'Queen Cleopatra' Director Speaks Out Against Critics Of Egyptian Royal's Race in Netflix Mini-Series

Tina Gharavi is speaking out about portraying Cleopatra as black in the upcoming Netflix mini-series, Queen Cleopatra.

Past depictions of the ancient Egyptian royal show the Queen as light-skinned, and many have objected to the upcoming series, as Cleopatra is being portrayed by black actress, Adele James.

In a new interview, Tina revealed why the choice was made to portray Cleopatra as black, even as a lawyer in Egypt has filed a lawsuit against Netflix over her race.

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Many Egyptian scholars have claimed that Cleopatra was born of European descent, as historians have confirmed that she was Macedonian-Greek on her father Ptolemy XII‘s side. However, her mother’s origin is unknown.

The Egyptian lawyer who has chosen to file suit against the portrayal, Mahmoud al-Semary, filed it with the African nation’s public prosecutor and requested that Netflix be blocked in Egypt. His reasoning is due to the promotion of “Afrocentric thinking” including “slogans and writings aimed at distorting and erasing the Egyptian identity.”

In an essay for Variety, Tina argued for Cleopatra potentially being historically black: “Why shouldn’t Cleopatra be a melanated sister? And why do some people need Cleopatra to be white? Her proximity to whiteness seems to give her value, and for some Egyptians it seems to really matter.”

“I remember as a kid seeing Elizabeth Taylor play Cleopatra. I was captivated, but even then, I felt the image was not right. Was her skin really that white?” she went on. “With this new production, could I find the answers about Cleopatra’s heritage and release her from the stranglehold that Hollywood had placed on her image?”

Tina adds that historically, “we can safely say Cleopatra was Egyptian, [but] she was no more Greek or Macedonian than Rita Wilson or Jennifer Aniston. Both are one generation from Greece.”

“Perhaps,” she speculates over the outrage, “it’s not just that I’ve directed a series that portrays Cleopatra as Black, but that I have asked Egyptians to see themselves as Africans, and they are furious at me for that. I am OK with this.”

“So, was Cleopatra Black? We don’t know for sure, but we can be certain she wasn’t white like Elizabeth Taylor. We need to have a conversation with ourselves about our colorism, and the internalized white supremacy that Hollywood has indoctrinated us with.”

Queen Cleopatra will debut on Netflix on May 10.