Netflix’s ‘Queen Cleopatra’ Gives Zero F–’s About Portraying Cleopatra as Black in Docuseries

Netflix’s Queen Cleopatra documentary, which premieres this Wednesday, May 10, has a reputation that precedes it, already grabbing headlines for its bold portrayal of the Egyptian Queen as a Black woman. But as the critics grow louder, does their argument hold merit? According to the documentary itself: nope.

Over four episodes, the limited series tells the story of Cleopatra VII and her experience ruling over Egypt, including her affairs with Roman leaders Julius Caesar and Mark Antony and the execution of her half-sister Arsinoe. Her story is a juicy tale filled with betrayal, murder, and sex-driven manipulation – yet some feel the most shocking part of the documentary is Cleopatra’s skin color.

In the docuseries, executive produced by Jada Pinkett Smith, Cleopatra is portrayed as a dark-skinned woman through reenactment scenes by actor Adele James, who previously starred in Casualty.

In April, Egypt‘s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities issued a statement regarding the casting, stating that Cleopatra had “white skin and Hellenistic characteristics,” citing “bas-reliefs and statues of Queen Cleopatra” as evidence. Shortly after, the Egyptian documentary channel al-Wathaeqya announced a new documentary about the famed figure. Additionally, critics have aired their grievances about the Netflix documentary by creating a petition, which has been signed by over 9,000 people, slamming the Afrocentrism movement as “pseudoscience” and accusing the creators of “robbing” Egyptians of their history.

To many, it is obvious what this criticism is: an unashamed display of anti-Blackness and nationalist behavior – seen in both the petition denouncing the Afrocentrism movement (which at its core, serves to center Black voices and subjects in scholarly research); and the Ministry’s main defense being sculptures that have been examined by researchers who intrinsically have a different relationship with race than the artists did in the Renaissance era. Both parties are willing to present speculation as facts, given that Cleopatra’s race has long been portrayed as a mystery and historians have yet to find documentation confirming her mother’s background.

Following the outcry over Netflix’s series, Historian Kenan Malik wrote in The Guardian, “If the projection of Cleopatra as Black is rooted in myth and wish fulfillment, that of her as ‘white’ equally taps into racial fables.”

And Malik isn’t the only one speaking against this unfortunate backlash. Queen Cleopatra director Tina Gharavi predicted this response and is sticking with her casting decision and portrayal of the ruler.

Penning an essay for Variety, Gharavi reflected on seeing Elizabeth Taylor portray Cleopatra in Joseph Leo Mankiewicz’s 1963 historical drama, which was nominated for nine Academy Awards. She wrote, “I felt the image was not right. Was her skin really that white?” and said that with her Netflix project, she could potentially, “find the answers about Cleopatra’s heritage and release her from the stranglehold that Hollywood had placed on her image.”

The director continued, “Why shouldn’t Cleopatra be a melanated sister? And why do some people need Cleopatra to be white? Her proximity to whiteness seems to give her value, and for some Egyptians, it seems to really matter.”

She praised the team’s casting of James saying, “It is more likely that Cleopatra looked like Adele than Elizabeth Taylor ever did.” Still, she continued to defer to the mystery of Cleopatra’s race, admitting that “we don’t know for sure” what the royal leader looked like. 

Gharavi also questioned the intentions behind Egypt’s response to her documentary, citing their silence during the release of the HBO series Rome – which, in the director’s words, “portrayed one of the most intelligent, sophisticated and powerful women in the world as a sleazy, dissipated drug addict.” She wrote, “Yet Egypt didn’t seem to mind.”

While Netflix’s take doesn’t harp on the matter, it doesn’t avoid it entirely. The documentary series opens with a story from historian Professor Shelley Haley, who teaches Classics at Hamilton College and is a prominent interview subject throughout the series. She says that her interest in Cleopatra was sparked by a childhood experience. 

Haley shares, “My grandmother was the inspiration for me. I’d come home and I’d tell her about what I was learning,  ‘Oh, we’re learning about the Greeks, we’re learning about the Romans, and today we’re learning about Cleopatra!’ And I remember, clear as day, her saying to me, ‘Shelly, I don’t care what they tell you in school, Cleopatra was Black.'”

Towards the end of the first episode, Cleopatra’s race is addressed again for a final time by Haley and other experts, including Dr. Sally-Ann Ashton, author of Cleopatra and Egypt, Ph.D. candidate Debora Heard, who studies Nubian Archeology and Egyptian Studies, and Dr. Islam Issa, author of Alexandria: The City That Changed the World.

Haley cites that nobody knows Cleopatra’s “exact racial heritage,” given the lack of knowledge surrounding her mother. She gives weight to the key evidence that dismisses the negative response to the series, saying, “There’s been a lot of research to prove that her mother is Egyptian, but we can’t know for sure.” This roadblock, which has long stumped historians, leads to another which is that nobody knows who Cleopatra’s paternal grandmother is – a point that Dr. Ashton mentions.

“Cleopatra’s father was given a nickname, which was illegitimate. So, people recognize that his mother had probably been somebody who was at the Royal Court,” Dr. Ashton speculates, adding that she could’ve been Egyptian. Though, being Egyptian, alone, doesn’t give answers about the color of one’s skin. “Ancient Egyptians would have had a variety of different complexions, as we find in other African cultures today,” she adds.

Haley echoes the sentiment, adding, “Skin color ranged from Black to pale brown, much like the people of South Sudan to modern-day Egypt.” Ashton, who is on the same page, questions the lack of representation of Cleopatra as a non-white person, saying it’s “very strange that we insist on depicting her as wholly European.”

In addition to Taylor and now James, Cleopatra has been portrayed in popular culture by Theda Bara, Claudette Colbert, and Lyndsey Marsha – all white actors – and is often regarded as a symbol of female sexuality and cutting-edge feminism… Cleopatra is a woman who isn’t afraid to disagree with her male counterparts and use sex to her advantage. She has been a muse for Shakespeare, George Bernard Shaw, and several other renowned playwrights, meaning that her image has been used to represent an array of different personalities and lifestyles, often with far less pushback than Netflix’s new project.

In the documentary, Heard compares Cleopatra to a “chameleon” and says that she “looks different depending on who is depicting her.” Dr. Issa agrees, stating that “the appeal of Cleopatra is that we imagine her” in whatever way we chose. But what Issa fails to acknowledge (at no fault of his own) is that we seemingly as a society are allowed to do so in any way, as long as it isn’t the way the documentary itself depicts her: as a Black woman.

These contentious debates about Cleopatra’s race date back to the 19th century. While in the past it has been said that scholars generally agree that she was white, you also have to consider what the academic field has looked like for the past several decades, and who was invited to dominate these conversations.

That’s where Queen Cleopatra differs. This Netflix documentary amplifies diverse experts in the field, all of whom agree that speculation and theorizing are not the same as fact. And even if that were the case, Cleopatra’s skin color does not change the story being told.

Echoing Gharavi’s words from before: Why shouldn’t Cleopatra be a melanated sister? As Netflix’s documentary proves, there’s no reason she shouldn’t, so let’s close that debate for good.

All four episodes of Queen Cleopatra premiere on May 10, 2023, on Netflix.