The racist abuse directed at Francesca Amewudah-Rivers shows how casting decisions have been hijacked by the culture wars
It’s a young actor’s worst nightmare: to land the role of a lifetime and then find yourself thrown into a media frenzy of vitriol. Over the past two weeks, Francesca Amewudah-Rivers has been the target of an intense and hateful backlash after she was cast in an upcoming production of Romeo and Juliet, opposite Tom Holland’s Romeo. The critical comments made about her casting are unquestionably racist, colourist and misogynistic, and they have highlighted how difficult it can be to be a dark-skinned black woman in the public eye.
This past summer I played Rosalind in a production of As You Like It, a dream role. It came with huge responsibility, and I can’t imagine also being faced with what Francesca has had to go through recently. Nor have I, as a mixed race, light-skinned woman, suffered these same experiences. Casting has become a political act in film, theatre and TV, and the online discussions that follow casting announcements can become seedbeds of hate that primarily benefit social media companies, driving comments and clicks. Actors become the faces of these online controversies, and while they suffer the consequences, social media companies are never held responsible for the abhorrent comments fuelled by their sites.
