Egypt Lawyer Calls for Netflix Ban Over Biracial Cleopatra Casting

• Egyptians have complained about a Netflix show that has a biracial actress playing Cleopatra.
• Archaeologist Zahi Hawass said it was inaccurate, and one lawyer called for Egypt to block Netflix.
• One expert told Insider that Cleopatra probably wasn’t Black, but questioned if that matters here.

An Egyptian lawyer is asking for Netflix to be banned in his country after it was revealed that Cleopatra will be played by a biracial woman in an upcoming series.

UK actress Adele James, who is dark-skinned, was cast as the historic queen in “African Queens: Queen Cleopatra,” streaming on Netflix in May.

Egyptian lawyer Mahmoud Al-Sedary filed a complaint with the public prosecutor, saying that the show violates Egypt’s media laws.

He said that the streaming service “promotes Afrocentric thinking … which includes slogans and writings aimed at distorting and erasing the Egyptian identity,” the BBC reported. 

A leading Egyptian archaeologist also objected, claiming the casting of a dark-skinned woman misrepresents Egyptian identity and history.

Zahi Hawass denied that Cleopatra was Black in an interview with Egyptian newspaper Al Masry Al-Youm, saying that her Greek origins mean she would be light-skinned. 

Hawass is considered a celebrity in archaeological circles, and a figure of national pride for many Egyptians.

“Netflix is trying to provoke confusion by spreading false and deceptive facts that the origin of the Egyptian civilization is Black,” he said, per the BBC’s translation.

A February article about the show on Netflix companion site Tudum discussed the casting as “a nod to the centuries-long conversation about the ruler’s race.”

In a comment to Insider, show spokesperson Katie Greenaway said that their researchers argue that Egypt in Cleopatra’s time was “multi-cultural and multi-racial according to modern-day ways of thinking,” and that “Cleopatra herself may have been of mixed heritage.”

The questions of her ethnicity means “people are all the more fascinated by her,” she said. 

But social media accounts for the show’s producers, Westbrook and Nutopia, have been flooded by comments objecting to the casting.

And James, the actress, has shared racist and abusive messages she received on Twitter.

She responded by saying: “If you don’t like the casting don’t watch the show. Or do & engage in (expert) opinion different to yours.”

In 2018, Egyptian-American journalist and cultural commentator Mona Eltahawy wrote for The Washington Post celebrating the depiction of Egyptian goddess Bast as a Black woman in “Black Panther.”

But she said that anti-Black racism would be a major factor in the movie’s reception in Egypt. 

Contemporary Egypt has a significant Black minority, notably Nubians, who are estimated to number around three million. 

When it comes to Cleopatra, Egyptologist and archaeologist Dr Wojciech Ejsmond, from the Polish Academy of Sciences, told Insider that “there is a general consensus amongst scholars that [she] was not Black.”

He said that most existing depictions of the queen show her looking Greek. “Her father was a Ptolemaic king and the family came from Macedonia — so they were something like Greeks,” Ejsmond said.

However, this isn’t conclusive because the identity of Cleopatra’s mother isn’t known, he added.

For Ejsmond, the casting is not controversial. He said there’s “nothing wrong with showing her with a dark complexion” in a fictional show.

“Because honestly we do not know … it’s possible,” he added. “We’re not sure how dark [she was] but, why not? It’s just a TV series.”