Cheating Black Actors. Eddie Murphy is up to his old tricks again, stealing roles from other black actors by playing multiple roles himself. His new comedy, Norbit, stars Eddie Murphy as the male lead and Eddie Murphy as the female lead. Why?
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What is his problem that he can't share?
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Are there so many roles for black actors and actresses (yes, you heard it: I used the forbidden word "actress"; and I'll do it again!) that it makes no difference if one gloryhound egotist plays multiple roles in several films? What is Murphy's problem?
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Is he perhaps acting out a low-level multiple-personality disorder? Does he need to flesh out (well, foam-rubber out) his "feminine side"? Well, he has also played a white, Jewish character. Does he need to feel white or Jewish?
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I don't "get it", and won't see any film in which Eddie Murphy steals plum roles from other black actors/actresses (ohmigod he said "actress" again!).
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Are we supposed to be blown away by the massive, monumental eg... talent of the man? I'm not impressed. Acting is not, after all, rocket science or high art. George Burns (a white, Jewish actor who himself played a double role on occasion, but not in a dress) once said, "The secret of acting is sincerity. If you can fake that, you've got it made." Fake sincerity is not unique to acting. Car salesmen and con artists are expért at it.
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If Eddie Murphy is so desperate to impress, why doesn't he do Shakespeare? Oh, wait, IMDB.com says he has a Shakespearean (semi-Shakespearean? pseudo-Shakespearean?) project in the works, a retelling of the Romeo and Juliet story from the point of view of the parents. Hm. No, he needs to do something heavy, like Othello (never mind that Moors were for the most part not black but white North Africans). How about giving some serious black actors and, yes, actresses (oh no! not again!) a chance to strut their stuff too, in an all-black rendition of Hamlet or King Lear? No British accents, however, please. Hamlet was Danish, not English, and King Lear is based on a man from pre-Roman, and thus pre-Anglo-Saxon Britain. There was no English language and thus no British accent in Britain before the Romans arrived, and the Romans arrived before the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Danes who contributed to modern English.
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Share the wealth, Murphy. Give some other black actor, or (no! he wouldn't dare say it again!) actress (JEEZ!) a chance.
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(The current U.S. military death toll in Iraq, according to the website "Iraq Coalition Casualties", is 3,024 — for Israel.)




- posted by L. Craig Schoonmaker @ 2:56 PM