memes

Romeo and Juliet is a great example of why I think it's fucking asinine to even care.

Specifically, if the actors need to look Italian, you will need to argue that an accurate telling of that story has never been accomplished.

Was it an accurate telling when Shakespeare himself was involved in the production? When the actors were exclusively pasty English men? Or was it only accurate after Shakespeare himself was dead and a translated production was performed in Italy by Italian men and women? Do the actors need to actually be 16 and 13? Or can maybe young looking adults be used? Should we go back to the original Italian spelling of their names or is anglicisation in this case ok?

Why does your suspension of disbelief only stop when the skin color changes? What even does an Italian look like? Rome was a commercial hub for centuries that saw settlers from all over the known world. Are they not Italian?

What's even better is there's a great opportunity to use subtext to tell a much deeper story with Romeo and Juliet specifically by making one of the families black, because the specific beef between the Montague's and Capulet's isn't really discussed.

Sure, there are times when it's important to get those details right. Specifically, when ethnicity is a central component to the story being told. Those stories aren't very common, and almost certainly will be the ones you think of as exceptions to everything else I just said. Otherwise, bro, it's a movie, everything about it is a lie.