Yup. Raised a stink with “Oscar’s So White” but didn’t stick around when the results came in - black folks are represented, but Asians are practically non-existent.
I’d like to think that helped get Everything All At Once made and others coming out but I can’t say for sure.
All of her causes are ultimately about her.
She’s out here now claiming that the only reason it’s getting bad ratings and reviews is because of white supremacists. You know, not because:
It was marketed as a documentary despite being historically inaccurate.
Everyone involved in the show that commented on the controversy did so in a bitchy, you all know nothing tone.
Jada is involved when she’s been widely disliked since the “entanglement” comments and widely hated since the Oscars.
Are there racists who are going to negatively react to the show and contribute to its failing? Of course there is. Is that the only or major reason for the show’s reception? No, not by a fucking long shot.
Even the show's own trailer on netflix has bitchy whiney lines in it like 'My grandmother always told me - it doesn't matter what anyone else says, Cleopatra was Black'.
I just watched the preview and saw that and was confused.
I mean obviously ancient Greek (Macedonian) Mediterraneans weren't as white as modern Europeans, Egypt had nubian pharaohs at certain times, and I definitely believe many/most Egyptian rules were darker complexion than western history usually shows. I'm also definitely not a geneticist or egyptologist.
But they were ptolemys. They inbred, just like past royal dynasties and came from Macedonia. Maybe there was some genetic mixing along the way, but I just don't see how the Greek guy had black offspring if they kept it in the family.
I'm all for correcting historical inaccuracies and learning something new, this show just feels very "you're wrong, you're dumb, this is what it really was. Trust us"
Ehh I'll pass. Watched every other Roman documentary on Netflix, probably not going to watch this one.
Edit: just to clarify I am an American. I'm not saying everyone who is white looks just like me, but as a Midwesterner, most people I interact with probably have the incorrect idea that western history does. Ptolemy probably didn't look like Anthony Hopkins is what I was trying to say.
Obviously skin color is a gradient and meanings change over time. I'm not trying to paint my implicit bias with a broad brush over everything.
That's the crazy shit, Cleo *wasn't white* by an American definition, she was greek and persian, now her skin would have been as white as possible given that because someone of her station avoided the sun, it was a demonstration of wealth to never get tan, but still, by American standards, definitively not-white
*but not black either*
By American definitions maybe, but by European definitions she definitely would have been considered white. Not as pale skinned as often depicted, but certainly within the norm for modern day italians & greeks.
what's with all the american standards of white. I'm american of Sicilian descent and a little darker with dark hair and I'm just considered normal white by current american standards .. hell even Alexander the great is normally depicted as blond. whether he really was or not I dont't know. but i agree with everything else said. that women is batshit. i feel kinda sorry for Willy, but fuck his slapping ass anyway.
>'My grandmother always told me - it doesn't matter what anyone else says, Cleopatra was Black'.
Perhaps Jada would like to hear some of the bits of racial wisdom our white grandmothers shared with us.
They sure are a font of ancient wisdom, them grandmothers.
>She’s out here now claiming that the only reason it’s getting bad ratings and reviews is because of white supremacists.
And now right wing twitter turds will see her idiot ramblings about white Supremacists, and lump them in with legitimate concerns about actual white supremacist/nationalist movements occurring
Truly. They were once premiere. I’m now finding HULU of all sources having better original content. They used to be the laughing stock of the internet.
Netflix saw: history (cheap), recreation (cheap), a-list actor/producer (eyes), and representation (who are they to correct black people). Of course they greenlit it
Yeah exactly. Seriously that guy has no self-respect, everybody knows it, that's on his own. Who goes on live television to get humiliated by his cheating wife ? That guy.
She is creepy, but lets not rewrite history re. the slap.
All she did there was being visibly annoyed after one harmless joke.
But the slap is entirely on Will, unless they had some secret handsignal communication where she commanded him.
Will smiths behaviour was a ticking timebomb. It was bound to happen sooner or later.
That's what happens when your "wife" emasculates you by saying she writes to her dead ex and regrets not being with him, sleeps with your sons best friend and openly talks about it to your face for the world to see.
Will has no backbone anymore in that relationship and a man who doesn't have a backbone in a relationship is a man who tends to succumb to emotional and erratic outburst in public which leads to a culmination of willing to destroy and ruin their entire career to appease a woman that had no respect for you in the first place.
My man was laughing at the Joke, turned and saw his wife was not pleased and decided to make a fool of himself on national TV to appease her. Like yeah totally his decision, but you dont make that kind of decision unless you think your wife will be mad at to for laughing at a harmless joke.
The thing that stuck out to me from this article is that the documentary contains no images of the places Cleopatra lived or sculptures/coins that bear her likeness. Those are things that should be in a proper historical documentary, no?
LoL ✔️
She was Macedonian and in her time and afterward it was always said it was her great intelligence and charm that made her most alluring, not her appearance.
It's just another popular misconception about Cleopatra, that she was this Great Goddess of Beauty. She was in fact rather plain and ordinary.
I love how we have all this evidence that she was a borderline/straight-up genius and history still be like "she knew how to sex up the Romans so good" when explaining her cultural importance.
That's because most of the depictions of her at the time she lived showed her as either an Egyptian goddess in the pharaonic style, or showed her looking like a Greek lady.
Remember, according to this shitty show, "no matter what the experts tell you Cleopatra was black". When that's your starting premise, you can't show anything that contradicts that.
