In light of the way the 2016 Oscars acting award nominations went and with the general whitewashing of roles in mainstream big budget Hollywood movies, Esmeralda is an interesting role to discuss as her book self and her film presence are at weird odds.
Patsy Ruth Miller as Esmeralda
In the book Esmeralda is presented as a Romani, and without getting it into too much, the Romani people are Ethnically different from the rest of Europe specifically France. However Esmeralda’s backstory in the novel is that she was born Agnes to a French woman and raised by the Romani. This backstory is really only presented in two movies (three if you think the Dingo version count), those versions are the 1923 version and the 1999 Parody version albeit that version flips things around whereas she is born Esmeralda to Cubans and raised as Agnes by mean French people.
Lesley-Anne Down as Esmeralda, 1982 Hunchback of Notre Dame
Esmeralda in most movie versions of Hunchback is depicted as a full Romani, though the 1982 version there was a throw away line that questioned her background but it went no where, so it hardly matters.
Gina Lollobrigida as Esmeralda, 1956 Hunchback of Notre Dame
This brings us back to the topic, as Hollywood whitewashes many roles it interesting to note that in Esmeralda’s case they take role of girl who despite having dark hair and eyes with tanned skin is for all accounts a white girl and instead makes the role one for a very specially ethnic minority and yet casts mostly white women. So far in movie versions only Gina Lollobrigida and Salma Hayek have looked the way the film versions theoretically want to depict the character.
Maureen O’Hara as Esmeralda
While in my own naive little world I think casting should go to right person for the right part but it’s not that simple. A lot of roles are specific to someone’s looks and background. Hollywood however does of course forget that or ignores it and has a history of awarding parts that should go to people of minorities to white actors. Like the casting of Emma Stone in Aloha or Rooney Mara in Peter Pan or pretty much everyone in The Last Airbender or Scarlet Johansson as Major Motoko Kusanagi in the upcoming Ghost in the Shell movie, heck Lucy was a Akira knock-off… I digress. The list of whitewashing practices in Hollywood is long.
And as this pertain to the Oscars, actors who fall into minority seldom get nominations and seldom win. Just for example Asian actors which Indian actors fall into, Only two Actors won the Academy Award for Best Actor, Yul Brynner (1956) and Ben Kingsley (1982). Kingsley also got a nominations in 2003. For Actress only Merle Oberon got a best actress nomination in 1935 and no one else since. For Best Supporting Actor, only Haing S Ngor has won in 1984 and only five others have been nominated, Sessue Hayakawa (1957), Mako (1966), Pat Morita (1984), Ben Kingsley (1991) and Ken Watanabe (2003). Oddly the same goes for Best Supporting Actoress with only one winner and five others nominated. The only Asian winner was Miyoshi Umeki in 1957. The five who were nominated were Meg Tilly (1985), Jennifer Tilly (1994), Shohreh Aghdashloo (2003), Rinko Kikuchi (2006) and Hailee Steinfeld (2010).
Salma Hayek as Esmeralda, 1997 Hunchback of Notre Dame
So how does this apply to Esmeralda? The Hunchback of Notre Dame as I have said before, could be one those movies made specifically to win awards. The role of Esmeralda could be deepen which has been done in the past like in 1939 version or even the Disney version. It could be made into one those Oscar bait roles with relative ease. If that did happen given the state of Hollywood I would prefer to see an Actress who fits into the Romani look more than being a purist to the book. Either an Indian actress or Hispanic actress could fit nicely, though ideally, a young Romani actress would be ideal.
Melanie Thierry as Esmeralda
Though given Hollywood’s warped sense of itself they probably would make Esmeralda a Romani, as is the traditional method to her character and cast a popular blonde actress.
Is there an actress you would like see play Esmeralda?
I am from spain, and there is a lot of Romani people all over spain, not only in Adaluzia. I think it would be very nice to see a young romani spanish girl in the role, since Esme is said to look andalusian a lot of times during the book. I myself am a friend of a young spanish romani girl dancer who is very pretty and has the looks of Esmeralda, there is lot of girls who could portray Esme here. I like to think Esmeralda’s father was a southern spanish man, thus her exotic looks.
Most of romani girls knows how to dance, and here most of them dance Flamenco, which is very appealing and beautiful for the character from the book.
Sorry 4 the bad english, as I said – Spanish girl.
I personally think that Hailee Steinfeld would make for a good Esmeralda, especially if you consider she would be the closest to her actual age in the book, 16, and that she isn’t a “sexy” actress. She has that kind of beauty that, to me at least, says classic and innocent. And she has the olive skin tone that suggests either backstory.
I think she could work as an Esmeralda.