Author Topic: New Harry Potter film  (Read 3334 times)

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Offline Askold

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New Harry Potter film
« on: December 21, 2015, 09:26:49 am »
...With a black actress playing Hermione.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/35150488/hermione-granger-to-be-played-by-black-actress-noma-dumezweni-sparking-fan-debate?ocid=socialflow_facebook&ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbcnews&ns_source=facebook

Rowling commented that she never actually specified in the books what ethnicity Hermione is and therefore the next actress to play her is Noma Dumezweni. I am certain that the fans will discuss this rationally and without any complaints about "pandering to multiculturalism" or anything...

*giggle*

Anyway, the reason the trio will get new actors is that the film is set so much later that the previous actors are too young. ...And apparently using makeup or CGI to make them look older is not an option? Anyway, I am certain that there are a lot of eager fans waiting for this next film just like the previous ones.
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Art Vandelay

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Re: New Harry Potter film
« Reply #1 on: December 21, 2015, 09:46:29 am »
It's actually a play, not a film

Offline Sigmaleph

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Re: New Harry Potter film
« Reply #2 on: December 21, 2015, 09:49:59 am »
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is a play, not a film. (EDIT: dammit, Art beat me to it) Hence no CGI. I'm sure you could use make up and so on but, you could also, y'know, hire actors that are the age of the characters they're playing?

(...there is a new film in the Harry Potter universe coming out, which is what I thought you meant at first, but Hermione et al. don't appear in it)

Anyway, black Hermione is for some reason or another a surprisingly common headcanon, so it's at least a nice nod to that part of the fan community.

(insert Hamilton reference re: theatre and race-bending)
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Offline Askold

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Re: New Harry Potter film
« Reply #3 on: December 21, 2015, 11:29:21 am »
...my mistake.

It also makes sense to hire stage actors rather than the more expensive Hollywood stars of the films.
No matter what happens, no matter what my last words may end up being, I want everyone to claim that they were:
"If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine."
Aww, you guys rock. :)  I feel the love... and the pitchforks and torches.  Tingly!

Offline TheContrarian

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Re: New Harry Potter film
« Reply #4 on: December 21, 2015, 12:26:02 pm »
It should feature Emma Watson in blackface.

Then at the end she can give a long monologue about the discrimination faced by neurotrophic pottysexual transethnic invertebratekins in the modern movie business.

A simple cast change just isn't EQUALITY enough for my tastes.


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Offline ironbite

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Re: New Harry Potter film
« Reply #5 on: December 21, 2015, 04:48:33 pm »
The amount of dumb hate this is getting is amazing.  Also apparently Granger is a white name so therefore Hermione has to be white.

Ironbite-because....reasons.

Offline davedan

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Re: New Harry Potter film
« Reply #6 on: December 21, 2015, 05:26:45 pm »
Very few roles actually require a particular race. Off the top of my head one of the few that does is Othello. Even then you could make Othello whatever you want as long as the rest of the cast is different to the 'moor'.

Offline guizonde

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Re: New Harry Potter film
« Reply #7 on: December 21, 2015, 05:46:51 pm »
Very few roles actually require a particular race. Off the top of my head one of the few that does is Othello. Even then you could make Othello whatever you want as long as the rest of the cast is different to the 'moor'.

and even that is subject to artistic licence, whether you make othello arabic or african (moors can be both, and were both in shakespearean language) can directly influence garb, pronunciation, and interpretation. when i studied that, my teacher told me that it was as much the role of the director as the actor to pull off one interpretation or another. it's never incidental, it's a conscious choice upon which hinges the credibility of the play. i studied both interpretations in class, requiring my class to watch the play several times with both interpretations.

thinking about it for a minute, perhaps one could argue that the character cho cheng (harry's ravenclaw one-time gf) would have to be asian, just like parvati patil. but i can't get another racial-role in traditional theater aside from othello either. granted, i may enjoy it, it's far from my specialty.
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Offline Sigmaleph

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Re: New Harry Potter film
« Reply #8 on: December 21, 2015, 10:18:32 pm »
It should feature Emma Watson in blackface.

Then at the end she can give a long monologue about the discrimination faced by neurotrophic pottysexual transethnic invertebratekins in the modern movie business.

A simple cast change just isn't EQUALITY enough for my tastes.

Anti-neurotrophic discrimination is truly the civil rights issue of our era. Society needs to recognise its oppression of proteins, forcing them to contribute to the development of privileged neural cells.
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Art Vandelay

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Re: New Harry Potter film
« Reply #9 on: December 21, 2015, 10:44:25 pm »
Honestly, I know this is going to be unpopular with you lot, but I do have to say that black Hermione is bullshit. Sure, the books technically never mention her ethnicity, but they do mention it whenever even the most minor characters aren't white. It's kind of a stretch to say that the likes of Dean Thomas, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Lee Jordan and Angelina Johnson all get their ethnicity specifically stated, but it would never be mentioned if one of the main three were a minority. Hell, seeing as non-white characters never have their race explicitly stated, there could well be not a single white character in that entire franchise. Honestly, it just strikes me as retconning a white character to be a minority just for the sake of looking all tolerant and progressive than anything else.

On the other hand, it could just be a case of the best actress for the role happened to be black, which would be perfectly fine in my book. Hell, just so we're clear, I've no problem with the idea of Hermione being black, it's just the arguments that she could be black, canonically speaking, are kind of dumb.
« Last Edit: December 21, 2015, 10:57:23 pm by Art Vandelay »

Offline guizonde

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Re: New Harry Potter film
« Reply #10 on: December 21, 2015, 10:52:52 pm »
i'm with art. i don't mind it, but can we please step up the argumentation game? i just saw a post saying something along the lines "curly hair, brown eyes... hermione is totes black!" you know who else have those characteristics? 75% of the mediterranean basin!

from now on, i'm headcanoning hermione as a haitian. born of lebanese parents. in québec. because screw logic, apparently, racial profiling is now affirmative action. black is white. bad is good.

[rebooting]

ok, i'm back. have hermione be the color that you want. black, white, green, blue, i don't care, but make the actress have some talent.
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Offline Sigmaleph

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Re: New Harry Potter film
« Reply #11 on: December 21, 2015, 11:00:19 pm »
I don't think she was intended as a black character, that's for sure. But, y'know, death of the author, everything not explicitly stated is up for grabs and so are not, I think, invalid methods of interacting with the text (this is your periodic reminder that fictional characters do not actually exist and there is no fact of the matter about them, only interpretations of the text)

Was choosing a black actress a matter of race-blind casting and she just happened to be the best for the role? Probably not. I think it was a nod to the black Hermione headcanons in the fandom. But I don't think that's a bad thing... especially if you want those same fans to be pre-emptively excited about your show instead of decrying it as problematic.
« Last Edit: December 21, 2015, 11:06:45 pm by Sigmaleph »
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Offline Ultimate Paragon

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Re: New Harry Potter film
« Reply #12 on: December 21, 2015, 11:15:07 pm »
Oh, the flame wars this'll start...

Offline ironbite

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Re: New Harry Potter film
« Reply #13 on: December 22, 2015, 06:02:52 pm »
I always felt she was brown myself.

Offline Igor

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Re: New Harry Potter film
« Reply #14 on: December 22, 2015, 06:36:07 pm »
Rowling loves black Hermione. So if people still want to flame after the author said that...


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