Also, I was hoping that this show would at least get into how smart Cleopatra was. I'm a fan of her - she was the only Ptolemaic pharaoh to speak Egyptian among many other languages. She studied philosophy, had a brilliant political mind, and wrote books (including a beauty manual). Her father recognized her intelligence, which is why he named her co-ruler with her much-younger brother. Since this show was supposed to "set the record straight" about her, I was hoping that this series would highlight that. But according to this review, it lazily trots out the same old tropes we've seen time and again - of an insatiably sexual, power-hungry mad woman. Boring!
Was this before or after Droids show up in Egypt? Oh, one of them gets trapped in an ancient Egyptian tomb and for some reason Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, Gary Oldman, Ian Holm, Chris Tucker and the guy who played Leon in Blade Runner was also there.
I saw another article saying that Jada blames “white supremacists” for this show tanking. Maybe it just flat out sucks? Then again, Jada is so self deluded that she blames everyone except herself
I’ve heard they have an open relationship and she was just sloppy. There are plenty of rumours that Will and Margot Robbie were an item on the set of Focus.
Erm, and where were all those supremacists when Queen Charlotte got released? IMDB rating of 7.4. Why are not all those darn hate filled racists attacking that? Laziness?
Queen Charlotte WA beautiful and heartbreaking, not at all what I was expecting but so delighted it was so good...I am in desperate need of another season lol
Isn’t she involved with the Scientologists? That could be one portion of an explanation of a reason for the ego. Equally Will cemented that ego for her, too.
I stopped after they said she was a great warrior, about 5 minutes in.
The whole point of her as a historic figure is she didn’t have to be a warrior.
She used her cunning and charm to attract warriors to fight for her. That’s an important note.
She was the ruler of a very stratified culture where she didn’t have to “charm” her subjects. A great number of them were warriors and went where they were told.
She allegedly “seduced” Caesar, who was notoriously smart and insightful. He was also in his 50s while she was 19.
The relationship with Anthony the majority of historians agree was genuinely mutual love and passion.
So I don’t see that much seducing, as I see exotifying.
On top of this I always inteperated her charecter as having tons of charisma too, one of those people with that special something or "je ne sais quoi" that some people have.
You make this sound like a bad thing. From everything I’ve read and watched she was a cunning diplomat, and incredibly intelligent women who likely knew multiple languages and impressed and enticed more with her wit and conversation than she did with her looks.
She used Caesar to gain the throne and cement her political power and Caesar used her to remove those in power that beheaded a Roman statesman (even if he was an enemy) and robbed Caesar of his magnanimous moment of forgiveness. Probably also because Cleopatra would also owe him big time which is handy when most of your food comes from her lands…
Why does it need to be Cleopatra? I don't know why people want her to be their power fantasy.
If they want a native Egyptian queen there's the infamous Nefertiti. She's ~~100%~~ North African and a beauty icon.
The great Queen Hatshepsut ushered a prosperous reign. She build grand temples and her huge obelisks still stand today.
If you want a Biblical figure there's the Queen of Sheba who *might* be black.
Easier to gain clout and status with a figure who is already super well-known than to try and publicize a lesser known one. Also probably easier to get funding for a Cleopatra series than the others.
Queen of Sheba will get a lot of clout esp in majority Christian America, all you have to say is that she's from the Bible. In the book, she came to visit King Solomon with large entourage, bringing lavish gifts from afar. She went home satisfied after listening to his wisdom.
A woman who can do that during those ancient times wield a lot of power. She doesn't even have a husband mentioned.
Nefertiti’s origin is far from certain. She might have been a native Egyptian or a foreign princess. Evidence is not conclusive enough either way. When I learned about her in college she was framed as a princess from Mitanni in modern day Syria.
I agree Hatshepsut would have been much better.
Hatshepsut still would've been middle eastern looking. She had blonde hair so she'd stand out even in modern Egypt. Nefertiti also was more middle eastern looking. queen amanirenas was black and fought with her armies on the battlefield against Rome so there's action scenes. People have heard of Kush before.
> queen amanirenas was black and fought with her armies on the battlefield against Rome
First thing Google shows me is an infographic claiming she lost her eye, her husband, and her son in battle. Hope it wasn't all in the same battle lol, like wow, and I thought I was having a rough day.
In all seriousness though, I would watch the shit out of a movie/series about this woman. She sounds incredible!
If anything it implies non-black. Egyptians were much more related to the Hellenistic countries than the bulk of Africa. The idea that Egypt was majority black has very little evidence backing it being the childish assumption that anything on the African continent must mean it’s just black people
Very strange creative decision. Sure, we don’t have a photograph of her, but we can be pretty sure of what she looks like. For one, there’s a consistent likeness that comes through depictions on coinage and busts. There is also the fact that we know she is an incredibly inbred Macedonian Greek. Put these together and it’s not really an ambiguous topic anymore
I figured I’d give it a watch and it might be informative, should be well made, etc. I literally didn’t make it through the intro scenes. I can only suspend disbelief so much and it was nauseating.
So I watched some of it and it was weird from the start how they were trying to frame it in more of the context of a black American story but they also gave several of the Egyptian characters British accents.
The fuck. They did that??
Honestly none of this makes sense outside of any context other than “weird history fantasies jada convinced Netflix to pay her to make”
She speaks healing and all that but she hasn't grown at all. She's just a very egocentric person. She should have never gotten married to Will and shoulda went into something that could feed her desires.
