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Did Billy Dee Williams ever get any serious flack for playing Harvey Dent?

posted 5 years ago by TMC-4 (19411)
40 replies | jump to latest

Since he was playing a character who was race-switched. There wasn't any social media back then so it was harder to gouge people's reactions to the changes that were going to be made and whom was in the movie (we all know about the initial controversy over Michael Keaton's casting as Batman).

I do recall on the special edition DVD, Billy Dee Williams did bring up the race issue. He said that something along the lines that if he could play the character to the best of his abilities (he said that he tried to model his interpretation of Harvey Dent on Adam Clayton Powell) then hopefully people would overlook his ethnicity. I don't think that people complained that much about Laurence Fishburne playing Perry White in Man of Steel since Fishburne is such a great actor with a commanding presence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hP6SB7BH3W4

I think that Marion Dougherty was really influential in casting Williams as Harvey Dent. She had also worked with Danny Glover on Lethal Weapon and she I believe, had to convince the director, Richard Donner that he was capable of playing Roger Murtaugh, even though the character was originally envisioned as a white guy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwB_5yxhsWk

And to be fair, Harvey Dent really isn't a comic character that's inherently defined by his ethnic background like say, Black Panther. And it isn't like what they awkwardly did with the 2015 Fantastic Four movie, where they had Michael B. Jordan (a black actor) play the traditionally Caucasian Johnny Storm, yet they still had a white actress (Kate Mara) play his sister, Sue. And I suppose that since Harvey Dent was a relatively obscure character (this was really his first major appearance in media outside of the comics, since Two-Face wasn't a part of the Adam West series from the '60s) at that point it would've been much easier to get away with race-switching then say with Alfred or Commissioner Gordon.

[–] mikethemartian (6064) 5 years ago

Wasn’t he barely in the movie? I just remember one scene with him.

[–] bozo_500 (12219) 5 years ago

I think people were pretty cool with Lando Calrissian as Dent

Its like you say with L Fishburne as Perry White , no one had issue that he was playing a traditional white character as he was a great actor and cool addition to the cast (Morpheous as Supermans boss)

Also its recently emerged that Zoe Saldana was considered as Lois for MoS and shed have probably been better than AA imo (in terms of that fierce/plucky attitude that you think of with Lois which ZS always seems to have in her movies)

[–] TMC-4 (19411) 4 years ago

I do recall people making a stink over Idris Elba playing Heimdall in the MCU.

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2010/apr/27/idris-elba-thor-race-debate

https://film.avclub.com/heimdall-can-t-be-black-14-casting-decisions-that-sp-1798240494

https://www.salon.com/2011/04/20/thor_casting_viking_movies_open2011/

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

I NEVER had a problem with Idris Elba as Heimdall. He is a GREAT actor, and he brought a real regal power to the warrior who is considered the third most powerful Asgardian, behind only Odin and Thor.

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

I wouldn't call him a great actor. He's been phoning it in since The Wire. That was as good as he ever was, and likely ever will be.

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

Your opinion, and you are entitled to it, but it isn't mine

[–] TMC-4 (19411) 4 years ago

Speaking of Lois Lane, I've said that I wanted to see Rashida Jones play Lois Lane in Superman Returns, even though she's biracial (her dad is Quincy Jones and her mom is Peggy Lipton). I based that more on the fact that she actually resembles Margot Kidder (since Superman Returns was presumably set in the same continuity as the Christopher Reeve movies) and she was also more charismatic of a performer than Kate Bosworth.

[–] bozo_500 (12219) 4 years ago

Bosworth had to be one of the worst casting choices in superhero movie history. A rare mishap in Singers usually excellent casting..

Its even more astounding as they had a Margot Kidder style Lois in the actual film in Parker Posey (Scream 3 was only 5 years before where she played Courtney Cox's character who was basically Lois Lane).

