ALL AN ACT :

Denzel as Afrocentrist Hannibal? (Steve Sailer, 7/16/02, UPI)

Press reports that 20th Century Fox is considering making an epic movie starring Denzel Washington as Hannibal -- not the cannibal, but the North African general who led his war elephants over the Alps to surprise ancient Rome by attacking from the north -- are reviving controversies over Afrocentrism and just how "ethnically correct" movies need to be.

Washington is one of Hollywood's most honored and consistently profit-generating leading men. Washington can "open" a movie big. and with the kind of budget this costume war movie would require, that's a crucial consideration.

Washington is black. But, what was Hannibal?

After many decades in which white actors played non-white characters, such as John Wayne's curious portrayal of the Mongolian Genghis Khan in 1956's "The Conqueror," should non-whites like Washington now play ancient figures who were probably Caucasian, such as Hannibal? How important is it for actors to racially match their characters?

There's a famous story about the torture scene in the Marathon Man. To prepare for it, method actor Dustin Hoffman had stayed awake for hours, starved himself, run around the reservoir a qabillion times, etc. So he walks on the set looking like a zombie and Olivier, bewildered by his antics, turns to him and says : "Try acting, dear boy".
Posted by Orrin Judd at July 18, 2002 8:46 AM