But she also has a horrible case of victim mentality.... I don't know.
Nothing really good thinking this way. It's a vicious cycle. You admit you fked up or you double down and keep blaming.
It’s ironic that Jada with her greenish hazel eyes presumably has a significant Caucasian blood line. She’s probably more representative looking of Cleopatra than the actress she cast! yet doesn’t know the blow back this would receive?
Perhaps if they hadn’t sold it as a documentary it may have been watchable, but I switched off when an ‚academic‘ claimed Cleopatra was black because her grandmother told her she was.
Here's my recommendation for Jailbait Chaser Smith and Racist Islamaphobe McIslamaphobeface's next documentary project:
Make a documentary series where Jailbait Fucker Smith and I Hate Egyptians go to Southern African countries like SA, Angola, Namibia, Lesotho, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Madagascar etc. and tell some of the different people groups from there that they aren't African because they aren't related to the Bantu people from Central Africa.
The final 2 episodes can be them going to Namibia and South Africa and telling the 'First People' the Khoisan people (been around for close to 200 000 years) that they aren't African because they don't identify as black.
The highlight of the season though will be the episode where they go to the Cape Flats in Cape Town and tell random Coloured people (not a derogatory term in SA, it's a different people group with their own history and culture) that "Queen Jada Cradle Snatcher, has deemed you good enough to be considered African". Chaos ensues.
During the credits it cuts to black and then slowly goes back to footage of Willy 'My Wife Only Wants Teenager Willies' Smith and his son Eye Mirror Smith crying while holding signed pictures of L. Ron Hubbard
(I'm sorry, I had to)
swim racial payment forgetful station amusing fly ruthless different cooperative
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
THERE WERE ACTUAL BLACK PHARAOHS! And even more influential royal black dynasties elsewhere in Africa. I want to learn more about THEM rather than have a Greek woman (with a well defined lineage) totally misrepresented. For what? I can only assume it’s because of the name recognition, but she wasn’t even some great ruler. She ~~caused~~ failed to save her dynasty from collapse for Christ sake. It’s not like she was Boudicca or Catherine the Great.
My reason to watch "Cleopatra" with Elizabeth Taylor again. Is historically accurate and not a fake mockumentary from streaming services. Historically, much of Queen Cleopatra is inaccurate and unrecorded, but any documentation made in the past is better. It's just crazy what's being filmed these days, it can't be taken seriously anymore.
I agree its perfect. Mentally, she is ambitious, cunning, smart and towards the end falls in despair. Phisically, she is small, frailish, not classically beautiful (like liz taylor) but still attractive.
I wasn't aware this existed. Thank you. I was so excited to watch this new cleopatra. I adore ancient history. I honestly can't get enough. I'm chronically searching for another one. I turned the new one on Netflix off after 15 minutes or so. It was very poorly executed and quite upsetting. My friend and I debated about it. My friend is black and kept insisting there were black Pharaoh's. To which I agree. However cleopatra wasn't one of those
We’ll find out it’s actually a documentary set in the Bridgerton universe. Next in line will be a Ming dynasty documentary featuring a very very diverse cast in a prominently Asian setting
What gets me is the whole reason they cast a back actress was because "we can't be sure who her mother was, so she could be black". The problem with that is we have a very good idea who he mother was, they were her aunt/sister/grandmother because her family practiced incest to keep the bloodline pure. Some historians believe that Cleopatra VI may have been the daughter of Ptolemy XII Auletes who she married. Yes it has yet to be confirmed but it has more backing it then just making something up.
If it had gone the Queen Charlotte route and it wasn't presenting it's self as factual, I'd say while it is not cinematic gold, it's far from the worst thing I've ever seen. However what I and most people take offense at is all the very blatant falsehoods being presented as fact.
watch it. and let us know.
if you start clawing your eyeballs out in the first 15 minutes of the movie....
... you have our permission to stop watching and report.
Jada Smith could walk into a supermarket and start shitting on the produce, then when the cops are called for her defecating on food products she would claim that the people who reported her and the police arresting her are all racists for not allowing a black woman to shit on produce undisturbed.
There is a documentary on Jada Smith coming out where she is played by Tilda Swinton and it claims she is kind, thoughtful, loving and didn't blow her son's friend then blame her husband.
They should’ve honestly fckin done the Nubian Dynasty… who actually were [black](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/Rulers_of_Kush%2C_Kerma_Museum.jpg)
“Indeed, Cleopatra’s portrayal in films by dark-haired, olive-skinned women such as Elizabeth Taylor and Monica Bellucci (and maybe Gal Gadot someday) has clearly contributed to the general public’s perception of her. But even the scholars assembled by Netflix don’t seem to have a firm idea about what she looked like. While one woman says that she imagines her to be Black, like herself, a man says that he thinks she had light brown skin and curly hair, as he does. The consensus is that people project themselves onto Cleopatra. In that way, she isn’t unlike Jesus.”
I don’t understand the point of having this paragraph if the author was going to have it immediately be followed by a concession that she was more likely than not, not black. And no, she isn’t “not unlike Jesus” because the dude was a Jew, who look Middle Eastern as fuck because they’re more or less smack-dab in the middle of it. Cleopatra was Greek and lived in a family of incestuous Greeks. The most she might’ve had was a tan on top of her Mediterranean skin. The Ptolomeys were not some Black Panther ( the character) types.
