British actor starring as Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton re-opens Twitter debate

CORRECTION: This story was updated to better reflect the Twitter debate.

It only took minutes after Thursday’s release of the movie trailer for Judas and the Black Messiah, a film about Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton, for the hashtag #NotMyFredHampton to be born.

The tweets questioned the role of an iconic Black American figure was being portrayed not by an American, but by a British actor — Daniel Kaluuya.

Last year, while some Americans were thrilled to see a movie about the abolitionist Harriet Tubman, others thought that British actor Cynthia Erivo should not have been cast in the lead role, especially because she had made disparaging remarks about Americans.

“I hate to be that guy, but damn, aren’t there at least a few black American actors who coulda pulled this off?” Twitter user Jay @AverageBroShow wrote.

Kaluuya is cast as Hampton, a charismatic leader who sought to bring together African Americans, Latinos, whites, and Native Americans to fight white supremacy. FBI deemed him to be a radical and a threat.

Hampton was just 21 when he was killed Dec. 4, 1969, as he lay in bed sleeping. The predawn raid was carried out by the Cook County State Attorneys office, the Chicago police, and the FBI.

African American actor Lakeith Stanfield portrays the “Judas” character, informant William O’Neal, who gave Hampton a barbiturate the night before the raid.

Some Black Americans, including members of the American Descendants of Slavery, or ADOS, say they are speaking out because American actors keep getting locked out of films about Black American historic figures.

“It’s one thing if it was only happening occasionally,” said Amirah Lawson, a former Philadelphian and market research analyst who is active with ADOS in Atlanta. “But we can’t have any ADOS iconic movies done — unless they are starring British actors.”

Besides Erivo portraying Tubman last year, she said, British actors David Oyelewo and Carmen Ejogo starred as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King in Selma in 2014, and Chiwetel Ejiofor played Solomon Northup in 12 Years a Slave, released in 2013.

Lawson, also a cofounder of the National Coalition of Churches for Reparations, pointed out that Kaluuya has often said in interviews that British actors come to the United States because they are locked out of films in England. But when British actors come to the U.S., they freeze out Black Americans from major roles, she said.

Lawson also noted that actress Zoe Saldana, who is of Dominican and Puerto Rican descent, apologized earlier this week for darkening her skin and using a prosthetic nose to play the role of Nina Simone. “I should have never played Nina,” Saldana posted on Instagram on Tuesday.

Nicolas-Tyrell Scott, a Black British cultural writer for Okay Africa and other publications, predicted Kaluuya’s starring role would start a conversation again about British actors portraying Americans.

“Hollywood is the epicentre of acting across the board, so it’s not hard to anticipate why Black British actors are prioritising and succeeding over there at this time,” he wrote in an email to the Inquirer on Friday. “Pair that with the 3,500 film and TV professionals that signed an open letter to the UK film industry seeking to ‘end systemic racism’ and you see that there’s still so far to go with seeing Black faces on screen and a sufficient rate over here.

“However, when it comes to important and precious historical roles such as Fred Hampton, I understand why there’s a debate with a lot of African Americans about who should play such roles. I think this conversation is important and should happen outside of platforms such as Twitter, also, to allow for true dialogue on both sides of the spectrum.”

Entertainment Weekly reported that Shaka King, the film’s director and cowriter, unveiled the trailer during a panel for the virtual NABJ-NAHJ Conference on Thursday.

King said he was not at all reluctant to hire Kaluuya to portray Hampton. “I’d seen Daniel’s work in Get Out and Black Mirror, and I knew of his talent. Honestly, I knew he was the guy,” he said.

The movie has been promoted by Warner Bros. as coming in 2021 but with no release date.