MovieChat Forums > The Girl with All the Gifts (2017) Discussion > Melanie (casting choice)

Melanie (casting choice)

posted 8 years ago by balducci2
8 replies | jump to latest

I'm only about a third of the way through the book (so perhaps I am missing some later reveal about Melanie) but I came across the movie on IMDB and saw the cast listing etc.

Now, I realise any (good) actor of any race and gender can play any character ...

But I'm still surprised they cast Sennia as Melanie considering the first two sentences of the book make a point that Melanie (translation "the black girl") is actually very fair and hence misnamed. A few paragraphs later, she is described as having "skin as white as snow".

I'm all for inclusion, and I understand they changed Justineau from black to white so I guess they kept the 'balance' of the book.

But it still ruins the significance of Melanie's name.

It seems to me they might have changed Melanie's name in the movie to something like Blanche or Ivory so as to preserve the "appearance/name" mismatch.

[–] MarwoodWalks 8 years ago

I haven't read the book, so none of this was an issue for me.

In most cases the book is better than the film, but I don't think the film adaptation has any responsibility to translate all aspects of the book to screen. The book and the film are two different things.

"Don't you hear that horrible screaming all around you? That screaming men call silence."

[–] DrissDae-Su 8 years ago

I honestly see no problem with Hollywood deciding to cast a young black actress to play Melanie.

I have a huge problem that they decided to cast a white woman as Miss Justineau. It's almost as if Hollywood doesn't want a strong, beautiful, black woman to be one of the key characters of a movie.

[–] tasseled 8 years ago

So it's okay to substitute black for white, but not okay to do the other way around? Hypocrisy at its best. In my opinion, the film-makers should have just stuck to the book and cast characters the way they are described.

[–] buzios 8 years ago

Hollywood? It is a British film.

[–] libtherainbow 8 years ago

I totally agree they got the two mixed up one of the main reasons Melanie loves miss justineau is because she has chocolate coloured skin and she finds it beautiful

[–] DrissDae-Su 8 years ago

Exactly.

Okay my bad on the Hollywood point. Didn't know it was a British made movie.

As for being a hypocrite; how? Because I want a character to stay true to what shes meant to be?

The colour of Melanie's skin doesn't really matter one way or the other. Miss J on the other hand, like libtherainbow stated, is loved "because of her chocolate skin", hair texture etc.

[–] natfan1971 8 years ago

I'm surprised Sam Jackson didn't play her.

[–] smidget28 (800) 5 years ago

This little actress was captivating. Her color makes no difference.