Enough with Stereotypical Jesus! Nine Actors Who Could Play a Different Son of God
Son of God is coming to theaters soon, just in time for the Easter season. Jesus is played by a person of color, Diogo Morgado. In fact, Morgado also played Jesus in the History Channel’s miniseries, The Bible. So what’s the problem, you might ask? This is a site that is all about race and culture in entertainment, so what am I complaining about this time?
Well, what I’m complaining about is that while I am about POCs playing important roles, Morgado’s Jesus still looks like the stereotypical image of Jesus, meaning light skin and slightly wavy dirty-blonde-to-brown hair. Just take a look at the litany of actors who have played Jesus (even in musicals like Jesus Christ: Superstar) and you’ll see the same, repetitive image.
But why does Hollywood rely on this image? First of all, because its’ shorthand. People have grown up with the idea of this as Jesus:
And it’s hard to shake what you’ve grown up with, even if it’s not entirely accurate. A lot of America would take umbrage with the idea of anyone other than someone who resembles Stereotypical Jesus playing Jesus, even though Jesus has been portrayed in a myriad of ways, including these depictions:
There are also depictions of Jesus and the Virgin Mary which are very much against the grain of the above “standard” image of Jesus.
Secondly, Stereotypical Jesus plays right into Hollywood’s discrimination and racism towards other actors of color. Yeah, I know I said Morgado is a person of color, but the actors I’m talking about at the moment are the actors who have a deeper color than “sun-kissed peach.” What I’m saying is that Hollywood is limiting itself on who can play the Son of God since there is no consensus as to what Jesus’ historical ethnicity was anyway.
We know Jesus was born in Nazareth and we know he grew up in Galilee. We know he practiced Judaism. But as to what he looked like? Well, he could have looked like anyone in and around the region, really. He could have looked like anyone who lived in Galilee, whether that includes the native Galilee population, the region’s many ethnic and cultural groups, or immigrants. To quote Wikipedia:
Despite the lack of direct biblical or historical references, from the 2nd century, various theories about the race of Jesus were advanced and debated.(139) By the Middle Ages a number of documents, generally of unknown or questionable origin, had been composed and were circulating with details of the appearance of Jesus. Now these documents are mostly considered forgeries.(140)(141)(142) While many people have a fixed mental image of Jesus, drawn from his artistic depictions, these images often conform to stereotypes which are not grounded in any serious research on the historical Jesus, but are based on second or third hand interpretations of spurious sources.(143)
By the 19th century theories that Jesus was European, and in particular Aryan, were developed, as well as theories that he was of black African descent. However, as in other cases of the assignment of race to biblical individuals, these claims have been mostly subjective, based on cultural stereotypes and societal trends rather than on scientific analysis.(144) For two millennia a wide range of artistic depictions of Jesus have appeared, often influenced by cultural settings, political circumstances and theological contexts.(130)(145) Beyond being Jewish, there is no general scholarly agreement on the ethnicity of Jesus.(68)
With that said, here are nine actors I’d like to see play Jesus, just because I’d like to see them play him and I think they can do a good job with such an enormous task.
Naveen Andrews
These choices are based on who Hollywood is familiar with and who I’d like to see do something different with the role. However, I’m always up for picking unknown actors, especially if they are unknown actors that are from the same area Jesus is said to have walked.
However, there’s also some other descriptions of Jesus that are very interesting. I’m guessing these descriptions are after Jesus’ resurrection because if you read them, it sounds like the disciples are describing an alien. For instance, he’s constantly described as having bronze skin or “a body…like beryl,” wooly white hair, “(h)is eyes darker than wine, his teeth whiter than milk” and wearing a golden belt around his waist or across his chest.
The description of bronze or beryl skin is really unsettling. Beryl can range from aquamarine blue to yellow, to orange to green to rose-red. I don’t know what kind of beryl was native to Galilee during this time–I’m guessing an orange-bronze color for that to be the common description of post-risen Christ. But anyway, can you imagine a bronze/beryl-skinned person walking around? How come no one decides to show that version of Christ? Even though I identify as a Christian (mostly because I grew up as one, but I take a look at all major world religions), I don’t really watch Jesus films. But if I saw a creepy version of Jesus in a trailer, I’d surely watch it.
Who do you think should play Jesus? Or would you like to see Jesus with crazy beryl skin? Give your opinions in the comments section below.
