‘Romeo & Juliet’ Play Starring Tom Holland and Francesca Amewaduh-Rivers Faces ‘Barrage of Racial Abuse,’ Producer Says ‘This Must Stop’

Following the announcement of our ‘Romeo & Juliet’ cast, there has been a barrage of deplorable racial abuse online directed towards a member of our company. This must stop.”

I'm guessing the racist jerks complaining about the casting would be really upset if they knew that Juliet was played by a dude named Robert Goffe in the very first performance of the play in 1597. source These bigots are so busy complaining about a replacement in race for the actor playing Juliet that they're not even consistent asking for Juliet to be played the original gender of the actor in the first performance. Where is your consistency, bigots?

So are they saying that Romeo and Juliet can’t be together? Ironic.

Should have cast a male to play Juliet like the original. Wonder what the response would have been then?

Romeo and Juliet is the stupidest target for this when all of Shakespeare has been interpreted in wildly diverging ways, skin color would be the smallest of which (and where was it stated that Juliet was white?)

Unless a characters race or gender or ethnicity or (dis)ability is a key component of either their arc or the story as whole (e.g. the plot depends on it), who the fuck cares who's playing who? I saw the same thing happen when the Dune movie had the Liet-Kynes character portrayed by a black woman. It makes absolutely zero difference to the story what gender or race Liet-Kynes was and she was really good anyway.

Honestly, we do see a lot of this casting in the 21st century. A familiar character becomes black, whether it's Annie or The Little Mermaid, and it leaves me ambivalent. However, in the case of Romeo and Juliet, it actually makes sense to have a racial component injected into the story. They are from warring families, correct? Race could be another point of conflict for them.

(Besides, Shakespeare has been famously open to interpretation. Is Shylock a villain, comic relief, or a tragic victim of prejudice in his own time? That's up to the director of the play, or the film.)

"Unnamed cast member"? Is it that they think we're really stupid, or that it's actually not people complaining about the black Juliet, and they want to make it look like it is?

How bizarre...

A story about a grown man loving a little girl? That's fine. Make one of them have a different skin color than me and hoo boy do we have a problem (/s)

Romeo+Juliet is the perfect story for a mixed-race couple, given that the story is about the original is about how their relationship isn't accepted by their families. Also for any other kind of relationship dipshit assclowns hate.

Not really a big deal but it's funny that this variety article and all the other people reporting on this are using the same line of Francesca being from sex education when she's not lol. She's from bad education. It seems like so many websites are just copying from the same source and so they all have the same mistake

Ok sure. But is it a lot of people, or is it some randoms on Twitter? And they use it as publicity.

Honestly. Who gives a fuck about a new Romeo and Juliet play anyways?

My bet is this is a publicity campaign to boost the interest for the film.

what is it their first day on the internet? Did their grandma write this article? Yeah no shit it must stop. So should the death threats for just existing as a woman and LBGTQ2+. have they tried reporting it to the mods? That’s essentially what the only recourse that has been suggested the past two decades for the rest of us.

Is it bc they got that goofy lil cracker to be Romeo?

I dont have a problem with this. Its a play. Its up to thw director and the actors to interpret the script in their owns ways. I do have a problem with the disney mermaid thing but only because those are movies. Movies are a one off thing. Stop remaking the same movies with race swapped characters and instead make new movies that are inclusive.

Beauty is subjective and people are simple. Romeo and Juliet is one of the most iconic love stories there so it is easy for strong opinions. As a society unfortunately we have a beauty "standard" which was probably forced on us in the last decades by marketing companies. If met with someone who doesn't necceserily adher to these standards it's easy to imagine there will be backlash. Of course it's still deplorable and shitty but I can only guess they kinda should've expected it...? I mean the same thing happens when the miss title is not given to a typical "white hot chick" - the simpletons lose their minds. People are predictible and they suck.

Maybe it would help a little to stop fucking remaking shit so much.