Now that Jenny Slate has stepped away from voicing a Black character on Netflix’s “Big Mouth,” the Twitterverse is coming for Darth Vader – or more specifically, James Earl Jones. For the record, the 89-year-old has always voiced the “Star Wars” character despite him being played by David Prowse, a White actor.
According to one Twitter user, “James Earl Jones played Darth Vader, a White guy. No one thought it was weird,” and added, “Voice actors bring a voice to a character, not a race.” Another person said, “If there’s a talented voice actor that is race appropriate, cast that actor. It’s simple.”
Other people said that comparing Slate’s situation to Jones’wasn’t fair because Jones “was playing a cyborg man in a robot suit, not a White guy. He was playing something that doesn’t exist.”
- And of course, one person had to take it to the crazy place with, “James Earl Jones about to [apologize] for taking a voice acting role away from a lion somewhere in Africa,” in reference to him playing Mufasa in “The Lion King.” So far, Jones hasn’t commented on the situation.
