Controversy over Jewish-Israili actress playing Virgin Mary

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Mona Pereth
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Today, 12:02 am

Honey69 wrote:
There has also been some controversy about straight actors playing gay characters, when gay actors have been playing straight characters since forever. You're just acting.

An actor's personal background does affect how much and what kind of insight the actor has into the role. This is especially true for marginalized groups whose perspectives are not well-understood by mainstream folks.

Also, in the case of Palestinians in particular, mass media representation may well be a matter of life and death. Given the U.S.A.'s celebrity-obsessed culture, the casting of Palestinian actors in appropriate sympathetic roles might be just the thing that could spur many Americans to start seeing Palestinians as human and, therefore, start feeling at least a little bit bothered by the mass slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza.

Anyhow, regardless of how you personally feel about Biblical epics, there are lots of people who do watch them.


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ASPartOfMe
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Today, 12:59 am

Mona Pereth wrote:
Found some other recent news stories about this controversy:

- Controversy surrounds ‘Mary’ Netflix film with criticism of Palestinian 'erasure', The New Arab, 15 November, 2024: "A new Netflix film about Mary, mother of Jesus, has cast Israeli actors while ignoring Palestinians, sparking anger and calls for a boycott."
- Mary: Netflix faces backlash for casting Israeli actors in lead roles in upcoming biblical film, Middle East Eye, 14 November 2024: "Social media users have called for a Netflix boycott, with many accusing the platform of erasing the characters' Palestinian roots with the decision to cast Israelis."

This controversy appears to be part of a larger trend of concern about Palestinian 'erasure' in Western pop culture. The Middle East Eye page has a link to a story about another similar controversy here, plus a story about another related theme here.

One of the articles quoted a person from CODEPINK an American founded advocacy group. Otherwise the background of these social media critics remains unknown. I also noticed that so far there has been no criticism about Anthony Hopkins an actual European playing King Herald. So far are the key words. Let’s see if people actually start canceling their Netflix subscription, if Palestinian Christian or Christians of Palestinian background picketing Netflix Headquarters, if Palestinian Christian clergy and church leaders speak out.


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