Significant characteristics of major characters should never change. It's disrespectful and not racist to oppose it.
Significant characteristics like sex, race, hair color, height, weight, personality, ethnicity, nationality - including historical films.
Spider Man is a geeky white man, The Little Mermaid is a naive Danish teenage girl, Storm is an African woman, Blade is a black man, Bane is Latino.
Christian Bale is not Egyptian, Jake Gyllenhaal is not Persian, Scarlett Johansson is not Japanese, Anne Boleyn was white. Cleopatra was Greek, not black. Historical films in Europe should only have Europeans, India with Indians, Asia with Asians, Africa with Africans. Everyone's heritage should be equally respected.
To quote the actual book's description of her: "her skin was as clear and delicate as a rose-leaf, and her eyes as blue as the deepest sea"
It's not complicated.