White People Wearing Headdresses in Ridley Scott’s “Exodus”

I just saw the trailer for Ridley Scott’s “10 Commandments” re-make “Exodus: Gods and Kings.” 58 years after Charlton Heston shouted “Let My People Go” (I can’t remember if he actually says that in the movie or if I’m just having a “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” flashback), Christian Bale is going to be growing his best hipster beard to play Moses. The trailer’s below.

Now here’s a question for you. Who looks more Egyptian?

Australian actor Joel Edgerton?

The eyeliner's making his eyes water — He’s sad because he’s wearing guy-liner.

Or Eurasian actor Yul Brynner?

"You know my head dress is fabulous." — “You know my head dress is fabulous.”

Or real-life Egyptian actor Khaled El Nabawy who was actually in Ridley Scott’s “Kingdom of Heaven” (he played a minor role).

Khaled El Nabawy

It’s not every day you see old Hollywood being (a millimeter more) more progressive than new Hollywood. Because at the very least, Yul Brynner was partly Asian, which isn’t Egyptian but at least it’s somewhere on the people of color spectrum.

Every time I hear someone say, “Look! There’s a show/movie featuring an Asian/Latino/Black main character/family! Progress!” I’m just going to point to Joel Edgerton wearing self-tanning lotion and eye-liner and shake my head. The day that actors of color regularly occupy leading roles in high-profile, blockbuster films, then that will be progress. Until then, I’m just going to be laughing at the white people wearing bronzer and ridiculous headdresses.