In a stan-worthy move, Game of Thrones star Nathalie Emmanuel tells fans not to fancast her as Disney Princess Tiana because of colorism.

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Matthew A. Cherry retweeted a tweet by @glamsamxo fancasting How to Get Away with Murder‘s Rome Flynn as Prince Naveen in a theoretical live action The Princess and the Frog remake. “This is smart,” wrote Cherry. “Now who plays Tiana?”

This is smart. Now who plays Tiana? https://t.co/JQEsg4Ctzd

— Matthew A. Cherry ???? (@MatthewACherry) April 23, 2019

Among the many suggestions Twitter users left in the thread, one user tweeted out Emmanuel as a possible Tiana. But Emmanuel responded back to the suggestion, writing, “Nah that part has to go to an even more melanated sister.” To which Cherry responded, “We stan a self aware queen.”

Nah that part has to go an even more melanated sister ❤️

— Nathalie Emmanuel (@missnemmanuel) April 24, 2019

We stan a self aware queen.

— Matthew A. Cherry ???? (@MatthewACherry) April 24, 2019

To lighten things up, Emmanuel also tweeted another reason she’s bowing out of the fancast role.

“Also one that can sing sing not like sing in the shower kinda well,” she wrote.

Also one that can sing sing not like sing in the shower kinda well ????????

— Nathalie Emmanuel (@missnemmanuel) April 24, 2019

Emmanuel is among several Black actresses who have spoken out against colorist casting. Zendaya, for example, said last year at New York’s Beautycon Festival that she’s well aware of using the privilege she holds due to her skin tone to help her fellow actresses.

As a Black woman, as a light-skinned black woman, it’s important that I’m using my privilege, my platform to show you how much beauty there is in the African-American community,” she said. “I am Hollywood’s, I guess you could say, acceptable version of a Black girl and that has to change.”

“We’re vastly too beautiful and too interesting for me to be just the only representation of that,” she said. “What I’m saying, it’s about creating those opportunities, sometimes. You have to create those paths. And that’s with anything, Hollywood, art, whatever.”

Amandla Stenberg (who uses they/them pronouns) has also spoken about the privileges they and other lighter skinned actors hold in the industry. Stenberg has received criticism for certain roles they’ve taken in Hollywood recently.

“Me and Yara [Shahidi] and Zendaya are perceived in the same way because we are lighter skinned brown girls,” they said to Variety last year, as we reported on S&A. “We fill this interesting space of being accessible to Hollywood and accessible to white people in a way that darker skinned girls are not.” Stenberg said they did not continue to audition for Shuri in Black Panther because they felt the role should go to someone darker than them.

“I got really, really close and they were like, ‘Do you want to continue fighting for this? And I was like, this isn’t right,” they said in a 2018 CBC interview at the TIFF Next Wave Festival.

“These are all dark skin actors playing Africans and I feel like it would have been just off to see me as a bi-racial American with a Nigerian accent just pretending that I’m the same color as everyone else in the movie,” they continued. “That was really challenging, to make that decision, but I have no regrets. I recognize 100 percent that there are spaces that I should not take up and when I do take up a space it’s because I’ve thought really, really critically about it and I’ve consulted people I really trust and it feels right.”

Also, even though Stenberg faced criticism for taking the role of Starr in The Hate U Give, they took it head on via Instagram, writing, “The lack of diversity within the Black girl representation we’re finally getting is apparent and it’s NOT ENOUGH, and I understand my role in the quest for onscreen diversity and the sensitivity I must have towards the colorism that I do not experience.” Stenberg also wrote that they hope “that this precarious game of give and take we play with the historically white institution of Hollywood for the sake of representation can only lead to the diversity we want and deserve.”

READ MORE:

Amandla Stenberg On Colorism In Hollywood: “Me And Yara and Zendaya Are Perceived In The Same Way”

Is Colorism ‘Also A Star’ In Yara Shahidi’s New YA Film? [Opinion]

‘The Hate U Give’ Book Cover Illustrator Speaks On Film’s Casting Controversy In New Interview

Colorism Is a Complex Problem, But The Fight Continues

‘Black-ish’ Co-Showrunner Kenny Smith and Writer Peter Saji Tackle Colorism In “Black Like Us”

Award-winning short film ‘Charcoal’ tackles colorism on a generational level

Photo credit: Getty Images/Disney

Princess and the Frog

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