Posts tagged race in hollywood

In the 1989 Batman movie, Harvey Dent was actually black, played by Billy Dee Williams. He took the minor role in the movie because he wanted to play Two Face a sequel he was given a pay or pay contract to guarantee this. But his character got deleted in the sequel Batman Returns and then they actually paid him the penalty fee so they could cast Tommy Lee Jones as Two Face in Batman Forever.

They originally considered Marlon Wayans play a black Robin in Batman Returns but his character was cut out along with Williams. He was formerly signed to play the Riddler in Batman Forever but they then later decided to pay him out so they could recast the roll. He actually still gets royalties from the film he was not even in. 

They would actually rather pay black actors not be in the movies rather than let a character be black. Racist casting is unfortunately nothing new to the batman franchise. 

This is Catwoman in animated moviein 2011 Batman: Year One

She was white in the original comics from the 1940’s. However we shouldn’t really use that as a basis. Here in 2011 we see a racially ambiguous Catwoman and indeed, there isn’t really anything to see she couldn’t be black. Unfortunately when you have a character that is racially ambiguous, Hollywood is going to make them white 95% of the time, unless it is a really minor role at which point they might toss it too a minority actor so people don’t think they are being racist. 

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foodieamazon addendum: (who WASN’T white in the original comics from the 40’s ;D )

Also, the name Selina (and variations thereof) has been a popular enough Latina girl name that it’s not unreasonable to assume that a character named “Selina Kyle” wouldn’t just be white.