Dwayne Johnson deemed not black enough to play John Henry

Ugh. Whatever. 1/2 black is black enough. Tons of black roles have gone to biracial women. It is fine for the same to happen with biracial men.

At least The Rock is not trying to hide from his blackness like Vin Diesel.

Can't makeup handle that?

R3: A few hours in the sun would handle that (black people tan FAST!)

Whitewashing!

John Henry was not a mixed race man...he was an African man. There is a difference.

R6: John Henry was African-American - not African, There is a difference there too.

Dwayne Johnson is black?

I thought Johnson was Samoan. Not that I want to buy into this argument, as I don't really understand American racial politics or how American racial categories work. They seem to change. Depending on [???]. And I'm probably offending someone just by voicing my confusion about it. So I'll stfu now.

He’s part black

R9> Mom Somoan, Dad black. This is old news.

I'm sure it is, R11 . I don't follow the guy that closely, just know he was in a few movies and been on The Footy Show.

Dear Lord in Heaven!

Antny Quinn wasn't Eyetalian, but he played the pope.

Can we just have Gay Native Americans who have converted to Judaism play all parts? I'm tired of everyone getting a color wheel out about casting.

Boycott?

It's not his skin, his head is too pointy. Just look at that square noggin on John Henry.

I saw this man's name in a list of potential John Henrys and didn't know who he was so I googled. He apparantly was in an A-team movie I never heard of... but Jesus i may be in love. He's 40 is an mma fighter, actor, and former wrestler.

I'd like to see more of him

Johnson isn't black at all, he's pacific islander. That's closer to Asian than black genetically. And people picture John Henry much darker than him when thinking about the folklore figure. It's not even just the skin color but John Henry also usually has a huge beard. Johnson can't grow something like that. Really you also want classic black facial features too.

This is absolutely a bad cast. The movie was probably going to be dreadful anyway so I can't get really get worked up about it but it absolutely is a nonsensical casting decision.

My bad I didn't know the rock was half black. But still he picked up none of the features from his father's side at all

How could you be so out Of touch not to know DWAYNE Johnson is black? Smh

R21 Him being part black doesn't really make him any more suited to the role. He still looks nothing like John Henry. It'd be like casting Johnny Depp as Santa Claus.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Terry Crews would have been a great cast

[quote] John Henry was not a mixed race man...he was an African man. There is a difference.

[quote] John Henry was African-American - not African, There is a difference there too.

John Henry is a folklore figure. There is no certainty about who or what he was.

He was apparently based on a real person for whom there is currently no factual documentation.

He might have been born in Africa, or born of pure-blooded black African descent in the United States, or he might have been mixed-race. No one knows and no one can know.

He is a mythic figure so you cannot say he was definitively one thing or another.

[quote] [R21] Him being part black doesn't really make him any more suited to the role. He still looks nothing like John Henry.

Yet again, how could you know since John Henry is a mythic figure?

People who care about this sort of thing are "art fascists".

They are generally very troubled, petty and disruptive types, and they bore me.

He's not black black

R26 That's idiotic. Going back to the example of Santa Claus, despite him not being real we somehow all know he's an old fat white man with a long bushy white beard.

John Henry exists as statues, pictures, and other art forms. And none of them look like the rock. Google his name and you will quickly find dozens of images

He's also African American, not African, pretty sure he's from West Virginia or some other part of Appalachia that wouldn't have African immigrants in the 1800s

I have no issue with this casting. Now that's out of way. I will assume that most of the posters on this thread are white. Many white people just see black and they don't understand this, but within the black community skin color, tone, shade is an issue. Black people notice this kind of thing in casting. I still remember black people not being happy that Denzel Washington was cast as Malcom X because he was too dark. Blacks had issues with the casting of Zoe Saldana as Nina Simone.

Look at it this way, what if a movie was being made about some gay figure and in real life the gay figure was more masculine and butch acting and they hired Ross Matthews to play the role. Now there is nothing wrong with Ross Matthews or gay men who are a little more on the effeminate side, but Ross Matthews playing that role is not really authentic.

[quote] John Henry exists as statues, pictures, and other art forms. And none of them look like the rock. Google his name and you will quickly find dozens of images

And they do not look like one another because, once again, he was a mythic figure.

[quote] He's also African American, not African, pretty sure he's from West Virginia or some other part of Appalachia

You just pulled all this out of your ass.

