Ray Wonder
Founder of the Wounded Tagless Children
I could understand people being bothered by it if it was supposed to be a continuation of the movies, in the form of a new movie.
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First official Harry Potter and The Cursed Child pictures
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CatalogDave
Banned
probably it's more just blind ignorance.
Skellig Gra
Member
That's just not how the theater works. Did you know the genie is black on the Broadway version of Aladdin?
The Lion King broadway production isn't even performed by real animals!
Anoregon
The flight plan I just filed with the agency list me, my men, Dr. Pavel here. But only one of you!
Vincent Alexander
Member
Agreed. And to further your point, Emma Watson herself wasn't even an amazingly accurate depiction of Hermoine from the books. The first three books of Harry Potter or so they describe Hermoine as much pretty much having horse teeth. Having black skin instead of white is the same to me as having horse teeth or not-so-horse teeth. In the end, I don't care. I just want someone who can act and sell me the character.
Inferno313
Banned
I think typically recorded versions of most plays/musicals are released, but usually well after the fact. We'll get the book in a couple months, and then we'll probably see a version of it set up over in the states, in NYC, we'll probably get a filmed version of the original play put out sometime after that.
Aaron Strife
Banned
Yup.
If you want a version of the story where Hermione is white there's bound to be a production of that.
It doesn't match the book covers!
Well, maybe the Penguin Classics.
Hopefully no one from Finland wanders into the theater. They'll wonder why the canonically large noses are missing.
I hope they've already got a set of actors stashed away and out of the sun for when the Italian version of the play opens.
Well, maybe the Penguin Classics.
Hopefully no one from Finland wanders into the theater. They'll wonder why the canonically large noses are missing.
I hope they've already got a set of actors stashed away and out of the sun for when the Italian version of the play opens.
Spehornoob
Member
Theatre is one of my favorite art forms, and I think generalizations like "plays are race neutral" are a little bit of an oversimplification. Characters in plays can absolutely have their race be integral to their character, and thus their casting. You can't do The Sunset Limited without a white and a black man, and you can't really do A Raisin in the Sun with a white family.
What theatre does allow for is differing interpretations of characters and events as long as the script is not betrayed by those choices. Theatre encourages that kind of thing. And I highly doubt the script for this play would somehow be contradicted by changing the color of Hermione's skin.
On another note, I wonder if the rights for this will be eventually be available to smaller or community theatres. I bet people would be chomping at the bit for it.
What theatre does allow for is differing interpretations of characters and events as long as the script is not betrayed by those choices. Theatre encourages that kind of thing. And I highly doubt the script for this play would somehow be contradicted by changing the color of Hermione's skin.
On another note, I wonder if the rights for this will be eventually be available to smaller or community theatres. I bet people would be chomping at the bit for it.
I largely agree. I would just like to point out that I don't think anyone in here was calling theater "race neutral" or even "gender neutral" for that matter. There are countless examples where representation is central to characterization and story. Just wanted to reply to that. All the rest, I basically agree with.
As someone who has worked in theater for a long time I can say I've seen tons of characters whose race is integral to their character played by an actor of another race. Hell as many have said, Shakespeare is ripe with this to the point I've seen more versions of some of his plays with non traditional casting than I have normal expected casting choices. For example I've seen several versions of Merchant of Venice where the Jewish character of Shylock is not played by a Jew and the same I've seen Othello played by a variety of minority actors including Asians and Latinos.
I agree, and I was the one who first brought up Shakespeare in this thread in regards to that point. However, I think it'd be fair to say that something like The Color Purple would be decidedly odd if it featured a white cast. Memphis, Hairspray, etc are all very specific about their minority representation and would require a bit more nuance if you'd want to change them. I know we're venturing off-topic a bit here, but I'd say there are certain shows that are certainly less flexible than others.
Harry Potter isn't one of them.
exactly. billy elliot, taking place during the uk miner's strike. stereo typically they're white, low income workers who were striking. i saw the musical, where billy was played by a cuban boy, and his family was white actors. didn't matter though because the kid was fantastic in his role.
What did he mean by this?
Member
Hermoine being black makes me uncomfortable. I read the books as a kid and in my head I imagined her as white, then the movies came out and she was white in those too! But now whenever I think of Hermoine, I dont think of the buck toothed bad hair white girl from the books or the gorgeous perfect teeth Emma Watson, I'm forced to think of this black woman. I dont want a black woman in my head!
How hard is it for a play I'll probably never see to keep continuity with an unrelated movie series as well my head pictures?
And before anyone plays the race card, I would have a problem with whitewashing in a movie adaption too. Because movies and plays are the same thing with the same history of race issues.
http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Lavender_Brown
I definitely had a problem with this. Don't play the race card!
How hard is it for a play I'll probably never see to keep continuity with an unrelated movie series as well my head pictures?
And before anyone plays the race card, I would have a problem with whitewashing in a movie adaption too. Because movies and plays are the same thing with the same history of race issues.
http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Lavender_Brown
I definitely had a problem with this. Don't play the race card!
I am not sure if you are being sarcastic or not
You know why
There's nothing plotwise that prevents Hermione from being black, as far as I know. I know she's "officially" white by the book and movies, but it's not for a particular reason.
I mean, it's not like a "This movie takes place in ancient Egypt, here's a bunch of white people" type of a thing. If the actress fits Hermione well, then so be it.
I mean, it's not like a "This movie takes place in ancient Egypt, here's a bunch of white people" type of a thing. If the actress fits Hermione well, then so be it.
