The world held its breath in 2002 when Daniel Pearl was held by terrorists in Karachi, Pakistan. The American journalist, accused by terrorists of being a CIA operative, was held for nine days and decapitated. He had been investigating links between Al-Qaeda and Pakistani officials for the Wall Street Journal.
On June 22nd, a film portraying Pearl's life and death, A Mighty Heart, will hit limited release in the US. It's based on the writings of his widow, Mariane Pearl.
Pearl personally chose Jolie to play her counterpart role in this movie. Not the studio. Not the director. Not the "Hollywood establishment." The two women are friends, their kids play together, and they share values. So the arguments that Jolie got the role because the studios wouldn't cast a person of mixed race or a black woman fall rather flat to me.
Yet various places on the net -- IMDB.com forums, blogs -- people are flaming about Jolie, a "white" actress, being chosen to portray Pearl, a "mixed race" or in some posts "black" woman.
I wish we felt more comfortable casting people of whatever race in whatever role. If the race isn't important to the role, it shouldn't matter what race the actress or actor might be.
No, I wouldn't imagine Clint Eastwood playing MLK. But come on, the Pearls were, neither one of them, significant for their presented or genetic racial make-up. They were, possibly, significant for their nationalities and culture.
Daniel being a Jewish American (although, his mother was an Iraqi Jew) was important; someone who was involved in US media. But I'm not sure that his wife's genetics were crucial in the story. She's of Afro-Cuban and Dutch heritage.
What's possibly less well known is that Jolie's mother was part Iroquois. In the minds of the flamers out there, this apparently doesn't make her black enough to be less that unfair competition with the mixed race and black actors out there.
It's like the commentary on Barack Obama. Depending on the agenda of the blogger, he's not white enough to win, or not black enough to appeal to minorities, or both. I sometimes suspect there's no way to win when these issues get involved.
I'm looking forward to the movie though.
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Shava Nerad, News and Opinion Correspondent:
Shava’s column, Iconoclasm, published several times a week to Gather Essentials: Newsis an examination of the provocative ideas emerging in media and world culture behind the news.
Shava Nerad has been working on the Internet for twenty-five years, at the boundaries of Internet and social issues. She is executive director of The Tor Project as her day job. She lives in Somerville, MA with her teenage son, her fiance (a professional magician and fundraising coach), and a corgi/dachshund mutt named George.
Opinions here have nothing to do with Tor.
You can find all of Shava's Iconoclasm columns at http://Iconoclasm.gather.com
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Comments: 15
Agreed 100%
I suppose I can understand why there would be an uproar in the acting community, as they rightfully argue that there are few quality roles available to minority actresses. But interms of the ability to play the role, I think it's a non-issue in this case. If Marinane Pearl feels Jolie can accurately portray her, who are we to argue?
in broke back mountain two guys played as gays..now they are not gay in real life..but no one raised the issue then..so why are we talking about this now..?
There are people out there who will complain and scream race about anything and everything. They are so steeped in this ridiculous victim mentality they can't see the forest for the trees.
The truth is that the roles available for those of color have grown exponentially. More important, many roles written with white actors in mind have gone to black actors. Will Smith is only one such actor. He played James West in Wild Wild West, a role originally written for a white guy. He also played the detective in I Robot. Then look beyond Will and see Denzel. Most of the roles he plays could be equally well portrayed by whites. He gets the roles because he's enormously talented.
Could things be better? Sure. But let's be fair about this. Things in that regard have changed.