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‘Homeland’s’ David Harewood Clarifies ‘I Don’t Support or Condone Blackface’ After Interview Comments: ‘It Is a Grotesque Distortion of Race and Should Always Be Condemned’
'Homeland' actor David Harewood said that actors 'should be able to do anything,' including Blackface, though he warned 'it better be f---ing good.'
Speaking to The Guardian, Harewood, who also serves as president of prestigious British drama school the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, said: “We’re at this strange point in the profession where people go: ‘Oh, you can’t play that role because you’re not disabled, or you can’t play that because you’re not really from there.’ The name of the game is acting.” Last year, Harewood played white conservative William F. Buckley in a London West End production of “Best of Enemies.” “I knew the minute I walked on stage, 99% of the audience was thinking: ‘Why is he playing that?’ But by the end of it, everybody was going, ‘Fuck me, that worked really well!,’” Harewood told The Guardian. Last month, “Black Out” performances of “Slave Play” were slammed by U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s office as “wrong and divisive.” And earlier this month, Francesca Amewudah-Rivers, who was recently cast as Juliet in a London West End production of “Romeo & Juliet” alongside Tom Holland, was the subject of online racial abuse.
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