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I just follow Bridgerton introducing South Asian representation to the regency romance with the Sharma sisters from Season 2, Freida Pinto leads Mr. Malcolm’s Listanother a new book-to-film adaptation showcasing diversity in a genre that has long been dominated by white characters. The Indian-born actress, along with her fellow British Nigerian actor, តកpẦ́ Dirìsù, shared how they embraced bringing diversity to the romantic period in an authentic way.
When CinemaBlend spoke to Freida Pinto about her role in Mr. Malcolm’s List, the actress has spoken out about turning Selena Dalton into a “gimmick” character just for the sake of performance. In her words:
I didn’t want to wear culture on your sleeve in a way that was just jarring and almost somehow made me feel like I was justifying my presence in the film, because I wasn’t trying to do that at all. But I think the subtlety that Pam [Downe], the costume designer with textiles, which I think was a massive trade-off – or theft, however you want to see it – but the West took from India. We played around with a paisley print on one of my suits. And I think it was like a nod to my culture. Really another little nod to my culture that I kind of brought into the film was really inspired by Ốọpẹ́ because Ốọpẹ́ had a very specific idea of how he wanted to bring his culture in a very beautiful, poetic way. And I thought, if I had to take inspiration from that, I’d like to call my dad Dad in the movie. It had something to do with it [Ṣọpẹ́’s] dad and then it had something to do with me using that, calling my dad by the Indian term that South Asians used for their fathers.
Pinto chose to express her and Selena’s Indian heritage in several ways, adding another great South Asian hero for recent media. On the one hand, it works with Mr. Malcolm’s List costume designer to implement certain wardrobe items that directly nod to her culture. Also, she decided to call her father in the movie “Dad”, which is exactly what children usually call fathers in India. She was heavily inspired by Ọpẹ́ Dirìsù, who played the titular Mr. Malcolm. Dirìsù shared this about how he embraced diversity in film in a personal way:
I guess to expand on what Frieda alludes to, there is a moment in the film where Jeremy Malcolm speaks Yoruba, which is the language of my family and my people in South West Nigeria. And I think what it was for me was that I just wanted to make sure that the viewers, our audience, and everyone who enjoys the story knew that this portrayal of Jeremy Malcolm was not written as a white character who it’s just played by a black person for the purposes of box-ticking or “diversity” or forced inclusion. But this character, this man, was a full-fledged and self-aware black man living at that time. And I thought it was a subtle way of bringing culture into it. And it only takes up about three lines of script, but it gives fullness to this character’s story and allows us to get a deeper understanding of who he is and where he comes from, instead of just being on the surface.
Although these are subtle additions to Mr. Malcolm’s List, it allowed both leads to feel that their characters belonged in the Regency setting in an organic way, rather than just being color blind. When CinemaBlend spoke with the film’s director Emma Holly Jones about bringing diversity to this particular genre, she had this to say:
There was Bridgerton, Dev Patel in David Copperfield, there’s even stuff like Sanditon, The Spanish Princess. I think people are trying to make the genre more inclusive. And some of that, by the way, let’s be clear, is actually based on historical accuracy. I think a lot of people don’t really get that, but it’s… So much of a conversation piece [on set] it was design driven and like the actors were such an active part of it because I have no knowledge [Freida Pinto] and her ability to share that knowledge with each department only made the film richer.
You can watch the cast and director’s full comments on the subject in the video above. As Jones said, in the past few years there have been several movies and TV shows that have cast non-white actors in period pieces in an effort to be more inclusive in Hollywood. Another great point the director shared was how people of color existed in Regency England. But in the past it was erased and the genre was focused exclusively on white characters.
Mr. Malcolm’s List it starts with recent Marvel star Zoe Ashton as Julia Tisthwaite, who feels humiliated when Mr. Malcolm of Dirìsù decides to reject her after one of their dates makes him realize that she does not meet the requirements of a secret list he uses to determine for who will he marry After Julia finds out about the list, she recruits Selena to Pinto to meet all the standards for a wife, only to later break his heart and reveal that she has her own list. But as Malcolm and Selena get to know each other, they begin to form a real bond.
You can get tickets (opens in new tab) to the new The film premieres in 2022it’s playing in theaters now and I’m looking forward to it another Regency novel in Persuasionon Netflix on July 15.
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