Dofs Posted December 27, 2014 Share Posted December 27, 2014 I wonder the same thing. Ancient Egyptians probably looked different than they do now and they obviously weren't white. I saw a video with a gentleman who was very upset at the fact there were no black actors playing Africans. As I know, the modern Egyptian christians - copts retain the most genes with ancient Egyptions, they even speak their own language - coptic that is a direct descendant of Ancient Egyptian. And these copts are very whitish. And even other Egyptians are not really that much different from the ancient ones. Although there was undoubtedly an arab influence, surely it couldn't be so big that it would drastically change a look of the entire nation. Even from a logical point of view, people from the left of Egypt weren't black, people from the right of Egypt weren't black, surely ancient Egyptians weren't black either. There were black people in Egypt obviously, but they were Nubians, not actual Egyptians. There is a lot of whining in the internet from blacks that whites stole their ancient Egyptian civilization, lol, but I see it just a desire to have a meaningful ancient civilization in their history. But they should look to Nubia instead and not to Ancient Egypt. Egyptians were never black, Nubians were. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Batbob45 Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 Tara Fitgerald was did good playing moses' sister. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pikachu101 Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 And yeah, having Moses played by Christian friggin Bale in all his Welsh accented glory is as silly as, say, having Napoleon played by a japanese. But it's about the quality of acting :rolleyes: Btw guys Egyptians aren't black or white they're ARAB. But you know Hollywood thinks they can get away with tanning some white guy and deciding he's s PoC. I have yet to see an Arab play Jesus, why Hollywood thinks ancient Palestine's indigenous people were all white Europeans is beyond me.Would love to see how people would react if they got an Asian girl, put a wig on her, powdered her face and decided she's perfect for the role of Marie Antoinette. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antonius Pius Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 Saw this movie a few weeks ago. It did absolutely nothing for me. God as a little boy was ludicrous, and the arguments and bickering between God and Moses seemed completely out of place. I have no idea what Scott had in mind with this movie; it's an odd take on the biblical tale (God and his influence is almost taken out of the story), and I just can't figure what Scott is trying to say here. Joel Edgerton played Rameses, by the way, and I didn't recognize him. I thought he was of semitic origin, untill I read his name on the credits. I suggest sticking to Prince of Egypt, which is much better. ....why Hollywood thinks ancient Palestine's indigenous people were all white Europeans is beyond me. It's probably more cynical than that: the big studio's probably think there won't be enough white people coming to pay to watch a movie if the lead (especially a character like Jesus) isn't someone "like them". An Arab Jesus would be too exotic for them, no matter how much more logical as a choice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pikachu101 Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 It's probably more cynical than that: the big studio's probably think there won't be enough white people coming to pay to watch a movie if the lead (especially a character like Jesus) isn't someone "like them". An Arab Jesus would be too exotic for them, no matter how much more logical as a choice.Fox News would probably call it left wing propaganda to make Jesus look like a terrorist :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Scot A Ellison Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 Pikiachu101,Btw guys Egyptians aren't black or white they're ARAB. But you know Hollywood thinks they can get away with tanning some white guy and deciding he's s PoC.Today most Egyptians are Arab but this film's time period pre-dates the Arab conquest of Egypt by more than a thousand years. That said I don't think ancient Egyptians looked like Northern Europeans. But there is nothing to suggest they were Arabs before the Arab conquest in the 13th Century. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pikachu101 Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 Today most Egyptians are Arab but this film's time period pre-dates the Arab conquest of Egypt by more than a thousand years. That said I don't think ancient Egyptians looked like Northern Europeans. But there is nothing to suggest they were Arabs before the Arab conquest in the 13th Century.What do you think they looked like then? All I'm saying is that if you're going to do a film about Egypt then the least you can do is cast Egyptian actors. Says a lot when Night at the Museum and Twilight did a better job at this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Scot A Ellison Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 Pikachu101,I imagine they looked a lot like their depictions in heiroglyphs, which is not exactly "Arabic". But, again, I clearly acknowledge they didn't look like Europeans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matrim Fox Cauthon Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 What do you think they looked like then? All I'm saying is that if you're going to do a film about Egypt then the least you can do is cast Egyptian actors.Says a lot when Night at the Museum and Twilight did a better job at thisPart of the objection Scot is raising is that the ancient Egyptians were not technically Semitic. Ancient Egyptian history makes this point clear with the Semitic Hyksos people who ruled Egypt for a period. Ancient Egyptian and Coptic are non-Semitic languages, albeit ones closely related, geo-politically, to Semitic languages (e.g. Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic, Akkadian, etc.) as part of the larger Afro-Asiatic language family. What did ancient Egyptians look like? Hard to say. Egypt has been colonized and settled by all sorts of peoples and cultures over the past several thousand years (e.g. Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Turks, Jews, etc.). It has only been within the past one-hundred years that Egyptians have actually ruled Egypt after a LONG stretch (~2500 years) of foreign rule. So they probably looked like something between Northern African and West Asian Semitic peoples. For Hollywood though, Arab would have been a good choice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dofs Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 But it's about the quality of acting :rolleyes: Btw guys Egyptians aren't black or white they're ARAB. But you know Hollywood thinks they can get away with tanning some white guy and deciding he's s PoC. I have yet to see an Arab play Jesus, why Hollywood thinks ancient Palestine's indigenous people were all white Europeans is beyond me.Would love to see how people would react if they got an Asian girl, put a wig on her, powdered her face and decided she's perfect for the role of Marie Antoinette.Egyptians now speak Arab and most probably consider themselves as Arabs but historically Egyptians and Arabs are completely different people. And now as well Arabs from Egypt (who are just Egyptians) and Arabs from Saudi Arabia genetically are different people. But Ancient Egyptians still weren't Northern European white anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pikachu101 Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 But Ancient Egyptians still weren't Northern European white anyway. Dreamwork's Prince of Egypt is probably the closest Hollywood will ever get to casting Ancient Egyptians as PoC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bennis of the Brown Shield Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 The Fayum mummy portraits are pretty detailed pictures of Egyptians from the pre-Arab period, having been made during Roman times. https://www.google.se/search?biw=1366&bih=667&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=fayum+mummy+portraits&oq=fayum+mumm&gs_l=img.1.0.0i19l3.4209.5796.0.7311.10.8.0.2.2.0.133.594.7j1.8.0.msedr...0...1c.1.60.img..0.10.622.pE2S7YXRLHc http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fayum_mummy_portraits They look reasonably similar to modern day Egyptians to me. The period depicted in the movie was a lot earlier than this though, but it does indicate that the Arabs at least don't seem to have made a huge change to how people in Egypt look. As for the movie I think it was pretty okay. Really cool scenery if nothing else. Though it was a little silly to see people riding around on horses so much. One of the main reasons for using chariots so much back then was that their horse breeds weren't good for riding... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theda Baratheon Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 I try not to get too hung up about it though -especially with ancient egypt which was a melting pot of ethnicities anyhow. It's all very well and good saying that, but come on, the guy they cast as ramses is lily fucking white it's bloody ridiculous how they've just slapped on some guyliner on him Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pikachu101 Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 It's all very well and good saying that, but come on, the guy they cast as ramses is lily fucking white it's bloody ridiculous how they've just slapped on some guyliner on him :agree: Imagine the uproar and "historical accuracy" complaints if they got a black guy to play Julius Caesar? Did you see Scott's justification? Apparently no one would want to watch a film with PoC cast, well your film was box office flop anyway Ridley! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Aegon Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 :agree: Imagine the uproar and "historical accuracy" complaints if they got a black guy to play Julius Caesar? Did you see Scott's justification? Apparently no one would want to watch a film with PoC cast, well your film was box office flop anyway Ridley! Well it certainly would be hard to get founding for a multimillion dollar movie if your main actor is someone rather unknown. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theda Baratheon Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 I could understand (not agree with, mind, but understand) using one super famous (white) actor like Christian Bale in this movie. But why the hell did they not cast a north african/middle eastern actor for Ramses I do not know. Is whatevers his name even that big of an actor? I dont rly recognise him that much (even without the guyliner and jewels) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pikachu101 Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 Well it certainly would be hard to get founding for a multimillion dollar movie if your main actor is someone rather unknown.There are plenty of PoC actors, and as Theda Baratheon said; it's one thing to cast one white man and another to whitewash a whole civilisation. This is like the new Pan movie, a Native American auditioned for the role of Tiger Lily and they refused because they had already cast a white woman. Lupita Nyong'o auditioned for that role so it's not like they can use the "we wanted a famous actress" excuse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raja Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 I bet the average filmgoer has zero idea who Joel Edgarton is, he's the actor playing Ramses. Furthermore, it's not just the casting choices but the way Scott has come out and dealt with an issue. It's moronic. Edit: Edgarton was in The Great Gatsby and that one movie about boxing with Tom Hardy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Scot A Ellison Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 I like Edgerton but I understand the complaints. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myrddin Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 More importantly, he was Uncle Owen! :) I like Edgerton. He's able to become his characters, while Bale is often Bale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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