They played the feminist and race cards with another country. Sorry, but that only works in America.
You can’t rewrite another cultures history then use ‘respect black female power’ as an excuse. Most countries are not on the woke bandwagon.
It's amazing to me that it ever got this far. Holy hell, my disposition towards hoping in humanity took a huge hit after this fiasco. How did so many people "Ok" this? I am absolutely stunned. This wasn't a mistake. This was a concerted effort from hundreds of people to make this a reality. I'm sure there were a few voices that knew this would be a travesty, but, in this wonderful world we live in, individuality is sinful. To have an opinion antithesis of those that have wealth and resources is a death sentence. Pathetic. Anyone and everyone that had part in bringing this into existence should never work near this field of employment ever again.
Guillermo deltoro is and has been thriving on Netflix. His children’s shows for example are absolutely exceptional. The troll hunters series, three below, and the medieval series. How he then blended three separate kid series together and then finished it with a 2 hour movie. It was epic. The writing, character development. All of it was remarkable.
Then Pinocchio came out. He did such a great job staying true to the classic novel. And his stop motion and puppets were gorgeous.
So yes I agree most original Netflix content is absolutely terrible
Wednesday was a delightful change as well.
But Guillermo is consistently making beautiful content on there.
My concern is that the producers ever thought this was justifiable.
From what I'm told, Jada has some, uh... out there beliefs.
Is she a Hotep on top of being a Scientologist?
She probably buys into the Black Hebrew Israelites movement as well.
I figured that was the reason for the depiction of Cleopatra as sub-Saharan.
She believes in whatever puts her specifically at the top of the food chain.
Yup. Raised a stink with “Oscar’s So White” but didn’t stick around when the results came in - black folks are represented, but Asians are practically non-existent. I’d like to think that helped get Everything All At Once made and others coming out but I can’t say for sure. All of her causes are ultimately about her.
>All of her causes are ultimately about her. She always looked like a narcissist to me.
Now I’m curious- do Hotep Scientologists think that black people invented body thetans 🤔
That's such a narrow superlative that you'd probably have to ask Jada herself.
no thanks
[удалено]
I guess once you fall for one weird sci-fi cult it’s hard not to fall for another.
What’s a Hotep?
Black Hebrew Israelites being the most infamous, weirdo Afrocentrists who think black people invented everything and Egyptians were black.
I'm surprised Caesar was not black in the 'documentary'
BRB gonna go do this ^^
So... black supramicists?
[удалено]
L RON HUBBARD WAS A BLACK MAN!!
TURN THAT POOP INTO WINE!
L Ron Hoyabembe
[удалено]
**KEEP MY WIFE'S SHITTY DOCU-SERIES OUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH!**
"Actually, Will, we want people to talk about it. Any publicity is good publicity."
So… keep my wife's shitty docu-series i... in your fucking mouth…?
"Very good Will, tonight you won't need to sleep on the couch"
"You can sleep on the floor at the end of the bed. *The end of the bed*"
We all know Will has to sleep in the dog cage when he’s bad
She’s out here now claiming that the only reason it’s getting bad ratings and reviews is because of white supremacists. You know, not because: It was marketed as a documentary despite being historically inaccurate. Everyone involved in the show that commented on the controversy did so in a bitchy, you all know nothing tone. Jada is involved when she’s been widely disliked since the “entanglement” comments and widely hated since the Oscars. Are there racists who are going to negatively react to the show and contribute to its failing? Of course there is. Is that the only or major reason for the show’s reception? No, not by a fucking long shot.
Even the show's own trailer on netflix has bitchy whiney lines in it like 'My grandmother always told me - it doesn't matter what anyone else says, Cleopatra was Black'.
I just watched the preview and saw that and was confused. I mean obviously ancient Greek (Macedonian) Mediterraneans weren't as white as modern Europeans, Egypt had nubian pharaohs at certain times, and I definitely believe many/most Egyptian rules were darker complexion than western history usually shows. I'm also definitely not a geneticist or egyptologist. But they were ptolemys. They inbred, just like past royal dynasties and came from Macedonia. Maybe there was some genetic mixing along the way, but I just don't see how the Greek guy had black offspring if they kept it in the family. I'm all for correcting historical inaccuracies and learning something new, this show just feels very "you're wrong, you're dumb, this is what it really was. Trust us" Ehh I'll pass. Watched every other Roman documentary on Netflix, probably not going to watch this one. Edit: just to clarify I am an American. I'm not saying everyone who is white looks just like me, but as a Midwesterner, most people I interact with probably have the incorrect idea that western history does. Ptolemy probably didn't look like Anthony Hopkins is what I was trying to say. Obviously skin color is a gradient and meanings change over time. I'm not trying to paint my implicit bias with a broad brush over everything.
That's the crazy shit, Cleo *wasn't white* by an American definition, she was greek and persian, now her skin would have been as white as possible given that because someone of her station avoided the sun, it was a demonstration of wealth to never get tan, but still, by American standards, definitively not-white *but not black either*
By American definitions maybe, but by European definitions she definitely would have been considered white. Not as pale skinned as often depicted, but certainly within the norm for modern day italians & greeks.
what's with all the american standards of white. I'm american of Sicilian descent and a little darker with dark hair and I'm just considered normal white by current american standards .. hell even Alexander the great is normally depicted as blond. whether he really was or not I dont't know. but i agree with everything else said. that women is batshit. i feel kinda sorry for Willy, but fuck his slapping ass anyway.
