Times Online: Gérard Depardieu sparks racism row over role as mixed-race Dumas.
Seems a terrible shame to have not used a mixed-race actor. Race was an issue for Dumas in his lifetime. He had some remarkable comebacks for the ignorant: “My father was a mulatto, my grandfather was a Negro, and my great-grandfather a monkey. You see, Sir, my family starts where yours ends.” Side note: Look into one of his last mistresses, Adah Menken. More.
Related: Guardian.UK, Film reignites literary debate over Alexandre Dumas’ ghostwriter. So Dumas ran a ghostwriting factory. This process is still being used today in many fields. For instance, some modern ‘star’ architects hire young industrial designers, pay them garbage, take their best works, do a couple of tweaks to make it ‘original’, sell them and make tidy sums. We all buy the crap everyday at the big box stores. If you don’t like the process, you must at least be consistent in your condemnation. Good as Maquet might have been, the books would never have flown without Dumas’ particular flair.
