The second season of Wolf Hall has created headlines in the UK for its diverse casting — and the latest to speak out is an ancestor of one of the Tudor drama’s characters.
Journalist Petronella Wyatt has written a column in The Daily Telegraph questioning the “absurd” decision to cast Egyptian-born Amir El-Masry as Yorkshireman Thomas Wyatt.
The character was played by Slow Horses star Jack Lowden in Season 1 of the BBC/PBS Masterpiece drama, which premiered in 2015.
Wyatt praised The Crown star El-Masry’s acting credentials, but said color-blind casting for a story rooted in British history was tantamount to “cultural appropriation.” She said Thomas Wyatt, a 16th-century English politician credited with inventing the sonnet, had “never been east of Calais” in his lifetime. “I appreciate that it is the job of actors to act, and I have no theoretical quarrel with his being played by Mr El-Masry, who is a fine actor,” Wyatt wrote. “But diverse casting, if it is to work at all, must have a logical grounding, particularly in an adaptation of a novel that prides itself on historical authenticity.” She added: “If the logic of modern casting was followed across the board then white actors should also be given roles on the basis of colour-blindness.
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