Is Halle Berry pulling an Angelina Jolie?

by Carmen Van Kerckhove

We’ve spent a lot of time on Racialicious discussing the fact that Angelina Jolie is playing a woman of color in “A Mighty Heart” and apparently, also in the upcoming film adaptation of the comic book “Wanted.”

Many readers asked why the role of Mariane Pearl couldn’t have been played by a woman of color, and several of you suggested that Halle Berry should have been cast.

Well, it looks like Halle Berry has a new project in the works. And in a twist on so-called “colorblind casting,” she’s playing a woman of Indian descent:

Berry will portray the key attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in a case involving the 1999 arrests of 10% of the black population of Tulia, Texas. The arrests did not produce drugs or money, causing prosecutors and civil rights groups to denounce the bust as racial profiling. The undercover agent who conducted the bust was indicted for perjury; most of the 46 arrestees were pardoned by Texas Gov. Rick Perry last year. The character that Berry plays is not African American but Indian.

‘Tulia’ is an adaptation of the Nate Blakeslee book “Tulia: Race, Cocaine, and Corruption in a Small Texas Town.” Shooting will take place in Texas.

It’s not yet clear whether Halle Berry will portray an Indian woman in the movie, or whether they will change the character so that she becomes a black woman. (I assume “Indian” means South Asian, rather than American Indian, but I could be wrong as I’m not familiar with the book.)

If it turns out that Halle Berry ends up playing a desi woman, what would you think? Would she be pulling an Angelina Jolie? Or would it be a little better because she at least is a woman of color too?

Hat tip to Stereohyped.