Update (December 16th): Removed Steve Jobs as an example of a White American portrayed by a British actor. Michael Fassbender, who played him in “Steve Jobs” (2015), has an Irish mother, not a British one.
See also:
- representation matters
- Hollywood
- Red Tails – even George Lucas had a hard time getting a film with a Black-majority cast distributed
- Get Out
- 12 Years a Slave
- Queen & Slim
- Idris Elba
- Fred Hampton
- Black brain drain
594
I understand a sense of frustration on this point, but the counter view, as I’m sure you’ve considered, is the fact that what actors do is pretend to be somebody they’re not. The reductio ad absurdem of this vein of thought is that the only legitimate film genre would be documentary in which each person can portray only himself.
We gladly accept that, for example, gay actors play straight characters, or vice versa. American actors portray European characters, or vice versa. Young actors portray old characters (and almost never vice versa).
If actors were not allowed to pretend on film, the entire porn industry would be done.
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“Fighting over crumbs: The deeper issue is the under-representation and misrepresentation of Blacks, of any sort. What all this boils down to, in effect, is fighting over who gets to tap dance for White Hollywood”.
That is at the core of this situation. Black people are still in the position of begging White Hollywood for the opportunity to represent themselves to themselves.
As for these comments:
Would those actors make these stupid comments if Black Americans had a thriving film industry, where we told our own stories, controlled our own public images and reaped the financial benefits of a wholly owned Black business sector? At this point, they are just taking advantage of Black people’s internal colonization in the USA. In that way they are no different from other clueless immigrants—–and deserve a measure of scorn for sheer ignorance.
Just seeing them on screen chaps my hide. I personally boycott films where Black Americans are portrayed by Afro-Brits. I am very familar with the intense historical struggles of Black Americans to work in the domestic film industry. Then just as the doors seem to open, White Hollywood hired cheap labor from overseas and shut the door in Black folks faces once again. A risk of begging for crumbs.
Does being Black and British mean you you are oblivious to racism——-in a country (the UK) filled with unrepentant White supremacists? Willing to say anything that gets you the next role? Or just plain clueless?
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@ Craig Kepler
“The reductio ad absurdem of this vein of thought is that the only legitimate film genre would be documentary in which each person can portray only himself.”
But no one is taking this to the reductio ad absurdem. No one is even saying that British actors can’t ever portray American historical figures. What’s being questioned is the prevalence of a certain pattern.
There have been similar patterns in the hiring of white actors to play Asian American and Native American roles. There still are white actors being cast in black roles, like Angelina Jolie playing Mariane Pearl. Rarely do you see the opposite. “Hamilton” is the exception, not the rule.
“We gladly accept that, for example, gay actors play straight characters, or vice versa.”
Not really. For instance, the movie “Stonewall” was heavily criticized over casting by the LGBT community.
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It isn’t like the U.S. doesn’t have some world-class acting schools. It isn’t like there aren’t African American actors trained for the stage and working in theater right now. Do they even get considered for these roles? Wouldn’t they, like the Brits, also be willing to work for less money than Will Smith, just to get that chance at a plum role on the big screen?
About “coming at these roles clean”: Doesn’t that also mean these British actors would be less likely to challenge the directors and producers about what they see as inconsistencies and misrepresentations? Carmen Ejogo says: “It wasn’t as daunting as it might have been for . . . an African-American actress.” But how much more likely that an African American actress would have spoken up at times and said, “No, this interpretation is all wrong, Coretta Scott King wouldn’t have said it like that, and I can tell you why.” How much more of a nuanced and authentic portrayal might have been lost through casting actors entirely unaware of the history and the culture?
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The best explanation of the issue I’ve read.
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Hollywood just has contempt for black American actors. They can’t do anything about it because they’ve all operated under the self interest motives. The moment I knew they were in trouble were the Amy Pascal and Scott Rudin email were discovered making Obama jokes “Maybe he’d like 12 Years A Slave”. They spoke of Denzel and Will Smith aging out and becoming less viable. No one black that I know of stood up and denounced the slander of our president.
We get slave movie after slave movie and when that gets old we get stereotypical tragedy films like Queen and Slim. If that’s the narrow films they wish to to confine us in then it’s no surprise that Hollywood would add another layers of animus by parceling out important roles to people that barely understand the historical importance.
David O is a really good actor but he was horrible as MLK Jr. Is Daniel Kaluuya gonna mail in his performance of Fred Hampton or will he nail Hampton’s Southside Chicago accent?
I have two young sons…I care about their future and we don’t need Hollywood if they cannot do right by us. Black people have supported black film projects for decades and we’re still getting trash projects. We’re really about to start walking away.
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Solitaire, I don’t think referring to casting actors for roles outside of their ethnicity (i.e. — white actors playing Asian or black characters) is apropos to this post. I think we agree that this is a heinous practice. Though there are grey areas, such as cis-gender actors playing trans roles, for example. Okay or not? Again, to what extent do we think it’s okay to restrict the ability of fiction to be fiction?
That said, specifically as to the question of black non-American actors portraying African-American characters in American-made films, I grok the issue that it further limits and restricts the already limited and restricted roles available to very capable African-American actors. But how would you create a rule that defines when it’s okay, or not? Some percentage of African-American roles in green-lighted films to non-African-American actors? Do we employ a form of the “one drop” rule, so that any black actor with a British parent, or who spent part of his childhood in England, doesn’t count as African-American?
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@ Craig Kepler
“Again, to what extent do we think it’s okay to restrict the ability of fiction to be fiction?”
But this isn’t entirely fiction. In many cases, we’re talking about biopics and historical films that represent actual people: Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King, Coretta Scott King, Fred Hampton, Solomon Northup, etc.
