From the novel, we know that Chicken George is the son of Kizzy and her white slave owner. However, they picked a black actor for the part, while he's supposed to be a mulatto!
A friend of mine told me that picking a mulatto male actor would have been controversial at the time, however can someone clearly explain this to me. Thank you!
but if you look closely george&tom moore have the same facial features,i doubt if casting took that into considoration,but i noticed that. the main reason was they great job mr.vereen did.
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I wondered the same thing grant it he did good in the role. There are some mulattos who have a dark skin, some that have light skin (aka being able to Pass) and some that are somewhere in the middle. It is possible that Chicken George could have ended up with that skin color, any mulatto or black/white mixie but its just odd because in the book it says he has tannish / high yaller skin tone.
All groups of people come in different shades of skin tone.
I don't know what the real Chicken George looked like, but my mother and I have laughed many a day over Ben Vereen supposedly being the son of Chuck Connors and Leslie Uggams! THE NEXT GENERATIONS was closer to reality by casting Brian Stokes Mitchell as the son of a mixed relationship. But NEXT's casting director did pull a boner by having young Alex Haley (Damon Evans) morph into middle-aged Alex (James Earl Jones)!!!
shareBut NEXT's casting director did pull a boner by having young Alex Haley (Damon Evans) morph into middle-aged Alex (James Earl Jones)!!!
I have never seen a person mixed with white and black blood come out darker than both their parents they obvoiusly gave him the role b/c of his phenomenal acting skills. Sorry but the child doesn't have to necessarily be the color of lena horne but they can't come out darker than both parents it's agains't their jeans....kizzy herself was probably born a lilttle lighter and overtime got darker from sun like most black kids. it wa definitely for his acting
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for some reason in the 70's bi racial ppl(black & white) they were cast in movies as being 100% white or black looking. remember the jeffersons? allan was white-jenny black. so ridiculous.
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I yam what I yam.
You're the not the only person who has questioned the children on the Jefferson's thing. I've read questions on this in the past. And why did Hollywood do this? I'm not certain if they were trying to spare black peoples feelings or placate white racism. [ Worse was having a man clearly in the yellow range of color like Sherman Hemsley calling the mixed a zebra ].
The children of black Africans & white Northern Europeans tend to be light brown like Jerry Rawlings (ex-leader of Ghana) or a brownish yellow like Sade (Nigerian singer) -- much lighter than coal black but much darker than pale white. Other "black"\"white" children, like Halle Berry, Thandie Newton & the Mowry twins, also tend to fit into this pattern.
Ben Vereen was a poor choice based on looks. He doesn't look like he has white in him. But he could act. I have seen very dark kids who have a white parent. But you'll notice their hair is straighter as well so wyou can see the white in them.
shareBen Vereen could act. I don't deny him this but you lose some of the reality of the situation nonetheless.
shareIt wasn't him being black but him being darker. The lady who played Kizzy could pass for half white/half black.
If the casting were really trying to focus on the fact that Chicken George was biracial and the son of Massa Moore they would have casted a ligter skinned actor. As it was with Ben Vereen, I felt that they were trying to make people forget he WAS Moore's child.
Despite how genetics work and how kids come out, for viewing pleasure and to drive home the point that a person is biracial or whatnot, casting directors pick a biracial looking person or someone with features that at immediate glance makes a person wonder what they're mixed with.
Frederick Douglass wasn't light, yet he is 'mulatto'...
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french-ingenue17
From the novel, we know that Chicken George is the son of Kizzy and her white slave owner. However, they picked a black actor for the part, while he's supposed to be a mulatto!
Many people probably agree with the OP and I'll admit, myself that when I first saw "Roots", I thought it was odd that Ben Vereen was cast to play someone who was supposed to have been biracial. But if you take a look at the picture of the real Chicken George at the end, you can clearly see he was dark skinned.
Just because someone is biracial or "mulatto", that doesn't neccesarily mean they will be light skinned. It's certainly more common, but not always the case. I have a cousin who is biracial- One black parent, one white- and he looks completely black. No one would ever assume he was mixed race at all, though his brother does look mixed. (And yes, they share the same two parents).
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