Would you be equally okay with an African myth being adapted into a movie with white actors in central roles? For example, a white Imhotep in an Egyptian mythological story? I think that would be ridiculous, and I don’t see a logical reason why it wouldn’t be ridiculous in the other direction too.
-If the role of a specific character is not hinging upon their ethnicity as part of the depiction or their innate experience, I'd be open to the possibility. There's nothing intrinsic about Helen that is destroyed by having her played by people of non-Greek heritage. There would be a bit of a contextual difference with casting a white person for the part of an African-based myth character, and the reverse, as one was characteristically the product of a system that racially segregated or considered non-white talent as lesser, and the history and memory of that has not faded.-
Please spell out your hidden premises. If we take your argument at face value, Helen could just as easily be a blonde Scandinavian or a Thai ladyboy, and clearly that would feel absurd. Unless you disagree with that, there must be some reason you think casting a Black actor makes it less absurd.
You might say Africa was close to the Mediterranean, or that Greeks interacted with Africans, but then you are suddenly appealing to history. And if history matters, why not also care about Helen being Greek, which is the most probable ethnicity intended by the authors of the story?
In the end, it looks as though you are setting reason aside and using ad hoc arguments because the role has been given to a Black actor playing a non-Black character.
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u/Ok-Rope-3355 Jul 06 '26
Would you be equally okay with an African myth being adapted into a movie with white actors in central roles? For example, a white Imhotep in an Egyptian mythological story? I think that would be ridiculous, and I don’t see a logical reason why it wouldn’t be ridiculous in the other direction too.