James Earl Jones' Blackface Controversies: How 'Star Wars' Actor Went to War With Hollywood Racists... Before Starring in Outrageous 'Blacking Up' Comedy
James Earl Jones was a key figure in the casting debate surrounding blackface.
Sept. 10 2024, Published 12:00 p.m. ET
James Earl Jones' outspoken views on blackface sparked a big-money Hollywood movie to be abandoned, RadarOnline.com can reveal
The Star Wars actor passed away on Monday at the age of 93 following a distinguished career on the big screen.
But as well as being remembered for voicing iconic villain Darth Vader in the sci-fi series, plus Mufasa in the Disney animated hit The Lion King, Jones was also a key figure in the casting debate surrounding blackface, where white actors would wear dark make-up to play black roles.
Jones passed at age 93 earlier this month.
During an appearance on The Dick Cavett Show in 1972, Jones was asked his thoughts on Anthony Quinn's plans to play the Haitian emperor Henri Christophe and his measured and thoughtful response led to the US actor quitting the project at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Jones said: "In this case the black man was real, and of history, and I can't condemn Tony Quinn for playing that, only Tony Quinn can condemn himself if he does not achieve several things, he has to evoke and project a black man in appearance and behavior to the extent that we are different from white people.
“He as an actor has to achieve that and he also has to achieve the essence of a Haitian and all the other problems of playing an emperor with that great ambition, and if Tony Quinn fails at any of these things, he will condemn himself but that's an actor problem, not a cultural one.”
Asked unequivocally if it was wrong for Quinn to play the part, Jones added: "He's made one implication which I don't agree with which is that black actors who are available to play the part have failed to do so because they feel they're not qualified.
Anthony Quinn and Claudia Cardinale at the 24th Annual People's Choice Awards in January 1998.
"That is an implication that I've heard and read in a letter he wrote to a friend of mine and I choose to disagree with that conclusion, it's a conclusion which makes him feel more comfortable in the controversy.
"The reason that I or many of the other actors have not approached it is because we have not yet received a script that does the man's life justice in very simple terms, in historical, cultural and dramatic terms.
"I have not yet read that script myself and I have a feeling that Mr. Quinn, in noticing our rejection of certain scripts, that he has drawn the conclusion that we don't think we can tackle it, but it is just we don't feel we can tackle that character through what's been written so far."
He then joked: "I would like a crack at Ludwig van Beethoven, I'm quite serious there's a rumor he has black blood in him.
"But in order for me to tackle Ludvig van I would have to get a little straighter hairstyle than I have and a little lighter skin complexion than I have."
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Jones once joked: "I would like a crack at Ludwig van Beethoven."
The furor triggered by Jones' objection, albeit moderately expressed, forced Quinn to abandon the project and lose his personal investment of half a million dollars.
However, despite his stance on blackface, Jones surprisingly signed up to star in the controversial 1986 comedy movie Soul Man, a comedy about a pampered teenage college student who tints his skin to pose as a young black man in order to achieve a scholarship.
Spike Lee blasted the film Soul Man and the role blackface played in the 1986 comedy which starred Jones as a professor.
"I saw and read the script in privacy and found myself laughing out loud. They asked me if I found it offensive, and I said it treads a line – but satire must tread a line. You cannot please everybody."
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