“But how would you create a rule that defines when it’s okay, or not? Some percentage of African-American roles in green-lighted films to non-African-American actors? Do we employ a form of the “one drop” rule, so that any black actor with a British parent, or who spent part of his childhood in England, doesn’t count as African-American?”
Where was anyone talking about establishing rules or quotas?
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“If actors were not allowed to pretend on film, the entire porn industry would be done.” – Craig Kepler
To me, juxtaposing the “porn industry would be done” comment with rea life, historical characters is actually an insult, including the liking of comparing of apples and oranges. What type of cognitive spaghetti line of thinking is this? Your milquetoast attempt to corral real life figures with that of the porn industry is quite disgusting, to say the least.
Imagine brother Fred Hampton as a porn-star for optical effects (now, do you get what I mean?)
For exemplification, when Denzel Washington played Malcom X, through Denzel, brother Malcolm’s spirit not only came through him, but nearly came through the screen itself. This is what made the portrayal so real. In my opinion, each culture has a certain spirit about them. Therefore, I serious doubt that a British actor could’ve played the role of Malcom X.
Another movie, amongst many others in which British actor could not have played, was when Cicely Tyson played the role of a slave in the 1974 television movie as Ms. Jane Pittman.
Indeed, and in my opinion, there are limits as to what role actors should be able to play. Therefore, British actors should refrain from pretending to be prima donnas of acting! Although I doubt this will happen because most of them appear to be engulfed with self-flattery!
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@blakksage: Where is the picture of your avatar from?
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@Mary, I got this picture from a YouTube channel that I subscribe to. It was the cover image from one of his videos. I had to take a picture with my cellphone because It’s not on the Internet for obvious reasons. Perhaps NOT to give us black folks an inkling of an idea that may rapidly spread.
That’s Gloria Richardson, leader of the Cambridge Movement in Maryland during the early 1960’s.
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@hmurchison, wow there’s going to be a biopic about Fred Hampton? That’s news to me.
@blakksage, lol I tried to find that image but it’s strangely missing. Wonder why?
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What’s wrong with that? Brazilian actors have player egyptians, jews, chinese even nazi characters. And bet Nollywood employs nigerian actors to play Jesus or Caesar
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@ Alberto Monteiro
Your comparisons aren’t exactly the same thing. It would be more like the Brazilian film industry having a trend of casting actors from Portugal to play famous Brazilians.
If the BBC hired British actors to play U.S. roles for BBC television productions, that would be more understandable. If Nollywood made a movie about MLK, it would be understandable if they hired Nigerian actors.
But these are Hollywood movies, U.S. movies, about historical U.S. personages, where we are seeing a pattern of overlooking home-grown talent to instead cast British actors.
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^^ Exactly.
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The multiple ways white people in America devise to avoid allowing equality for African Americans is quite complex and obviously now as in the past it is a global phenomenon.
I think we must always look globally to be comprehensive at same time keep focus on the root causes of this conflict.
It seems to me that the drive for dominance in all areas of life is a primal need for humans of the white phenotype.
Is it true for all humans regardless of phenotype or gender or are certain phenotypic configurations more or less prone to this drive?
But more specifically certain other media patterns disturb me and my only recourse is to not watch.
The regular killing off of black characters on predominately white cast TV shows (esp the darker i.e. more melanin more likely to be killed pattern)
In film the continual slave stories where it’s always made sure to cast the darkest skinned blacks as slaves and in the current rendetion
to add fictional black males villians and white male savior’s done by predominately white or half white producers and directors.
Or the numerous black American entertainers that ethier never question or make excuses for regularly incorporating the most racist slur directed exclusively at black people in the content of their work.
And finally I have heard for years heard how we should form our own businesses and instusttions ,this discussion invariably ignores the fact that it was and is a military inadequacy that is at the root of this ,
If you cannot defend what you have or build ,how long will you have it?
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*”…certain other media patterns disturb me…
The regular killing off of black characters on predominately white cast TV shows (esp the darker i.e. more melanin more likely to be killed pattern)
[…] continual slave stories where it’s always made sure to cast the darkest skinned blacks as slaves and in the current rendetion
to add fictional black males villians and white male savior’s done by predominately white or half white producers and directors.
[…] numerous black American entertainers that ethier never question or make excuses for regularly incorporating the most racist slur directed exclusively at black people in the content of their work.”*
Those patterns disturb me, too.
“If you cannot defend what you have or build ,how long will you have it?”
Good point.
Black life and creations are precarious in this culture. Black people are often criticized by other groups and internally because we don’t have Black owned and led institutions. What is not considered are the multiple attempts over hundreds of years by Black people to build community infrastructure only to have it destroyed by external adversaries or undermined by internal opponents.
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They are a bunch of kerchief heads over there, believe me. White behind kissers.
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Update: Removed Steve Jobs as an example of a White American portrayed by a British actor. Michael Fassbender, who played him in “Steve Jobs” (2015), has an Irish mother, not a British one.
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I find this disingenuous.
Off the top of my head, here is a list of AAs who have portrayed non-American blacks in films.
Denzel Washington – The Mighty Quinn
Forest Whitaker – The Last King of Scotland (Oscar winner)
Kerry Washington – The Last King of Scotland
Derek Luke – Catch a Fire
Will Smith – Concussion
Morgan Freeman/Terrence Howard (Nelson Mandela)
Jennifer Hudson – Winnie Mandela
Jill Scott – The #1 Ladies Detective Agency
Don Cheadle – Hotel Rwanda
The entire Jamaican cast of Luke Cage season 2 was portrayed by AAs.
Yara Shahidi in The Sun Is Also A Star
Mahersala Ali in Green Book
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