‘Wolf Hall’ Director Defends Color-Blind Casting, Saying Series Did Not Want Tudor “Lookalikes”
Wolf Hall returns to British television after nearly a decade this weekend — and director Peter Kosminsky has revealed why the Tudor series has switched to a color-blind casting policy.
The critically lauded Hilary Mantel adaptation has cast Egyptian-born Amir El-Masry as Thomas Wyatt after he was played by Jack Lowden in Season 1, while Lady Margery Seymour is played by Sarah Priddy, who is from a mixed-heritage British-African family.
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At a Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light screening, Kosminsky said: “There are a number of parts played by people of color and this is not something we did in the first series. I’m delighted we’ve been able to do it.”
He added: “We wanted the very best actors who are available for the show and we looked at everybody, and we chose the best actors who auditioned for the roles. And obviously, we aren’t playing lookalikes in the series. Damian [Lewis] is many things but he doesn’t resemble Henry VIII particularly. Jonathan Pryce doesn’t particularly resemble Cardinal Wolsey.”
Colin Callender, Wolf Hall‘s executive producer, said the decision was made with Mantel’s blessing before she died in 2022. “The world has changed since the first series. We felt that diverse casting was appropriate and something we should and wanted to do. It’s as simple as that,” he told a Broadcasting Press Guild event.
Mantel argued in favor of diverse casting, despite it diverging from the characters she had in her mind at the time of writing her books. “It’s difficult for me, because to me they’re not characters, they’re people, and I have a very strong sense of them physically,” she said in 2021. “But as soon as you move to stage or the screen, that must yield because you’re in the realm of representation. I think we have to take on board the new thinking.”
Critics of the color-blind casting decision include journalist Petronella Wyatt, who is an ancestor of Thomas Wyatt, played by El-Masry. She praised El-Masry’s acting credentials, but said diverse casting for a story rooted in British history was tantamount to “cultural appropriation.”
Starring Mark Rylance as Thomas Crowell, Wolf Hall premieres on November 10 on the BBC. A launch date of March 23, 2025, has been confirmed for PBS.
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