R30 I'm black and against the casting. But you summed that up quite nicely. Brava

[quote] Various locations, including Big Bend Tunnel in West Virginia, Lewis Tunnel in Virginia, and Coosa Mountain Tunnel in Alabama, have been suggested as the site of the contest.

Got that right off the top of his Wikipedia page. R31 Just because you are stumbling into this from a starting point of complete ignorance of the topic, isn't reason enough to assume the information isn't out there. A quick google search would do you a world of good before engaging on this.

The John Henry entry on wikipedia, that makes it clear that a) he is a folklore character, b) no one agrees where he was originally from or where his famous contest occurred, and c) no one knows anything factually about the original John Henry if there even was one.

LMAO did you read the page R34?

[quote][quote] Various locations, including Big Bend Tunnel in West Virginia, Lewis Tunnel in Virginia, and Coosa Mountain Tunnel in Alabama, have been suggested as the site of the contest.

[quote] Got that right off the top of his Wikipedia page.

That directly contradicts your claim above that you are "pretty sure he was from West Virginia"--the contest could have been in any of the three states, or elsewhere since no one knows for sure. And there is no information about where he was originally from.

[quote] pretty sure he's from West Virginia or some other part of Appalachia

No twat, here's what I said. All three of those states are Appalachia.

I pictured John Henry somewhat like this..

Some of you forget where you are, this is the United States.

Drop Dwayne Johnson in the middle of a Klan rally and ask them whether he's Black enough.

Yes, perhaps, but thank goodness the KKK doesn't cast major motions pictures.

If it's anything like a lighthearted romp, as it should be, Terry Crewes would be perfect. I don't know why he generally isn't considered for big screen roles.

He's got "star" written all over him.

Johnson makes piles of money for the money boys. He gets the part.

Johnson is producing it, of course he cast himself.

Ucch, the Rock. His sell by date has past. I'm tired of his schtick already. I'm gonna assume that in this version of John Henry, he leaps from locomotives and off of tall buildings and dodges hundreds of gunfighters to save the world and fall in love. Also he makes amends with a long lost child.

Dwayne Johnson can't act. He is a personality, on and off screen.

Will Dwayne Johnson show peen?? I'll support his decision to portray JH if he does.

Can they include a sexy gay love interest in this adaptation??

They should get Michael Jai White to play him.

Will Johnson's ego allow him to step aside and let the role go to someone else??

I do not have license to comment since I am white. Enjoying the comments.

R49 of course you can comment. Just don't tell black people how they are allowed to feel about this like the poster way above.

Mike Colter from Luke Cate would be a good choice.

Wait - THIS John Henry?

I just pictured John Henry like that as well, R38.

With a bit of recovery time, I shall picture John Henry like that again.

[quote] If it's anything like a lighthearted romp, as it should be,

Stop talking out of your ass, moron.

"Heigh-ho! I've exploded my heart by proving myself the superior of automation, and I shall now die a hideously painful death! What a light-hearted romp this all has been!"

[Quote] It'd be like casting Johnny Depp as Santa Claus.

Lol i would love to see that.

[Quote] They should get Michael Jai White to play him.

Now there's a name i haven't heard in over a decade.

Idris Elba

Winston Duke of Black Panther fame has had his name thrown out there for the role. 6'4" and 31 years old.

Here he is with DL fave, Timothee Chalamet

Forgot the link

Nothing against the Rock but he really does seem like a bad choice for this physically. He DOESN'T look black enough to be honest. He looks Samoan and not at all similar to the average slave.

John Henry wasn't a slave.

The Rock always says he's racially ambiguous, but I've always seen him as just another typical samoan man.

Still fine AF, and he could get it. But so could most samoan men

Well that Daily Mail article describes him as a "former slave" but they've been known to be wrong like...all the time.

Michael James Shaw was born to play this role. He could definitely be built into a major star if given the chance.

The rock really should step aside on this one. He is not the right look for the role. This is the perfect part for Michael James Shaw.

He was in the remake of roots in 2016 which is a period piece. And he definitely fits the look of a john henry type.

Google him and I bet everyone will agree that he should play john henry instead of the rock.

Has Dwayne addressed the controversy over his casting?

99% of the moviegoing public will not give a shit, be they black or white. If it looks good, they’ll see it. Maybe this will inspire someone to make another movie with a darker man, who knows.

