There’s a new hot biopic in development about the lives of professional tennis superstars Venus and Serena Williams. But surprisingly, instead of the young tennis players being the main characters of their own story, the lead appears to be Will Smith, who will play the girls’ father Richard Williams, according to Deadline. And people are not happy about it at all. However, probably not for the reasons you might think.
Normally, Will Smith attached to a film would be the cause of celebration. He’s not the best actor on the planet, obviously. Far from it. However, he’s a charismatic lead that is able to take any film that he’s part of and turn it into a blockbuster. So, if you’re a fan of the Williams Sisters, you would assume that Smith would be a great choice to play the ambitious, motivated (almost to a scary extent) patriarch of the family, Richard Williams, in the film, titled “King Richard.” However, there are some people online that are upset at the casting choice and crying foul.
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Just a quick glance at Twitter, and you’ll find many film fans, critics, and pundits criticizing the casting choice of Smith. People like Playlist contributor Valerie Complex, who simply tweeted, “colorism at work…”
For those not aware, what Complex and many others are referring to is the problem of colorism in the casting of Black actors. To put it in its most basic terms, colorism is the prejudice against folks of the same race due to their skin tone. If you’ve seen a picture of Richard Williams, it’s obvious that the man has a darker skin tone than Will Smith. For years, people have pointed out Hollywood’s penchant for hiring lighter-skinned folks for high-profile Black roles.
In fact, the opposite thing was brought to light recently with Marvel Studios’ “Black Panther,” which was praised for its inclusion of Black actors and actresses of all skin tones, without any apparent prejudice. While he was loved in the aforementioned superhero film, Chadwick Boseman, on the other hand, also received backlash as he was chosen to portray Thurgood Marshall in the biopic “Marshall.”
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Perhaps the most recent, and highest profile, example of colorism was brought to light in the wake of the recent biopic “Nina.” The film, which starred Zoe Saldana as legendary singer Nina Simone, received intense backlash after it was revealed that the actress wore makeup to darken her skin for the role.
Since the casting was just reported, and not even made official, there’s no comment from Will Smith about the backlash.
colorism at work…. https://t.co/YsxlKjDVoh
— valerie complex (@ValerieComplex) March 4, 2019
Colorism matters..love will Smith but there are other black actors for this role https://t.co/qrV1QuBiJH
— Clarence Hill Jr (@clarencehilljr) March 5, 2019
https://twitter.com/CandisRMcLean/status/1102736552613027840
Why is he always cast in roles portraying dark skin men like there aren’t tons of black actors that would make more sense for the role? https://t.co/1VcZyCmwTK
— BFFR (@so_rudez) March 5, 2019
https://twitter.com/ira/status/1102721706462863360
Just like Chadwick shouldn’t have played Thurgood Marshall, Will should not play Richard
Skin color matters in how folk were treated and navigated spaces. Is Alexandra Shipp playing Venus? https://t.co/iNtikcsIoT
— George M Johnson Garçon (@IamGMJohnson) March 4, 2019