[–] TMC-4 (19411) 4 years ago

Kevin Spacey supposedly insisted that Bryan Singer cast Bosworth as Lois Lane. He had recently done this movie called Behind the Sea about Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee, and became extremely infatuated with her.

https://www.datalounge.com/thread/11167515-caught-beyond-the-sea-yesterday.-terrible-movie-but-whatever-happened-to

https://www.datalounge.com/thread/25915440-whet-kate-bosworth-

https://www.datalounge.com/thread/12853865-amy-adams-is-8-years-older-than-henry-cavill

https://books.google.com/books?id=DBaSCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT162&lpg=PT162&dq=beyond+the+sea+superman+returns+kate+bosworth+singer&source=bl&ots=lvp7PDz4fq&sig=ACfU3U3UPSlBMSFy26_GVIxAxWCmmm7m-A&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjUgcH5yIXpAhUSKKwKHc0hASc4ChDoATAAegQICRAB#v=onepage&q=beyond%20the%20sea%20superman%20returns%20kate%20bosworth%20singer&f=false

http://www.warpedfactor.com/2016/03/10-things-you-might-not-know-about_22.html?m=1

https://books.google.com/books?id=HCKfBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA183&lpg=PA183&dq=beyond+the+sea+superman+returns+kate+bosworth+singer&source=bl&ots=DdNiurbJDL&sig=ACfU3U2KB1YVobxb_inqb-KprOUX6qpOKA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiy94-0yYXpAhXJGM0KHYG7Ap44HhDoATAFegQIChAB#v=onepage&q=beyond%20the%20sea%20superman%20returns%20kate%20bosworth%20singer&f=false

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

Interesting, considering tha Spacey is gay.

[–] ducksoup (3933) 4 years ago

Parker Posey would nail Lois Lane so hard. Uh, that sounds different than I meant it, but I'll let it stand.

[–] Stratego (29249) 5 years ago

Nothing against Williams and I don't think it was a case of PC casting, but it's just stupid to change the race of a character or their appearance in any significant way.

[–] TMC-4 (19411) 5 years ago

It's interesting that come Batman Returns, there to the best of my recollection, aren't any people of color what so ever.

[–] Stratego (29249) 5 years ago

Hmm, you could be right. Burton has made some comments about how he doesn't really believe in PC diversity casting.

For what it's worth, I think it would've been better to get Williams back as Dent, then cast Walken in a non-canonical role.

[–] TMC-4 (19411) 4 years ago

I'm sure that there are people out there who are going to complain about the castings of Zoe Kravitz and Jeffrey Wright as Catwoman and Commissioner Gordon respectively in the upcoming Robert Pattinson version of Batman.

[–] Stratego (29249) 4 years ago

Yeah, but unlike Williams, that's clearly a case of PC casting, especially Kravitz.

[–] TandyMan (10364) 5 years ago

Me and my friends were kids back then and we didn't even notice. At the time, I didn't even know Harvey Dent was the same person as Two-Face. He was just some guy in the movie.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Same with me. Couple that with the fact that the internet and social media wasn't a thing at that point that it really wasn't talked about at except within comic book circles.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

[deleted]

[–] kwestmo (4114) 5 years ago

Billy Dee Williams was a beloved actor at the time. No one cared.

[–] kwestmo (4114) 5 years ago

There was flack over Keaton being cast.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

No one cared, because Generation X weren't a bunch of assholes who screeched, "OMGERD A BLACK PERSON SJW WOKE CULTURE FORCED DIVERSITY." Neither were Boomers, for that matter, because you won't find one Boomer who bitched and complained about Cat Woman being played by Eartha Kitt or a Cuban playing Joker.

No one complained about Morgan Freeman in The Shawshank Redemption, either. (His character, IIRC, was an Irish guy in the book.)

[–] Ratman (126) 4 years ago

Funny you say that considering there was a petition trying to stop Michael Keaton from being Batman.

To be honest, the only ones that really kick up a fuss about casting are hardcore comic book readers as nothing seems to fit with the vision of what they want a character or story to be like. A majority of audiences just sit back and enjoy.

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

I DEFINITELY am not complaining about Morgan Freeman being cast in my favorite drama film. Without his narration "The Shawshank Redemption" wouldn't have been half as good!