I agree with SLJ to an extent, though I haven’t seen the movie to speak to this particular performance.

I think SLJ may have been inelegant, and his example (Get Out) isn’t the one I may have used to try and show the issue, but at its heart I really do agree with him, and just British actors (black or white) being cast in American roles in general, particularly actual historical figures.

This. There’s a streak of racism (and a touch of classism) in the casting of Black Brits who go to RADA over a Black kid from Rutgers drama school or who jumped from soap operas to films. To those bigoted white execs, Black Brits don’t sound “Black” and are seen as “classier” than us (even if they grew up in the worst…

He has a point, but I don’t think he’s quite nailing it home.

It’s a recent trend... but not a general one. If you look at black actors from the beginning of Hollywood to the millennium black male lead actors have been overwhelmingly African-American. In the nineties, there is an explosion of low-budget black films that catered black audiences in order to keep production costs…

Kinda agree. It’s difficult because they are still black men and women. However, if british actors are being selected over American actors because they are perceived to a be the more sophisticated negro by the powers that be then it’s a genuine problem.

I feel Samuel and I agree with him. Hollywood is no different than the rest of the US.

it is true.. her name is Cynthia Erivo and she ‘s set to play Harriet Tubman in a new biopic. Well I guess there are no talented African-American actresses to carry Tubman’s story. How crazy!

I love (and I think agree) with his sentiment, and I would not be surprised at all if it were true. There’s no question that Hollywood (and America by extension) generally doesn’t like how we African-Americans talk or act (hence our speech and behaviour constantly being reduced to stereotypes and tropes). This…

I agree with Samuel Jackson! What’s the deal with so many Black-brits playing the roles of African-American historical figures? Is the talent among Black Americans that lacking? I think Hollywood bigwigs feel less threatened by Afro-Brits, in that they are less burdened by the sting of the Black American experience.…

Definitely one of my favorite episodes from BM, and it was the first time I saw him. Glad to see him get more roles!

I’m dying from that, so you’re at least better than me.

That fucker must be making the rounds here. Dismiss is your friend; I am generous with it since anything that attracts Black people in large numbers is always trolled by racist pieces of shit.

That fuckhole should have been the aborted ones. I like dismissing him / or her. Racist people are sociopaths it’s clear as day.

I hear him. It reminds me of a few american based podcasts I listen to, that have done “the black story” but used Brits or black African to tell the AA experience. The stories remain compelling and yet there is a disengenuousness to the white hosts in these settings because I wonder - why didn’t you take on an AA…

It will be hard for people to not immediately take SLJ’s comments as us eating our own, so to speak, but there is truth to this perspective...I don’t really know nor am I interested in finding out exactly how much more ‘authentic’ the film would have been had an American black man played the main role, especially…

I’ve loved Daniel since he was Posh Kenneth on Skins. So I had no problem whatsoever with the lead role. A ton of talent has come from Skins 1st and 2nd season (UK) version. Although, I see a side to what Jackson is saying. There is still a disconnect with Hollywood and Black American actors. Many people on John’s…

“They think they’re better trained, for some reason, than we are, because they’re classically trained. I don’t know what the love affair is with all that. It’s all good,” Jackson went on to add.

I get where SLJ is coming from but Kaluuya nailed the role and made it real AF. An actor acts.

Ok. They got played. But when do WE take responsibility for the sorry state of OUR instituions? How much did we pay in terms of tuition to these colleges? Or do we strive to go Haavard, Yale or whatever HWCU’s we’ve been told was superior? We’ve come to believe that wypipple’s ice is colder and their water wetter. So…