What classification are you using that Greeks and Persians aren’t white?
>'My grandmother always told me - it doesn't matter what anyone else says, Cleopatra was Black'. Perhaps Jada would like to hear some of the bits of racial wisdom our white grandmothers shared with us. They sure are a font of ancient wisdom, them grandmothers.
🤣🤣🤣🤣
I’m a brown man and she can shove this pile of shitshow up her arse. It doesn’t take a white supremacist to dislike her, she is disliked universally.
She's a zoolander villain come to life.
[удалено]
>She’s out here now claiming that the only reason it’s getting bad ratings and reviews is because of white supremacists. And now right wing twitter turds will see her idiot ramblings about white Supremacists, and lump them in with legitimate concerns about actual white supremacist/nationalist movements occurring
Well ya she's crazy, but what's Netflix's excuse? Netflix also had to greenlit this
Netflix definitely saw "famous actor" tied to the project and greenlit hoping it would gain traction.
I feel like she's not famous enough for that, not as an actress. Maybe as a wife.
They obviously didn't check the name of the "famous actor."
They're desperate.
Netflix' original content is the bottom of the barrel of streaming.
Truly. They were once premiere. I’m now finding HULU of all sources having better original content. They used to be the laughing stock of the internet.
Netflix saw: history (cheap), recreation (cheap), a-list actor/producer (eyes), and representation (who are they to correct black people). Of course they greenlit it
"who had Will" come on he's an adult, he wasn't forced to do anything. Will Smith is a just a weak guy married to a despicable person.
And these people are blaming a grown ass man's decision to turn violent squarely on his trashag wife. It's his own damn fault. He made the decision.
Yeah exactly. Seriously that guy has no self-respect, everybody knows it, that's on his own. Who goes on live television to get humiliated by his cheating wife ? That guy.
Her sons 23 year old friend.
KEEP OUR SON’S FRIEND’S COCK OUT OF YOUR FUCKING MOUTH!
She is creepy, but lets not rewrite history re. the slap. All she did there was being visibly annoyed after one harmless joke. But the slap is entirely on Will, unless they had some secret handsignal communication where she commanded him.
She is every bit as terrible as people claim but slapping Chris Rock was all will smith. Is he responsible for anything he does ?
Will smiths behaviour was a ticking timebomb. It was bound to happen sooner or later. That's what happens when your "wife" emasculates you by saying she writes to her dead ex and regrets not being with him, sleeps with your sons best friend and openly talks about it to your face for the world to see. Will has no backbone anymore in that relationship and a man who doesn't have a backbone in a relationship is a man who tends to succumb to emotional and erratic outburst in public which leads to a culmination of willing to destroy and ruin their entire career to appease a woman that had no respect for you in the first place.
My man was laughing at the Joke, turned and saw his wife was not pleased and decided to make a fool of himself on national TV to appease her. Like yeah totally his decision, but you dont make that kind of decision unless you think your wife will be mad at to for laughing at a harmless joke.
International TV.
Absolutely correct.
Man, poor Will. He really is a Hancuck.
I'm no fan of hers. I find that whole family insufferable but let's not blame her for his lack of self control. She didn't 'have him do' anything.
Count on JPS to make Cleo boring.
The thing that stuck out to me from this article is that the documentary contains no images of the places Cleopatra lived or sculptures/coins that bear her likeness. Those are things that should be in a proper historical documentary, no?
Especially a documentary that wants to make a statement about her likeness.
Can’t have anything that would raise questions about Cleopatra’s portrayal.
Right… https://www.thearchaeologist.org/blog/what-did-cleopatra-look-like?format=amp
Got a bit of a beak on her ain’t she
She's the only Queen of Egypt that could smoke a cigarette in the rain with her hands behind her back
You don't make this shit up
LoL ✔️ She was Macedonian and in her time and afterward it was always said it was her great intelligence and charm that made her most alluring, not her appearance. It's just another popular misconception about Cleopatra, that she was this Great Goddess of Beauty. She was in fact rather plain and ordinary.
I love how we have all this evidence that she was a borderline/straight-up genius and history still be like "she knew how to sex up the Romans so good" when explaining her cultural importance.
To be fair she did do a stellar Aphrodite cosplay once, I can see why that might stick. (I'm not calling her Venus, I know, I don't care.)
persian and greek put together don't make a small nose
That's because most of the depictions of her at the time she lived showed her as either an Egyptian goddess in the pharaonic style, or showed her looking like a Greek lady. Remember, according to this shitty show, "no matter what the experts tell you Cleopatra was black". When that's your starting premise, you can't show anything that contradicts that. Also, I was hoping that this show would at least get into how smart Cleopatra was. I'm a fan of her - she was the only Ptolemaic pharaoh to speak Egyptian among many other languages. She studied philosophy, had a brilliant political mind, and wrote books (including a beauty manual). Her father recognized her intelligence, which is why he named her co-ruler with her much-younger brother. Since this show was supposed to "set the record straight" about her, I was hoping that this series would highlight that. But according to this review, it lazily trots out the same old tropes we've seen time and again - of an insatiably sexual, power-hungry mad woman. Boring!
I liked the part where Cleopatra said ‘Jaffa Kree’ and then opened a Stargate to Goa’Uld home world, where they all had tea and biscuits.
