Also 'sexy' and 'smart' is probably historically inaccurate, since her dynasty had been doing sibling marriages for like a hundred years. I think Plutarch even called her ugly, although that might have more to do with Roman politics than her.
The biggest problem with this is that GG can't act well enough to carry any movie, period. it's going to be 88 minutes of her making facial expressions you've seen a confused dog make.
that being said, while Cleopatra probably didn't meet the beauty standards of Classical Rome, she was also said to be charming and not boring, which counts for a bit. In fact, I'd just like to say that I would, and fuck it, have had sex with her, Cartago delenda est.
Ya, the Ptolemaic dynasty was Greek, and they kept it Greek with the aforementioned sibling marriage. I think Cleopatra even had red hair.
In retrospect getting Miss IDF to play her is an inspired choice.
Her family is descended from Ptolemy, one of Alexander's generals that ruled over his divided empire. Ptolemy essentially "got" Egypt in 323 BCE. Cleopatra was the first Ptolemaic Pharaoh to bother learning Egyptian. Before her, members of the dynasty essentially only spoke Greek. Her reign started in 51 BCE. To an average Egyptian. that's 181 years of your rulers not even bothering to learn your language. At least the Ptolemies picked up sibling fucking.
She got that Mark Anthony dick. How bad looking could she be?
Still, getting a Euro-Israeli to play a Ptolemaic Queen ruling an African kingdom on behalf of a brutal lead-addled Roman Empire carries a certain degree of ironic merit.
I think Plutarch even called her ugly
In Asterix she just had a long angular nose (as opposed to every other Asterix character who have big bulbous noses)
From what I recall, I think she was rumoured to be quite the engaging conversation partner.
A European colonizer of the Eastern Mediterranean is the accurate portrayal actually
Feeling like everyone was rushing here to make this comment. I had mine half written out when I saw yours
My main anger is over the nerds being like "Burt she wurz Greek!!! YA KNOW WHYTE!!!" Like no... Greeks and Italians, now as then, have basically the same skin tones as everyone else in the Mediterranean basin. Having some norther European looking person play Cleopatra is not "historically accurate."
in this 'conversation' according to angry nerds is gal gadot appropriately white or not white enough :fry:
she tan and dark haired...
Honestly I am less annoyed by the actual casting of Gal Gadot, than I am about all the fucking reddit tier smarm going "SEE ITS OK FOR CLEOPATRA TO BE WHITE!!!!" Ignoring the white supremacist history embedded in Classical studies, which is only now being uprooted weed by fucking weed, most fucking white people didn't accept Greeks as white 100 fucking years ago.
she was smart enough to keep up with the big players of her day and play them off of each other. We also just no longer can say if she was beautiful, beauty standards were different and everyone has reasons to lie in those accounts.
