To an extent, the more recent trend of race swapping– which is when a character is played by an actor of a different race– is not a good thing. No, it is not simply because some white characters are being portrayed by talented actors who happen to be black or brown. Character’s skin tones being a little darker than someone expected it to be will never be the main problem of race swapping. However, the unreasonably vicious harassment and racial abuse the actors face by just playing a role is why the practice should be looked down upon in Hollywood.
In 2019, actress Halle Bailey was announced to be playing Ariel in the live action remake of “The Little Mermaid.” As soon as the news came out, the internet was ablaze, with numerous scathing YouTube videos, podcasts, tweets, discussion forums and posts about the fact that a black woman would play the red-haired, fair skinned mermaid.
The argument was mostly about the fact that Ariel is Danish, considering that the original story originated from Denmark. People felt that since Disney’s first telling of “The Little Mermaid” had taken inspiration from European architecture and elements, Ariel’s skin color should reflect it, and Bailey’s was just unrealistic. Of course, realism is the most important factor for any movie that strives for it.
However, it is obvious that was not what “The Little Mermaid” remake was going for, as the movie is simply about a singing mermaid who sold her voice to an evil octopus woman and swaps out her tail for a pair of legs— the farthest thing from real life. There is nothing even remotely realistic about the storyline, but that did not stop people from taking out their hatred onto Bailey.
There were countless of racist things said about Bailey, and comment sections on videos relating to the movie overtaken by racist users online. The slogan #NotMyAriel would define what people truly thought about the race swap, and the line would trend up until the movie was released. To this very day, Bailey still has to deal with the racial abuse of those online underneath her comment sections, especially on X.
Now, does any of this controversy seem worth it for one movie? Not at all, and that is the true worst part of race swapping in Hollywood. The constant harassment that black and brown actors are forced to take just because they played a character whose skin color did not match theirs is absurd.
There are so many stories similar to Bailey’s where actors face similar backlash due to a race swap, one of them being Francesca Amewudah-Rivers, who was announced to be taking part in the West End production of Shakespeare’s beloved play “Romeo & Juliet.”
Amewudah-Rivers was to play Juliet Capulet alongside Tom Holland, who was cast as Romeo Montague. As soon as this news dropped on Mar. 2024, the amount of racist commentary attacking her appearance and the color of her skin seemed to appear out of nowhere.
The entire discourse solely revolved around the fact that Amewudah-Rivers was too dark to play Juliet, and this gave people the justification to go on rants about Amewudah-Rivers and her blackness due to the fact that they did not appreciate her casting.
This hate does not just start at official casting either. Even actors who get rumored to play characters are attacked ruthlessly as well. For example, when rumors that Indian-American actress Avantika Vandanapu was set to play Rapunzel in a live action version of “Tangled” (2010), negative commentary about the casting decision were abundant online.
The casting of the film was “confirmed” when Vandanapu debuted blonde hair on her Instagram. However, the “casting” was just an online lie that was created to garner attention, but the discourse got to the point where some responded to this completely fictional casting with racism and hate.
There were comments on multiple social media apps who believed that an Indian woman should never play the part of a white character with long flowing blonde hair. Again, people tried to play the “realism” card since Rapunzel was first a German fairytale, and that her supposed casting should match the story’s background.
Vandanapu’s Instagram comment section was flooded with those who thought that she somehow “ruined” Rapunzel’s story with her nonexistent casting. If this was how people were acting when her role was never confirmed, it does not take much to imagine how harsher the backlash would be if it was actually true.
The only time that changing a character’s race is truly a problem is when the whole story relies on their skin color. Every single time a race swap is announced, people like to make the same exact comparisons— a white actor playing the parts of Princess Tiana or Black Panther… two characters whose stories actually rely on the color of their skin.
The whole reason that Princess Tiana could not buy her restaurant was because she was told that a woman of her background would not be able to run a business like that. It’s obvious that her “background” was referring to her skin color, considering the fact that “The Princess and the Frog” takes place in 1920s New Orleans, Louisiana. Thus, casting a white actress as Princess Tiana in a supposed live action movie would not make any sense. If Tiana were white, she would not have to struggle as much and there would not even be a story to be told anymore. The same with Black Panther, whose character was made to break stereotypes about black people following the Civil Rights Movement.
Black Panther gave black children a hero that they can identify with. The movie “Black Panther” (2018) was groundbreaking in the fact that black people were seen as wealthy and technologically advanced for once. Many recall the amount of black pride that they felt coming out of the theatres the first time they saw “Black Panther.” If the actors were race-swapped, then the story obviously would not hold any merit.
That is exactly where these comparisons fall short. A white actor playing any of these parts would make no sense because of the heavy storytelling of race in these movies. The only times race swapping should not be used is when race is of utmost importance.
There are many times where race just is not a huge factor— take the 2002 film “Lilo & Stitch” with the character Cobra Bubbles. In the movie, Cobra Bubbles is a former CIA agent turned social worker and who also happens to be black. Take away his blackness and absolutely nothing affects his character.
Courtney B. Vance has already been cast as Cobra Bubbles in the live action remake of “Lilo & Stitch,” but just about any actor of any race could have played that character. At the end of the day, Cobra Bubbles is just a social worker in a suit with shades. Throughout the movie, his race does not make for a huge plot point.
The problem with race swapping is almost always not because of the actual character’s skin tone being changed, unless if race is a significant factor for the character or if a movie is about a real person. What really makes race swapping a bad thing is what the actors have to go through playing these characters. When entertainment companies hire black or brown actors to play a white character, a lot of times they do not keep in mind the racial abuse that actors will have to take. To actors, this is a job that might allow them to get their foot in the door for future acting jobs in Hollywood.
To some, however, race swaps feel like a personal attack as soon as they see their favorite white characters be changed to a darker one. They deem black or brown actors inadequate to their white counterparts, when the only reason they got their race swapped roles was because these actors were found to be the best fit.
If companies are not ensuring that they can create a space for their actors to play characters that happen to be race swapped, what is the point of telling these stories in general? Racists will always remain on the internet, but that amount of harassment that is met with just doing a job will never be worth it.