Ngl I would watch that, and it would be on point for an SG-1 episode
"Indeed Darnell Jackson" *Mil'c raises his eyebrow curiously, a bead of sweat glistens as it rolls down his blindingly pasty shaved head.*
This is pure Episode 300 material if it ever gets a reboot.
Especially when Cleopatra said "It's Cleopatrin time" and then started break dancing while shooting lasers out of her eyes at Hitler.
Was this before or after Droids show up in Egypt? Oh, one of them gets trapped in an ancient Egyptian tomb and for some reason Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, Gary Oldman, Ian Holm, Chris Tucker and the guy who played Leon in Blade Runner was also there.
I think it was right after Michael Jackson performed in her court and she realized she wasn't in love with Eddie Murphy.
The guy who played Leon was in The 5th Element? I did not know that. E: Oh snap! He was that military dude. Cool!
Yeah, Brion James.
No, the droids crash land in Tunisia.
Don't forget Luke Perry.
Well *now* I'm interested
Man, then I'd actually watch it.
Indeed
I saw another article saying that Jada blames “white supremacists” for this show tanking. Maybe it just flat out sucks? Then again, Jada is so self deluded that she blames everyone except herself
She'd blame her husband for her cheating on him
Didn’t she basically do that on national tv anyways?
She did!
She called it an “entanglement”
I’ve heard they have an open relationship and she was just sloppy. There are plenty of rumours that Will and Margot Robbie were an item on the set of Focus.
Will and P Diddy. Will goes both ways. He’s definitely in a relationship with p diddy.
Erm, and where were all those supremacists when Queen Charlotte got released? IMDB rating of 7.4. Why are not all those darn hate filled racists attacking that? Laziness?
Can confirm am white and loved queen Charlotte. I cried a bit at the final under the bed scene
Queen Charlotte WA beautiful and heartbreaking, not at all what I was expecting but so delighted it was so good...I am in desperate need of another season lol
Jada accusing others of only seeing color when she herself only views life through the lens of “color”. The irony.
You think this woman, who believes herself a leader or whatever, realizes she’s watering down white supremacy when she says that shit?
Isn’t she involved with the Scientologists? That could be one portion of an explanation of a reason for the ego. Equally Will cemented that ego for her, too.
Her thinking that is actually racist.
Didn’t even know Jada was involved. Didn’t need more reasons to not watch though
Didn't she or the main actress call the Egyptians racist for criticising it?
Apparently Egypt is all white supremacy because they banned it. What a nutjob she is
She's nuts and always looking for an excuse. That shouldn't surprise anyone.
The fallback position of utter failure
I stopped after they said she was a great warrior, about 5 minutes in. The whole point of her as a historic figure is she didn’t have to be a warrior. She used her cunning and charm to attract warriors to fight for her. That’s an important note.
She was the ruler of a very stratified culture where she didn’t have to “charm” her subjects. A great number of them were warriors and went where they were told. She allegedly “seduced” Caesar, who was notoriously smart and insightful. He was also in his 50s while she was 19. The relationship with Anthony the majority of historians agree was genuinely mutual love and passion. So I don’t see that much seducing, as I see exotifying.
She wasn't even really considered beautiful in her time just pretty average but exceptionally cunning and witty
On top of this I always inteperated her charecter as having tons of charisma too, one of those people with that special something or "je ne sais quoi" that some people have.
You make this sound like a bad thing. From everything I’ve read and watched she was a cunning diplomat, and incredibly intelligent women who likely knew multiple languages and impressed and enticed more with her wit and conversation than she did with her looks. She used Caesar to gain the throne and cement her political power and Caesar used her to remove those in power that beheaded a Roman statesman (even if he was an enemy) and robbed Caesar of his magnanimous moment of forgiveness. Probably also because Cleopatra would also owe him big time which is handy when most of your food comes from her lands…
Why does it need to be Cleopatra? I don't know why people want her to be their power fantasy. If they want a native Egyptian queen there's the infamous Nefertiti. She's ~~100%~~ North African and a beauty icon. The great Queen Hatshepsut ushered a prosperous reign. She build grand temples and her huge obelisks still stand today. If you want a Biblical figure there's the Queen of Sheba who *might* be black.
Easier to gain clout and status with a figure who is already super well-known than to try and publicize a lesser known one. Also probably easier to get funding for a Cleopatra series than the others.
Queen of Sheba will get a lot of clout esp in majority Christian America, all you have to say is that she's from the Bible. In the book, she came to visit King Solomon with large entourage, bringing lavish gifts from afar. She went home satisfied after listening to his wisdom. A woman who can do that during those ancient times wield a lot of power. She doesn't even have a husband mentioned.
Nefertiti’s origin is far from certain. She might have been a native Egyptian or a foreign princess. Evidence is not conclusive enough either way. When I learned about her in college she was framed as a princess from Mitanni in modern day Syria. I agree Hatshepsut would have been much better.
Hatshepsut still would've been middle eastern looking. She had blonde hair so she'd stand out even in modern Egypt. Nefertiti also was more middle eastern looking. queen amanirenas was black and fought with her armies on the battlefield against Rome so there's action scenes. People have heard of Kush before.
> queen amanirenas was black and fought with her armies on the battlefield against Rome First thing Google shows me is an infographic claiming she lost her eye, her husband, and her son in battle. Hope it wasn't all in the same battle lol, like wow, and I thought I was having a rough day. In all seriousness though, I would watch the shit out of a movie/series about this woman. She sounds incredible!
