Not Black Enough? Will Smith's Casting As Venus and Serena’s Father Attracts Mixed Reactions (Tr)

Latestly ^ | Team Latestly

[EdnaMode]

The announcement of Will Smith being cast in the role of 'King Richard', father of Tennis legends Serena and Venus Williams has come as surprise. The actor recently pulled out of DC's Suicide Squad and is now being considered to have been locked for the much talked about role in the biopic based on the life of Williams sisters' father. The film which will be titled King Richard is set to showcase the inspiring story of a father with no formal tennis background raise two of the most world-renowned tennis stars. Smith has been cast to play the man who has been imperative to the careers of both Serena and Venus as the father who taught his daughters to play the sport since an early age.

Although, the actor's casting has met with some mixed responses. There is no doubt that an actor with a range like that of Smith can pull off any character but this casting has set off a debate on the whole colourism issue in Hollywood. Even those who have been fans of the actor have called this to be a 'poor casting choice'. The casting is receiving flak mainly because of Will's appearance being much different from Richard Williams, thus making fans question if there is a dearth of actors with a darker shade and why have they been passed off this opportunity.

[EdnaMode]

Today's faux outrage. Will Smith isn't black enough to play Richard Williams.

[nascarnation]

I think everybody in politics and entertainment needs to get a DNA test and wear a badge with their ethnic percentages.

[teeman8r]

they could darken will smith’s foundation a bit... ooops...

if that is the case, we could get robert downy jr. to play him...

[dp0622]

The only justifiable thing to do is create a clone :)

[dead]

Somebody should invent makeup in case a skin tone needs to be a slightly different shade for a role.

[Toespi]

I would think the issue would be Will Smith isn’t fat enough and has all his teeth.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

The actor recently pulled out of DC's Suicide Squad

There's a Titanic that is going down. To pull out of Suicide Squad to have a supporting role in some PC BS movie that no one will watch is telling.

[bk1000]

“Today’s faux outrage.”

To a great many blacks, color is paramount, and the shade of that color is crucial. Don’t know if it is still this way, but for the longest time, to belong to black high society in Atlanta, one could be no darker than a brown paper bag.

[Sgt_Schultze]

Writers of Hamilton will be most injured by the wholesale adoption of this position.

[nickedknack]

Yes, and thus the term High Yellow Negro. There remains racism among blacks of different shades of pigmentation — light good, dark bad.

[rjsimmon]

Sure, they have a legitimate gripe, cause SOOO many actors look identical to the person they were portraying. Who knew Henry Tudor was such a good looking guy?

[BlueLancer]

Well, if that’s what they’re talking about now, maybe they can address the ... ah ... shades of difference between the cast of “Hamilton” and the historical figures they’re supposed to represent.

[hanamizu]

So, it’s OK for a black actress to play the queen of France in an historical drama, but Mr Smith’s skin tone isn’t really black enough to play the part of a black American? Well, that’s easily solved, have Mr Smith wear dark-toned makeup—black face if you will.

[bgill]

If white roles require black actors these days, then why isn’t Williams being played by a white?

[yesthatjallen]

Two weeks ago Smith was too blue for the Aladdin movie. Before that they complained he has brown and not blue.

[minnesota_bound]

He will play the father who supplied the steroids to his daughters.

[GnuThere]

Yes, Hollywood should be restricted to sending out a casting call for only age, gender, height and weight. Then apply makeup as needed. That would blow their minds.
Not to mention they would only have a choice of 2 genders.

[dfwgator]

Garrett Morris: [ interrupting ] Well, I think I understand the problem with the tests. But the fact is that people have been saying that white people are smarter than black for hundreds of years. We’ve only had I.Q. tests for 20 or 30 years. How did the idea of white intellectual superiority originate?

Julian Bond: That’s an interesting point. My theory is that it’s based on the fact that light-skinned blacks are smarter than dark-skinned blacks.

Garrett Morris: [ not sure he heard that right ] Say what?

Julian Bond: I said I think it might have grown out of the observation that light-skinned blacks are smarter than dark-skinned blacks.

Garrett Morris: I don’t get it.

Julian Bond: It’s got nothing to do with having white blood. It’s just that descendants of the lighter-skinned African tribes are more intelligent than the descendants of the darker-skinned tribes. Everybody knows that.

Garrett Morris: This is the first time I’ve heard of it.

Julian Bond: Seriously? It was proven a long time ago.

Garrett Morris: Well, I still don’t quite understand. We’re out of time right now, but perhaps you could come back on the show again and explain it further.

Julian Bond: There’s very little to explain – it’s just like I told you.

Garrett Morris: Well, we are out of time. Good night. [ to Julian ] If you could repeat it just once more…

[GnuThere]

And BTW this movie should be a massive flop. I love tennis and can’t stand the horrible Wms sisters or their late father nor the way the announcers slobber over all of them. I can’t be the only one not interested. Of course all the rabid Mooschelle fans will probably go if she tells them to.

[WKUHilltopper]

Shoe polish will work wonders. Faux concern solved.