I try to keep up with Hollywood news especially with regard to upcoming movies. I was channel surfing the other day and caught a discussion on Al Jazeera about the upcoming bio pic about Abolitionist Harriet Tubman. The tone of the debate was the casting of British actress Cynthia Erivo in the lead role.

Some American activists object to her casting as she is not an American, and she is not a descendant of slavery. Erivo was born in London and is of Nigerian heritage.The logic being that only an American actress should play such such a role. There is also the cultural resentment that British actors are being cast over American ones, taking their jobs away.

Regarding the first point, casting directors will make a choice on who can best give the performance they need. The idea that only an American can play such an iconic role is ludicrous. Anthony Hopkins once played Richard Nixon in a bio pic, Hopkins is Welsh! Meryl Streep played Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady, Streep is American. The idea that casting should be based on nationality alone is crazy. I've seen Daniel Day-Lewis play Abraham Lincoln is Steven Spielberg's Oscar winning movie. He was totally amazing truly earning his third Best Actor Oscar. Spielberg went for the best actor he could find and got a great performance. He was not small minded in his casting choice. I have seen Australian Cate Blanchett play Queen Elizabeth I twice. Should that role only be cast with a British actress?

Am I missing something? Are we saying that Black American icons have to be played by American actors? Only American actors should play Rosa Parks, Jackie Robinson or Martin Luther King? David Oyelowo was the best thing in Selma, no one can deny that he was not Oscar worthy. Should the director have cast only an American actor? The thinking being that a non American cannot understand the history of racial oppression. Living in Britian,I can tell you that racism exists here as well as in the US. There was slavery in the Caribbean when Britain had an empire, and it was just as evil and nasty as the American version.

I believe that there is a cultural resentment against British actors. I remember the comments made about the casting of Daniel Kaluuya in Jordan Peele's Get Out. Samuel L Jackson remarked that casting directors think that British actors are better trained in their craft than Americans. He also made a snide remark hat they are seen as cheaper. Daniel Kaluuya, a British actor of Ugandan heritage, was fantastic in Peele's horror/ social satire. I recall his moving speech when he won his Rising Star Award at the Baftas in 2018. This is not a man coming from wealth or privilege, but his talent shone through.

Hollywood has always been a magnet for artists from all over the world. Alfred Hitchcock, Vivian Leigh, Elizabeth Taylor, Cate Blanchett, James Cameron, Otto Preminger and Billy Wilder are all non Americans. There are lots of British actors like Cush Jumbo in The Good Fight and David Harewood in Supergirl working in television. Producers are going to seek out talent whereever they can find it. Hollywood is first and foremost a business, it is not a social justice agency. It cannot right the wrongs of the world, all it can do is highlight them and raise questions. Sometimes we forget that.

I will watch the Harriet Tubman bio pic when it is released as I love a good bio pic. Hopefully it will be.