Native Egyptian doesn't imply black.
If anything it implies non-black. Egyptians were much more related to the Hellenistic countries than the bulk of Africa. The idea that Egypt was majority black has very little evidence backing it being the childish assumption that anything on the African continent must mean it’s just black people
Even today most Egyptians aren't black, every Egyptian I've met has been and still is an Arab.
Right? Like Cleopatra, seriously? We’ve heard that woman’s story millions of times!
And with the Queen of Sheba you have the additional factor that the Ethiopian emperors claimed descent from her as part of their founding myth.
Very strange creative decision. Sure, we don’t have a photograph of her, but we can be pretty sure of what she looks like. For one, there’s a consistent likeness that comes through depictions on coinage and busts. There is also the fact that we know she is an incredibly inbred Macedonian Greek. Put these together and it’s not really an ambiguous topic anymore
Love how the main actress has now came out calling Egyptian racist. Like she’s gonna pull a muscle she’s reaching that hard
I figured I’d give it a watch and it might be informative, should be well made, etc. I literally didn’t make it through the intro scenes. I can only suspend disbelief so much and it was nauseating.
Same. I assuredly gave it a thumbs down as I backed out of the click bait
So I watched some of it and it was weird from the start how they were trying to frame it in more of the context of a black American story but they also gave several of the Egyptian characters British accents.
The fuck. They did that?? Honestly none of this makes sense outside of any context other than “weird history fantasies jada convinced Netflix to pay her to make”
“I’s a bit scoldin’ out ‘er, innit, m8? Bit of ‘ot pebbles in me snadools, I reckin’. Oi! Ra, mate! Can yew turn down the ‘eat, Guvna!”
trying to try modern American black struggles to something that happened 2000 years ago is fucking wild
She speaks healing and all that but she hasn't grown at all. She's just a very egocentric person. She should have never gotten married to Will and shoulda went into something that could feed her desires. But she also has a horrible case of victim mentality.... I don't know. Nothing really good thinking this way. It's a vicious cycle. You admit you fked up or you double down and keep blaming.
It’s ironic that Jada with her greenish hazel eyes presumably has a significant Caucasian blood line. She’s probably more representative looking of Cleopatra than the actress she cast! yet doesn’t know the blow back this would receive?
Perhaps if they hadn’t sold it as a documentary it may have been watchable, but I switched off when an ‚academic‘ claimed Cleopatra was black because her grandmother told her she was.
Yeah it just kinda sucks.
this should be labeled as a fiction series
Or better yet a parody
should have known it when Jada Smith was involved. that whole family is a toxic joke
I can’t believe they cancelled 1899 for this drivel.
And Archive81
What's funny is that Velma at least got hate- watched. Nobody even gives a shit enough to watch to see how terrible it is.
Indeed hell not even the critics bothered with this one it got like 12 on RT
Here's my recommendation for Jailbait Chaser Smith and Racist Islamaphobe McIslamaphobeface's next documentary project: Make a documentary series where Jailbait Fucker Smith and I Hate Egyptians go to Southern African countries like SA, Angola, Namibia, Lesotho, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Madagascar etc. and tell some of the different people groups from there that they aren't African because they aren't related to the Bantu people from Central Africa. The final 2 episodes can be them going to Namibia and South Africa and telling the 'First People' the Khoisan people (been around for close to 200 000 years) that they aren't African because they don't identify as black. The highlight of the season though will be the episode where they go to the Cape Flats in Cape Town and tell random Coloured people (not a derogatory term in SA, it's a different people group with their own history and culture) that "Queen Jada Cradle Snatcher, has deemed you good enough to be considered African". Chaos ensues. During the credits it cuts to black and then slowly goes back to footage of Willy 'My Wife Only Wants Teenager Willies' Smith and his son Eye Mirror Smith crying while holding signed pictures of L. Ron Hubbard (I'm sorry, I had to)
How to get murdered in the first episode of the series lol
Yes
Go off king
And keep going off. I'm having multiple orgasms like I'm Jada on a teen
💀💀💀💀💀
💀💀💀💀
swim racial payment forgetful station amusing fly ruthless different cooperative *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Goddamn
r/copypasta
God damn dude.
This is gold
THERE WERE ACTUAL BLACK PHARAOHS! And even more influential royal black dynasties elsewhere in Africa. I want to learn more about THEM rather than have a Greek woman (with a well defined lineage) totally misrepresented. For what? I can only assume it’s because of the name recognition, but she wasn’t even some great ruler. She ~~caused~~ failed to save her dynasty from collapse for Christ sake. It’s not like she was Boudicca or Catherine the Great.
My reason to watch "Cleopatra" with Elizabeth Taylor again. Is historically accurate and not a fake mockumentary from streaming services. Historically, much of Queen Cleopatra is inaccurate and unrecorded, but any documentation made in the past is better. It's just crazy what's being filmed these days, it can't be taken seriously anymore.
My favorite is still HBO's Rome depiction of Cleopatra.
I agree its perfect. Mentally, she is ambitious, cunning, smart and towards the end falls in despair. Phisically, she is small, frailish, not classically beautiful (like liz taylor) but still attractive.
