Alt Film Guide
Classic movies. Gay movies. International cinema. Socially conscious & political cinema.
Home International CinemaEuropean CinemaFrench Cinema Alexandre Dumas ‘Black’: Gérard Depardieu Too White to Play Him?

Alexandre Dumas ‘Black’: Gérard Depardieu Too White to Play Him?

Gérard Depardieu The Other Dumas
Alexandre Dumas
Gérard Depardieu as Alexandre Dumas (top); the real “black” Alexandre Dumas (bottom).
Ramon Novarro biography Beyond Paradise

Gérard Depardieu, one of the greatest icons of French cinema, has dismissed claims that he has been miscast as mixed-race author Alexandre Dumas in Safy Nebbou’s big-budget production The Other Dumas / L’Autre Dumas. In Depardieu’s words at the Berlin Film Festival on Friday, those arguments are “ridiculous” and “unnecessary,” while the issue itself is “not interesting” and “not a problem.” A number of reviewers had complained that Depardieu was “too white” for the role.

Additionally, France’s Representative Council for Black Associations has questioned the propriety of having the blond, blue-eyed Depardieu cast as the Three Musketeers author, the grandson of a Haitian slave who, according to the Council, was mocked because of his looks and would refer to himself as un nègre.

L’Autre Dumas puts in question the place of black and ethnically mixed actors in French cinema, for they cannot play any roles other than those of their type, whereas white actors, considered ‘universal’ actors, can play all sorts of characters irrespective of their appearance,” remarked Patrick Lozès, president of the Council for Black Associations.

“In 150 years time could the role of Barack Obama be played in a film by a white actor with a fuzzy wig?” Lozès asks. “Can Martin Luther King be played by a white?”

L’Autre Dumas, which opened last week in France, is a fictionalized account of the relationship between Dumas and his shy assistant Auguste Maquet (played by Benoît Poelvoorde), the man who has been credited for the plotting and drafting of much of The Count of Monte Cristo, Queen Margot, the Three Musketeers trilogy, and several other novels attributed to Dumas during the mid-19th century. Ironically, nègre is the word used to describe a ghostwriter in French.

The Council adds that “Possibly for commercial reasons they are whitewashing Dumas in order to blacken him further.” Yet, in real life Maquet eventually sued Dumas; French courts granted him 25 percent of the proceeds from the books, though no co-author credit.

“The vividness of Depardieu is the perfect embodiment of Dumas,” said L’Autre Dumas producer Frank Le Wita, defending the casting choice. “The subject is not le nègre, but la nègritude [ghost writing] in literature.”

L’Autre Dumas director Safy Nebbou is also of mixed-ethnicity. Nebbou explained that “it would have been a historic [sic] error to have chosen a mixed-blood actor … [Dumas] had blue eyes like Depardieu.”

An official statement reads that “it is true that Dumas was one-quarter black, but that also means he was three-quarters white,” adding that “if diversity … needs to be promoted, it shouldn’t be at the expense of artistic freedom, which has as its base analogies and metaphors, beginning with the choice of actors.” The statements concludes that “happily, film, like life, cannot be reduced to a matter of genetics.”

Quotes and chief sources: London Times, Associated Press, Le Point, Premiere

Recommended for You

Leave a Comment

*IMPORTANT*: By using this form you agree with Alt Film Guide's storage and handling of your data (e.g., your IP address). Make sure your comment adds something relevant to the discussion: Feel free to disagree with us and write your own movie commentaries, but *thoughtfulness* and *at least a modicum of sanity* are imperative. Abusive, inflammatory, spammy/self-promotional, baseless (spreading mis- or disinformation), and just plain deranged comments will be zapped. Lastly, links found in submitted comments will generally be deleted.

3 comments

Eduardo Delgado -

Es ridículo. Ya de hecho han tratado de blanquear las fotos. No fue suficiente,m Ahora ya dan por hecho que era blanco rubio y de ojos azules. Una verdadera payasada

Reply
MF -

Whitewash, huh? Did Dumas wear white makeup in this photo, or did Ada wear dark makeup?
fineartamerica.com/featured/alexandre-dumas-1802-1870-and-ada-granger.html

Reply
Joehoe -

Seriously ! France couldn’t find a mulatto to play the extremely iconic coloured personality of Mr.Dumas…… Stupid idiot Western movie industries in its full meatheaded glory.

Reply

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. If you continue browsing, that means you've accepted our Terms of Use/use of cookies. You may also click on the Accept button on the right to make this notice disappear. Accept Read More