Casting Question re "Eagle of the Ninth"
Anyone want to start placing bets on whether the character of Legate Claudius Hieronimanius - who is an ethnically-Egyptian Roman citizen, who provides the impetus for the younger characters' quest - will be cast "colorblind" (i.e. a white actor) again* or not?
Here's how he's described in the book:
Marcus raised his hand in salute to his uncle's friend, and found himself looking into a pair of long, jet-black eyes that seemed to have the sun behind them. The Legate was an Egyptian, and, he judged, of the old strain, for there was none of the Syrian softness in his face that he had seen so often in the faces of the men of the Nile. "I am very much honored to meet the Legate of Victrix," he said.
The Legate's face crinkled into a smile that sent a thousand fine lines deepening about his mouth and eyes.
"And I am very glad to meet a kinsman of my ancient friend, all the more so because until today he might have been hatched out of a turtle's egg in the sand, for all the kith and kin that he had to my knowledge."
Even casting an Italian-Englishman would be whitewashing, is what all that means. Hopefully the 21st-century British filmmaking industry can accept the fact that Sutcliff was unabashedly pointing out, in 1954, the fact that the Roman Empire was far more integrated than either Hollywood or the popular imagination has been able to comprehend - yes, he's a general, yes, he's a 'wog,' deal with it! - but I'm not overly optimistic**: it's a nice solid role for an older actor with gravitas playing the crucial "M" role in the story, after all, of course it should "naturally" go to a white guy.
I also wonder if they'll cast the drawn-from-all-over-the-Empire legionaries and their complement of merchants, camp followers, and artisans of both sexes as monochromatically as usual...
*In the '77 BBC miniseries, per IMDb, he was played by Paul Chapman who I am reasonably sure is a good actor - I've never seen him in anything that I know of - but hardly looks at all Egyptian.
** --Though somewhat more so than if it were a contemporary US production.
Here's how he's described in the book:
Marcus raised his hand in salute to his uncle's friend, and found himself looking into a pair of long, jet-black eyes that seemed to have the sun behind them. The Legate was an Egyptian, and, he judged, of the old strain, for there was none of the Syrian softness in his face that he had seen so often in the faces of the men of the Nile. "I am very much honored to meet the Legate of Victrix," he said.
The Legate's face crinkled into a smile that sent a thousand fine lines deepening about his mouth and eyes.
"And I am very glad to meet a kinsman of my ancient friend, all the more so because until today he might have been hatched out of a turtle's egg in the sand, for all the kith and kin that he had to my knowledge."
Even casting an Italian-Englishman would be whitewashing, is what all that means. Hopefully the 21st-century British filmmaking industry can accept the fact that Sutcliff was unabashedly pointing out, in 1954, the fact that the Roman Empire was far more integrated than either Hollywood or the popular imagination has been able to comprehend - yes, he's a general, yes, he's a 'wog,' deal with it! - but I'm not overly optimistic**: it's a nice solid role for an older actor with gravitas playing the crucial "M" role in the story, after all, of course it should "naturally" go to a white guy.
I also wonder if they'll cast the drawn-from-all-over-the-Empire legionaries and their complement of merchants, camp followers, and artisans of both sexes as monochromatically as usual...
*In the '77 BBC miniseries, per IMDb, he was played by Paul Chapman who I am reasonably sure is a good actor - I've never seen him in anything that I know of - but hardly looks at all Egyptian.
** --Though somewhat more so than if it were a contemporary US production.