‘Romeo & Juliet’ Play Starring Tom Holland and Francesca Amewaduh-Rivers Faces ‘Barrage of Racial Abuse,’ Producer Says ‘This Must Stop’

Following the announcement of our ‘Romeo & Juliet’ cast, there has been a barrage of deplorable racial abuse online directed towards a member of our company. This must stop.”

I'm guessing the racist jerks complaining about the casting would be really upset if they knew that Juliet was played by a dude named Robert Goffe in the very first performance of the play in 1597. source These bigots are so busy complaining about a replacement in race for the actor playing Juliet that they're not even consistent asking for Juliet to be played the original gender of the actor in the first performance. Where is your consistency, bigots?

So are they saying that Romeo and Juliet can’t be together? Ironic.

Unless a characters race or gender or ethnicity or (dis)ability is a key component of either their arc or the story as whole (e.g. the plot depends on it), who the fuck cares who's playing who? I saw the same thing happen when the Dune movie had the Liet-Kynes character portrayed by a black woman. It makes absolutely zero difference to the story what gender or race Liet-Kynes was and she was really good anyway.

Romeo and Juliet is the stupidest target for this when all of Shakespeare has been interpreted in wildly diverging ways, skin color would be the smallest of which (and where was it stated that Juliet was white?)

Honestly, we do see a lot of this casting in the 21st century. A familiar character becomes black, whether it's Annie or The Little Mermaid, and it leaves me ambivalent. However, in the case of Romeo and Juliet, it actually makes sense to have a racial component injected into the story. They are from warring families, correct? Race could be another point of conflict for them.

(Besides, Shakespeare has been famously open to interpretation. Is Shylock a villain, comic relief, or a tragic victim of prejudice in his own time? That's up to the director of the play, or the film.)

Nice job Vanity Fair. There are some racists who are whining about interracial Romeo and Juliet. Fuck them for sure. But not only is this rag trying to turn it into a scandal that it's not, they can't even get Francesca's acting credit right. Sex Education and Bad Education are incredibly different shows. There are black female actors in Sex Education but Vanity Fair sure can't tell the difference between them and her.

"Unnamed cast member"? Is it that they think we're really stupid, or that it's actually not people complaining about the black Juliet, and they want to make it look like it is?

How bizarre...

A story about a grown man loving a little girl? That's fine. Make one of them have a different skin color than me and hoo boy do we have a problem (/s)

Not really a big deal but it's funny that this variety article and all the other people reporting on this are using the same line of Francesca being from sex education when she's not lol. She's from bad education. It seems like so many websites are just copying from the same source and so they all have the same mistake

Romeo+Juliet is the perfect story for a mixed-race couple, given that the story is about the original is about how their relationship isn't accepted by their families. Also for any other kind of relationship dipshit assclowns hate.

Maybe it would help a little to stop fucking remaking shit so much.

I dont have a problem with this. Its a play. Its up to thw director and the actors to interpret the script in their owns ways. I do have a problem with the disney mermaid thing but only because those are movies. Movies are a one off thing. Stop remaking the same movies with race swapped characters and instead make new movies that are inclusive.

Ok sure. But is it a lot of people, or is it some randoms on Twitter? And they use it as publicity.

Honestly. Who gives a fuck about a new Romeo and Juliet play anyways?

My bet is this is a publicity campaign to boost the interest for the film.

what is it their first day on the internet? Did their grandma write this article? Yeah no shit it must stop. So should the death threats for just existing as a woman and LBGTQ2+. have they tried reporting it to the mods? That’s essentially what the only recourse that has been suggested the past two decades for the rest of us.