TORONTO -- An Israeli actress famous for playing 鈥淲onder Woman鈥� has stirred fresh controversy announcing her plans to portray Egyptian queen Cleopatra on screen, a casting choice some critics have dubbed 鈥渢one deaf.鈥�
Gal Gadot, who was born to Israeli parents with the original surname 鈥淕reenstein,鈥� tweeted Sunday that she has teamed with 鈥淲onder Woman鈥� director Patty Jenkins 鈥渢o bring the story of Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, to the big screen in a way she鈥檚 never been seen before.鈥�
鈥淲e hope women and girls all around the world, who aspire to tell stories will never give up on their dreams and will make their voices heard, by and for other women,鈥� the actress, who is credited as a for the film, wrote online.
Some Twitter users were quick to criticize the casting choice, some calling it 鈥溾�� and pointing out that Cleopatra was an African ruler and thus should be played by a person of colour.
鈥淭he casting of Gal Gadot is just another stroke in the long history of white-washing and the legacy of colonial Egyptology that strives to sever all connections between Egyptians (widely defined) and the history of their land,鈥� .
Cleopatra鈥檚 skin colour has long been a topic of discussion and debate in research and online, though her ancestry is known to be Greek with some Persian and Syrian, according to scholars. Though researchers are uncertain of her mother鈥檚 identity, her father was Ptolemy XII Auletes, a king of the Ptolemaic dynasty, a Macedonian Greek royal family.
It鈥檚 not the first time this year that the 鈥淲onder Woman鈥� actress has been implicated in a 鈥渢one deaf鈥� controversy online. In March, Gadot helped recruit fellow celebrities to produce a group cover of John Lennon鈥檚 鈥淚magine鈥� as a kind of 鈥渨e鈥檙e all in this together鈥� inspirational video in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was swiftly ridiculed for being cringe-worthy and unhelpful. In a new Vanity Fair cover story, Gadot said she 鈥渉ad .鈥�
Regarding her intentions for the upcoming Cleopatra project, Gadot tweeted that she wanted to bring the ruler鈥檚 story to the screen in a new way: 鈥淭o tell her story for the first time through , both behind and in front of the camera.鈥�
