“We see you.” That’s a person message more than 800 Black artists amplified in an open up letter supporting “Romeo & Juliet” star Francesca Amewudah-Rivers.
A further concept? “The racist and misogynistic abuse directed at these types of a sweet soul has been too a great deal to bear.”
On Tuesday, British actor Susan Wokoma and writer Somalia Nonyé Seaton revealed their community reaction to the on the net abuse bordering Amewudah-Rivers and her remaining solid in an impending generation of “Romeo & Juliet.” The open up letter touts signatures from hundreds of Black actors like Marvel’s Lashana Lynch, “Lovecraft Country” star Wunmi Mosaku and Oscar nominee Marianne Jean-Baptiste.
In late March, Amewudah-Rivers announced on Instagram that she will share the phase reverse “Spider-Man” star Tom Holland in the Jamie Lloyd Company’s production of the William Shakespeare classic. The “Bad Education” actor’s casting was quickly satisfied with a split reaction in her Instagram opinions.
When some followers voiced exhilaration for Amewudah-Rivers’ change as Juliet Capulet (“This is outstanding Fran! So so very pleased of you”), other people weren’t as thrilled.
In the remarks segment, some trolls wrote that Amewudah-Rivers “is the worst casting ever for Juliet,” while yet another retorted, “but the character is white.” Whilst a pair of critics opted to use vomiting emojis to categorical their viewpoints, yet another employed a racial slur in their twist on the play’s title.
Additional than a week immediately after Amewudah-Rivers’s social media announcement, the Jamie Lloyd Enterprise launched a statement condemning the “barrage of deplorable racial abuse on line.” The missive did not name Amewudah-Rivers, but confirmed the reviews were toward a “member of our enterprise.”
“This ought to stop,” the missive said.
The organization praised its “remarkable” cast, reported it would offer assist and protection to its corporation “at all expenditures,” and wrote that it experienced no tolerance for abuse. The manufacturing of “Romeo & Juliet” will continue on to go ahead, the statement claimed.
Tuesday’s open letter slams the “twisted, hideous abuse,” noting that Black actors — precisely Black females — are typically subjected to racial abuse on line right after securing a “job on their personal.” In current many years, Lynch, Halle Bailey and Yara Shahidi are between the Black actors who have been subjected to racist trolls when they ended up forged in significant-profile roles.
Wokoma, Seaton and hundreds of signatories also named on the Jamie Lloyd Enterprise to prolong even further aid for Amewudah-Rivers, incorporating that “reporting is much too generally still left on the shoulders of the abused who are also then envisioned to advertise said show.”
The open letter finishes by instantly addressing Amewudah-Rivers and other Black women of all ages actors who have knowledgeable the “traumatic hurdle of misogynoir” although pursuing their craft. The letter also encouraged Amewudah-Rivers to get in the “joy” of her “Romeo & Juliet” function.
“Every tongue that rises up towards you will slide,” the statement reported, just before sending a parting take note to Amewudah-Rivers’s critics. “And to the keyboard warriors who sense irritation in Our visibility, cry on the world-wide-web all you want, but We are right here to remain.”
“Romeo & Juliet,” directed by Lloyd, commences its 12-week run in Could at Duke of York’s Theatre in London.
A consultant for Amewudah-Rivers did not right away reply to The Times’ ask for for comment on Tuesday.
