The Wonder Woman star captioned her tweet with the following message: “I’m so grateful I get to visit the most fascinating places & play the characters that I care about, & at the end of the day I’ll always be Gal from a small country in the Middle East & I was so proud to take @VanityFair with me for a couple of days on the Mediterranean coast line.”
Whether it was her intention or not, the post serves as somewhat of a response to social media users who scrutinized the choice to cast her as the Queen of the Nile.
The problem many of the naysayers have is not with Gadot’s acting prowess, but whether any white actress should portray Cleopatra at all. The debate soon came to the attention of some prominent Egyptology scholars, who entered into the Twitter back-and-forth in regards to Cleopatra’s heritage and the casting of Gadot.
Archeologist and Egyptologist Sarah Parcak weighed in with numerous tweets, before ending with a summation that emphasized the importance of all opinions. Even still, she offered that choosing an Egyptian actress would have been the best solution.
In the past, white actresses have notoriously played the Ancient Egyptian ruler, including Claudette Colbert, Vivien Leigh and, most famously, Elizabeth Taylor. Decades ago, such casting choices were less controversial, mainly because many academics and experts believed Cleopatra was of Macedonian-Greek descent, with her ancestry tracing back to one of Alexander the Great’s generals. In fact, this belief is still held in many prominent circles.
However, there has been some disagreement about the heritage of Cleopatra’s mother. One of the strongest claims that her mother wasn’t white dates back to 2009, when a team of archaeologists found what they believed to be the remains of Princess Arsinoe, Cleopatra’s sister, in Turkey. The researchers said forensics of Arsinoe’s remains indicate that her mother, who was also likely Cleopatra’s, was African.
While there may never be universal agreement about Cleopatra’s actual ethnicity, many people believe the filmmakers behind the latest depiction of her life should have at least cast an actress of mixed heritage, especially given Hollywood’s long problematic history with race.
Like Wonder Woman, the as-yet-untitled Cleopatra feature will be directed by Patty Jenkins. Laeta Kalogridis, who scripted Oliver Stone’s Alexander (featuring no Macedonian or Greek leads), is currently writing the screenplay for the upcoming movie, which has no projected production start date at this time.
