Recently, The Jamie Lloyd Theatre Company announced that it has chosen young star Francesca Amewudah-Rivers for the role of Juliet, playing alongside “Spider-Man” Tom Holland. Some other familiar faces such as Freema Agyeman, Michael Balogun, and Mia Jerome also confirmed their participation in the project. Lead actor Tom Holland said, “I’m very excited about this cast lineup. We can’t wait to start rehearsing and create a very special project together.”
Tom Holland and Francesca Amewudah-Rivers will play Romeo and Juliet.
According to Fandomwire, immediately after the cast was introduced, a heated debate about the female lead role took place on social networking forums. Francesca Amewudah-Rivers is a young British actress of African descent. She was known for her role as Blessing in the BBC series “Bad Education”. Many people objected to this decision by the crew, thinking that they were ruining Shakespeare’s original play.
Some comments from netizens:
– “Please, don’t talk about whether it’s beautiful or ugly, at least respect the historical context.”
– “I really hope this project will fail.”
– “I wonder how many black noble families there were in Italy during the Renaissance?”
– “That’s not to say you can’t choose black actors, but can they be a little bit beautiful?”
– “Why do we have to destroy the original work? It would be better to make a new series about the forbidden love story of a white man and a black woman, and maybe even get compliments.”
Facing the wave of criticism, director Jamie Lloyd still said he was very excited about the project. “I’m really excited to introduce the cast who will join Tom Holland, especially Francesca Amewudah-Rivers – an incredibly talented young star.”
Francesca Amewudah-Rivers is considered a potential young British actress.
This is not the first time Tom Holland’s projects have faced criticism for choosing his female co-stars. In 2016, the blockbuster “Spider-Man: Homecoming” also caused controversy when choosing black actress Zendaya for the role of MJ Watson. However, this character later received a lot of love from the audience. The two stars of the project have also caused a stir with the story of “fake real love movies” for many years.