Oscar-winner Helen Mirren tore into the fascist cancel culture and the stupid uproar over her portrayal of former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in the film Golda.
Mirren isn’t Jewish, you see, so she’s not supposed to portray a Jew because that’s “Jewface,” which is like “blackface,” but directed at Jews.
A bunch of uptight babies got angry over Mirren’s casting, but Mirren was having none of it. In an interview with Radio Times, Mirren made one brilliant point after another.
She was first asked about comments made by the movie’s Gentile writer, Nicolas Martin, who said of the uproar: “I don’t feel like all this discussion about gentiles playing Jews is helpful. Helen’s job was to portray Golda authentically, which Golda’s family would say she has.” He added that a “leading Israeli historian said that Helen is ‘more Golda than Golda.’”
Helen Mirren as Golda Meir in Golda (Bleeker Street)
Martin continued: “Am I just supposed to write about middle-aged men living in south London?” He said there’s a “creeping authoritarianism” in the entertainment world that’s “very worrying.”
Of this, Mirren said, “I think, in a way, that it’s more frightening for a writer to be told they are not allowed to write about subjects with which they don’t have an immediate DNA connection.”
She added, “I imagine it must be very alarming. And ridiculous.”
When asked if she can understand why people are upset, she said, “I think I can see, but sometimes I can’t see because I can’t see who in this room is Jewish.”
And then she hit the nail directly on the head: “We are all such an amazing mix and, certainly, I don’t have an issue with Kirk Douglas playing a Viking – Kirk Douglas was Jewish.”
The film’s director, Guy Nattiv, said that Meir’s family asked that Mirren be cast as the former prime minister.
Breitbart’s Joel Pollak saw Golda and had no “Jewface” issues. “Mirren captured Meir perfectly — her political steel, her abrasive external nature, her internal sweetness and vulnerability,” he told me. “She became Meir onscreen, to the point where it became impossible to imagine anyone else in the role.”
An actress of Mirren’s stature, someone with countless employment options, choosing to portray someone respectfully is an honor.
It’s all so dumb and insidious, all this bullying around “cultural appropriation” and who can and can’t portray this or that culture. In a sane world, we are supposed to appropriate the best of everyone else’s culture. That’s the melting pot. That’s what brings us together. But the left doesn’t want us to come together. The left wants us nitpicking each other over sombreros and corn rows and mayonnaise.
If someone portrays another culture to mock that culture, no one thinks that’s okay. It’s also not okay when the portrayal is condescending with its dull, one-dimensional nobility. But there is nothing wrong with Paul Muni portraying a Chinese man in The Good Earth (1937). And there is soooo nothing wrong with Peter Sellers portraying an Indian man in The Party that the movie was a huge success in India.
These stupid criticisms have nothing to do with sensitivity and everything to do with keeping us apart and fabricating racism — and, by extension, division — where none exists.
John Nolte’s debut novel Borrowed Time is available to order, including Kindle and Audible. Amazon reviews are appreciated and helpful.