Anne Boleyn star Jodie Turner-Smith responds to criticism of her casting
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Anne Boleyn star Jodie Turner-Smith has responded to critics of her casting.
The Queen & Slim actress portrayed Henry VIII's ill-fated second wife in the three-part Channel 5 drama, which aired last week.
Despite critical praise for her performance and for the show itself, Jodie's casting as a Black woman playing Anne Boleyn was met with criticism by some viewers, including a racist backlash in some quarters.
Related: Jodie Turner-Smith's Anne Boleyn is a triumphant retelling through a modern, feminist lens
Explaining that she had anticipated her casting would be "challenging for people", Jodie said that her intention was to simply "tell the human story" of Boleyn's fall from grace and for her "humanity to be considered" as a Black actress.
"At the end of the day, people were always going to feel a certain way about a Black actor playing Anne," Jodie told The Independent, noting that there has always been creative licence in historical fiction.
"Still, I knew it would be challenging for people because race is challenging for people.
"Some people of colour too are asking, 'Why are they doing this?' But you know, not everything is for everybody."
She added: "I think the nuance that people are missing is that historically, people of colour have been erased from stories and thus their humanity has been erased. In this, we're not erasing white people's humanity.
"We're taking race out of the conversation to tell the human story at the centre of it all.
"As a Black artist in general, my main desire is for my humanity to be considered. Not just that I'm a Black woman but that I'm a human having a human experience and existing in a human space."
Anne Boleyn aired on Channel 5 and is available to stream on My5.
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