I should point out that there are plays put on in other countries that feature black characters played by totally different races. Obviously things are bit different there as finding a good actor to physically match the part is not so easy as it would be in other countries. For example a renowned Japanese theater troupe composed only of female actors did a play about Abraham Lincoln. Here's their Lincoln...
pelicansurf
Needs a Holiday on Gallifrey
Everyone is so ugly.
Did Angelus change his username...?
CornBurrito
Member
You don't RC then.
brickwalker0
Member
i fucking hate this gif.
"damn this is dope" is four syllables.
but yeah, not feeling this continuation of the Harry Potter universe. but yknow, money.
haha, what? he's not speaking english...
Skellig Gra
Member
Lol that's why they work in the theater and not on screen.
Inferno313
Banned
Subtitles, how do they work?
And yeah, I'm sure a play is really where you go when you're trying to really sell-out and make the big bucks.
But he's speaking Korean, though...
I have no idea how many syllables "damn this is dope" is in Korean, however.
EDIT: I absolutely fucking LOOOOOOVVVVVVEEEEE black Hermione. And not "Hollywood Safe" black, but they cast a beautifully dark black woman to play her. I love it. I love the salt too, but I may have to visit my doctor to make sure my cholesterol is ok. There is a passage where Hermione is described as looking "very brown," and I can't see a time when that'd be not describing a brown person over a white person. Anyone who's grown up around mixed kids have no doubt known a mixed black/white girl who had pale skin and bushy brown hair and eyes.
EDIT 2: But more importantly, it doesn't fucking matter. Plays cast all types of people, from all different ethnicities and genders to play characters. It really isn't as big a deal as the die hard movie HP fans are making it out to be. I love the books. I love the movies. I'm very, very excited about this play. I have no issues with the cast at all, from their ages, looks, or ethnicities. Because it's a fucking play. It amazes and saddens me how much something like a black Hermione is upsetting people.
Seems fine, Hamilton,the biggest stage performance in the world at the moment, has a lot of white people being played by people of color and it seems to be working for them.
I'm sure this adaptation will be fine. If not, just buy a ticket to one of the million other performances of it that will be created across the world.
I'm sure this adaptation will be fine. If not, just buy a ticket to one of the million other performances of it that will be created across the world.
CornBurrito
Member
Rose looks nothing like Ron. I wonder if that caused a strain in his relationship with Hermione.
Yup, I once watched a Robin Hood play where Robin was a woman. Didn't do any harm at all, it was pretty great.
Watching people complain about this Harry Potter play is amusing, they've probably never seen a play before because this practice is very common.
finalflame
Member
Oh, it's a play. Carry on then.
stufte
Member
Yah people who give a shit are making a bigger deal about this than is necessary.
It'd be a bit different if they brought back all the original actors from the originals to reprise their roles for a new movie and suddenly Hermoine was black and everyone was all "HEY GIRL, YOU DEFINITELY DON'T LOOK ANY DIFFERENT THAN WE REMEMBER YOU!" Even changing it to a different white actress would be jarring.
CornBurrito
Member
Hermione being black makes how everyone treated her during the whole "Free the House Elves" thing even worse.
The Last Wizard
Member
Don't ever believe gaf is immune to anything.Some of the posts in this thread
It's 2016. Jeeeesus christ.
Alright I'm calling bullshit mate, I saw animals when I went to see it.
Admiral Woofington
Member
I don't mind the new Hermione not looking anything like Emma Watson. I don't like Emma Watson anymore. I hear she goes around stealing everyone's shit when the world ends.
I know right? I now want to reread the books with a black Hermione in my head.
It's actually not surprising that a lot of writers write with no particular ethnicity in mind with a lot of characters. My wife, when she's writing characters, doesn't think about it. She's more concerned with the actual dialogue and characterization of the character, than his or her skin color. She doesn't go into complex descriptions. A lot of writers I've talked to are the same. They just put a character down, and let the reader infer and create the visual image for themselves. There are obviously exceptions, where a writer does, indeed, have a particular look in mind.
I remember I was reading the Rising Sun novel by Michael Crichton, and I was shocked that the young male lead was white, whereas in the movie, it was Wesley Snipes. On the flip side, Sarah Harding in The Lost World was described as kind of a bronzed olive skin woman with dark hair (I pictured her in my head as kind of Greek, or Middle Eastern), but it was Julianne Moore in the movie (I love Julianne Moore, so this was cool, but I was a little sad she didn't look like I imagined).
stufte
Member
You mean these book covers?
Official covers for the whole series for adult readers.
It's a play.
There's only been one visual depiction (the movies are all considered one), the play is the second. Plays have historically played it loose with race; historically, they've even ignored the written gender of the role and cast men as women and women as men.
The play is also technically licensed as being based off the books, not the movie. Yes, those are two separate licenses. Ask Universal, who had to acquire both the rights to adapt the books into a theme park and then license the known movie based areas from Warner.
Harry Potter will be re-adapted over and over and over again. There's no reason to pin Hermoine's race down, there's a good chance she could be black in a future movie adaption which will inevitably happen, etc.
You guys can say whatever you want, but it's weird to change someone's race like this. It's especially weird when you consider that they seemed to be trying to cast people who looked like older versions of the characters we all know.... like, everyone but Hermione.
Anyway, I'm just glad we have more HP in our lives. Can't wait to see this.
Anyway, I'm just glad we have more HP in our lives. Can't wait to see this.
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