People need to mute social media. It is so petty. Legit slave labor is a thing these days still, and what do people do? They use the product of that slave labor to bitch on the internet about the most insignificant inanities while taking a shit on their lunch break.

I still say Michael James Shaw is perfect for the role. I don't like out sourcing in the movies.

The Rock isn't right for the role period!

R29 - Okay, so mythical John Henry is black. And, again, what's wrong with Dwayne Johnson playing him? Hollywood has no problem reversing this phenomenon when it comes to "Well, it's MYTHICAL so the character can be played by ANYONE...!!!"

Case in point, google the Nutcracker, or Russia (the scenic cultural backdrop), and see if that matches up to this latest and greatest movie casting...

[quote]Dwayne Johnson deemed not black enough to play John Henry

Well he's NOT black enough - I thought he was Polynesian. Strictly a vanity project of Dwayne.

For the record, he's half Black and half Samoan.

R68 Not the same thing for two reasons.

1) The nutcracker has been adapted with race appropriate casting thousands of times. Anyone can see a version of that at any time they choose. But John Henry and other black stories are adapted extremely rarely, so there is more of an emphasis on "getting it right" because it's not like it will be adapted again anytime in the next several decades most likely

2) White people are well represented in a wide variety of movies. This is less true for people of other races. If you assume that film representation should roughly equal population demographics, then the Nutcracker adaptation is pushing things in the right direction.

R71 -

The Nutcracker is a European fairytale with a ballet by Russian composers and artists. Changing that is surely cultural appropriation, no?

And again, staying on topic of John Henry, given that Dwayne Johnson actually IS black, why is he not "black ENOUGH" to be cast in this way?

R72 Whether something is cultural appropriation or tasteful depends entirely on what the movie actually turns out like, so we have to wait and see. Fwiw, I think the term cultural appropriation is thrown out too much and plenty of tasteful things are attacked. I assume you agree with that

On Dwayne, some people are annoyed because he doesn't look like a black person (it's had to be pointed out that he's black multiple times on the thread because no one can tell). And most importantly he doesn't look like John Henry would have looked. Meghan Markle is half black, she would also fall under attack if she was playing Harriet Tubman because her skin is far too light for that.

And again, there are MANY versions of the Nutcracker you can watch with a full Russian cast. There are no live adaptations of John Henry. So pretty obvious it's okay to experiment with one more than the other

Why didn't anyone call me?

Or Michael James Shaw? Again, he really would be good in the role.

This is crazy because he is half black. So what if hes light skin. John Henry is a cartoon, not a real person. This is colorism at its finest. The black community can be so insufferable sometimes.

Dennis Haysbert is or would have been a perfect John Henry.

R76 The rock doesn't even identify as black. He always seem to go into the opposite direction.

He's definitely not black. He doesn't look it at all. It needs to go to a genuinely black man. Not the rock.

He identifies as black. Stop speaking on what you don’t know.

Dwayne as Ebony cover star

Dwayne Johnson is Forbes' highest paid male actor in the world

[quote]Can't makeup handle that?

"Light Egyptian" gave me Lena's complexion (and role)

hey, what about me? am i black enough?

[quote] Blacks had issues with the casting of Zoe Saldana as Nina Simone.

I'm an old white guy who was fortunate to see Simone perform live several times. and I had a problem with this casting as well. I think Simone's skin tone had a major influence on her life and her art.

When she wrote, and sang the very powerful "Four Women" there was no doubt that she was Aunt Sarah

My skin is black

My arms are long

My hair is woolly

My back is strong

Strong enough to take the pain

inflicted again and again

What do they call me

My name is AUNT SARAH

My name is Aunt Sarah

My skin is yellow

My hair is long

Between two worlds

I do belong

My father was rich and white

He forced my mother late one night

What do they call me

My name is SAFFRONIA

My name is Saffronia

My skin is tan

My hair is fine

My hips invite you

my mouth like wine

Whose little girl am I?

Anyone who has money to buy

What do they call me

My name is SWEET THING

My name is Sweet Thing

My skin is brown

my manner is tough

I'll kill the first mother I see

my life has been too rough

I'm awfully bitter these days

because my parents were slaves

What do they call me

My name is PEACHES

[quote]Johnson isn't black at all, he's pacific islander. That's closer to Asian than black genetically.

Fake News! Why can't I have one black friend? SAD!

Trevante Rhodes would be perfect.

surely with rhodes they would find a way to work in a nude scene,,,,what a waste otherwise

....