Harewood Says Actors Should Be Allowed to Use Blackface

BBC ^ | 4/24 | Steven McIntosh

[nickcarraway]

Actor David Harewood has said actors "should be able to do anything" - including use blackface to portray black characters.

The 58-year-old made the comments following recent debate in the film and TV industry about casting and identity politics. In an interview with the Guardian, Harewood said: "The name of the game is acting.

"Yes, we’ve got to be representative, but I do think we have to be careful… That even extends to Othello in Blackface." William Shakespeare’s Othello has historically seen white actors use make-up to appear black while playing the titular character.

[No name given]

Indeed.

[No name given]

And a hypocrite to boot 🥾.

[MikeSteelBe]

Robert Downey Jr. did it.

Never go full retard.

[Fledermaus]

Seriously?

[MikeSteelBe]

I believe he was in “Full Metal Jacket”.

[MikeSteelBe]

Correction: I was thinking of Dorian Harewood.

[GOPJ]

American actors portray Romans who lived two thousand years ago. Modern actors play Jesus and Moses and Abraham. Even even aliens from other planets. Gay actors portray straight people... It’s make believe stuff so why not?

[Glad2bnuts]

I am wondering if he is the son of Dorian Harewood. He always struck me as an entirely sane person as well as a great actor.

[nutmeg]

Dylan Mulvaney and all the other Pretend Women have been getting away with WomanFace for years now...

[Glad2bnuts]

He does not have a son by that name, and is living in the US. I was wrong, but he is a very solid guy. Not your usual Hollywood actor.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

What world does this guy live in? Every time I turn on TV there's nothing but Negroes. You have to look really hard to find a show about White folks.

[frank ballenger]

The excellent film Bamboozled by Spike Lee.
“Black actors wearing blacker blackface.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ8BlE_2tYY
Note: The studio audience preview scene in the theater had actual people who were not told what the film was about. Their embarrassed squirming and then attempts at acting accommodating expressions were genuine.

Serious montage of scenes that brought some black viewers to tears.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVnQ_iQl80o

[Fireone]

Of course they should, what’s stopping them?

[logi_cal869]

[period end of story]

He’s 58, not 28, so, kinda old school.

But elite leftist blacks are intolerably racist.

[Clutch Martin]

“Dave Chappelle has done whiteface to portray a white person.I don’t see a problem with that.”

I think it ought to be called “Paleface”