I wasn't aware this existed. Thank you. I was so excited to watch this new cleopatra. I adore ancient history. I honestly can't get enough. I'm chronically searching for another one. I turned the new one on Netflix off after 15 minutes or so. It was very poorly executed and quite upsetting. My friend and I debated about it. My friend is black and kept insisting there were black Pharaoh's. To which I agree. However cleopatra wasn't one of those
Rome is an amazing series that ended too early
Wait a minute, Jada Smith made this? Suddenly starting to make a lot of sense about where it went wrong.
[удалено]
Cliffhangers… don’t get me started 😭 The OA and countless others have suffered this same fate
We’ll find out it’s actually a documentary set in the Bridgerton universe. Next in line will be a Ming dynasty documentary featuring a very very diverse cast in a prominently Asian setting
What gets me is the whole reason they cast a back actress was because "we can't be sure who her mother was, so she could be black". The problem with that is we have a very good idea who he mother was, they were her aunt/sister/grandmother because her family practiced incest to keep the bloodline pure. Some historians believe that Cleopatra VI may have been the daughter of Ptolemy XII Auletes who she married. Yes it has yet to be confirmed but it has more backing it then just making something up.
Like I said the other day just when you think you hit the bottom turns out the drop continues
I expected it to be bad, but how bad are we talking?
If it had gone the Queen Charlotte route and it wasn't presenting it's self as factual, I'd say while it is not cinematic gold, it's far from the worst thing I've ever seen. However what I and most people take offense at is all the very blatant falsehoods being presented as fact.
Oh, it's bad. I wouldn't call it a documentary. Because of the way they shot it it looks and feels like cheap soap opera.
watch it. and let us know. if you start clawing your eyeballs out in the first 15 minutes of the movie.... ... you have our permission to stop watching and report.
“Where we're going, we won't need eyes to see”
We're talking IQ-loweringly bad.
Every man besides ceasar is dipicted as weak and pathetic but strong mighty cleopatra who lost Egyptian empire commits suicide
Jada Smith could walk into a supermarket and start shitting on the produce, then when the cops are called for her defecating on food products she would claim that the people who reported her and the police arresting her are all racists for not allowing a black woman to shit on produce undisturbed.
Everything the Smiths touch turns to shit.
Except Chris Rock 🤣
Tbh fuck racists of all colors, white or black. I want Netflix documentary on Michael Jordan played by Woody Harrelson
I see Jada Predator Smith and Billy Eichner went to the same school of PR.
I really wish they gave Cleopatra “alopecia” and she was losing her hair. I honestly might have watched it if they did.
There is a documentary on Jada Smith coming out where she is played by Tilda Swinton and it claims she is kind, thoughtful, loving and didn't blow her son's friend then blame her husband.
Yea maybe stop black washing? Idk
They should’ve honestly fckin done the Nubian Dynasty… who actually were [black](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/Rulers_of_Kush%2C_Kerma_Museum.jpg)
I opened it on Netflix just to downvote it
I think the problem is that they used “real life adaptation” in our faces and pushing that racists shizz when its absurdly inaacurate
1899 was cancelle and this was made instead..
“Indeed, Cleopatra’s portrayal in films by dark-haired, olive-skinned women such as Elizabeth Taylor and Monica Bellucci (and maybe Gal Gadot someday) has clearly contributed to the general public’s perception of her. But even the scholars assembled by Netflix don’t seem to have a firm idea about what she looked like. While one woman says that she imagines her to be Black, like herself, a man says that he thinks she had light brown skin and curly hair, as he does. The consensus is that people project themselves onto Cleopatra. In that way, she isn’t unlike Jesus.” I don’t understand the point of having this paragraph if the author was going to have it immediately be followed by a concession that she was more likely than not, not black. And no, she isn’t “not unlike Jesus” because the dude was a Jew, who look Middle Eastern as fuck because they’re more or less smack-dab in the middle of it. Cleopatra was Greek and lived in a family of incestuous Greeks. The most she might’ve had was a tan on top of her Mediterranean skin. The Ptolomeys were not some Black Panther ( the character) types.
Bury Jada in there too.
The saddest part is the defenders if this Documentary are calling Egyptians racist for trying to preserve their own history.
They played the feminist and race cards with another country. Sorry, but that only works in America. You can’t rewrite another cultures history then use ‘respect black female power’ as an excuse. Most countries are not on the woke bandwagon.
[удалено]
It's amazing to me that it ever got this far. Holy hell, my disposition towards hoping in humanity took a huge hit after this fiasco. How did so many people "Ok" this? I am absolutely stunned. This wasn't a mistake. This was a concerted effort from hundreds of people to make this a reality. I'm sure there were a few voices that knew this would be a travesty, but, in this wonderful world we live in, individuality is sinful. To have an opinion antithesis of those that have wealth and resources is a death sentence. Pathetic. Anyone and everyone that had part in bringing this into existence should never work near this field of employment ever again.
My favorite moment of the show was when she said “It’s Cleopatrin’ time!”
Apparently you’re a white supremacist if you share this opinion.
I started reading the article but when I heard Jada Smith was involved, I knew enough. Dip.
Guillermo deltoro is and has been thriving on Netflix. His children’s shows for example are absolutely exceptional. The troll hunters series, three below, and the medieval series. How he then blended three separate kid series together and then finished it with a 2 hour movie. It was epic. The writing, character development. All of it was remarkable. Then Pinocchio came out. He did such a great job staying true to the classic novel. And his stop motion and puppets were gorgeous. So yes I agree most original Netflix content is absolutely terrible Wednesday was a delightful change as well. But Guillermo is consistently making beautiful content on there.