Romeo and Juliet star backed by over 800 Black actors after racist backlash online

Ever since she was announced as the West End’s new Juliet in March, Bad Education’s Francesca Amewudah-Rivers has received a nasty barrage of racist abuse from the usual suspects online. Amewudah-Rivers will star alongside Tom Holland in the Jamie Lloyd Company’s new staging of Romeo & Juliet, which opens in London this May.

But while the backlash obviously should never have happened in the first place, it’s become clear in the past few days just how much support Amewudah-Rivers truly has behind her. Today, The Guardian shared an open letter signed by over 800 predominantly Black female and nonbinary creatives, condemning the “twisted ugly abuse” being leveled against the young actor.

The letter, organized by Enola Holmes actor Susan Wokoma and Crowning Glory playwright Somalia Nonyé Seaton, reads: “[W]hat followed [Amewudah-Rivers’ announcement] was a too familiar horror that many of us visible Black dark skinned performers have experienced. The racist and misogynistic abuse directed at such a sweet soul has been too much to bear. For a casting announcement of a play to ignite such twisted ugly abuse is truly embarrassing for those so empty and barren in their own lives that they must meddle in hateful abuse.”

Included among the letter’s 883 signatories are Lashana Lynch (No Time To Die), Sheila Atim (The Woman King), Lolly Adefope (Ghosts), Freema Agyeman (Doctor Who), Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Secrets & Lies), and many more. The letter continues: “We want to send a clear message to Francesca and all Black women performers who face this kind of abuse – WE see you. We see the art you manage to produce with not only the pressures that your white colleagues face but with the added traumatic hurdle of misogynoir. Those that came before you are by your side.”

This comes after the Jamie Lloyd Company, the play’s producer, published their own statement earlier this week asserting that the abuse “must stop.” “We are working with a remarkable group of artists. We insist that they are free to create work without facing online harassment,” the statement read. “We will continue to support and protect everyone in our company at all costs.” In their letter, Wokoma and Seaton commended the production company’s action, but also included the following caveat: “Reporting is too often left on the shoulders of the abused who are also then expected to promote said show.” Actor Tamara Lawrance, one of the letter’s signatories, also started a change.org petition titled “Curtis Brown, Jamie Lloyd Company and DoY Theatre – What is your plan of action?” which already has over 6,500 signatures.

As of this writing, neither Amewudah-Rivers nor her co-star, Tom Holland, have publicly addressed the controversy. But that hasn’t stopped disappointed fans from trying to elicit a response from the actor. In a widely-shared screenshot, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story actor Arsema Thomas asked her followers to “put pressure pon [Tom Holland]’s head… to say something, ANYTHING, about the disgusting racial abuse being thrown at our angel Fran.” While this approach feels slightly parasocial–Holland is usually pretty private on social media and we have no idea how he’s been supporting Amewudah-Rivers offline—the actor did say (via Deadline) at the time of her announcement that he “[couldn’t] wait to get started and I know we’ll create something really special together.”

And to give Amewudah-Rivers the last word, which she more than deserves after all this, here’s her statement about joining the show: “I’m so grateful to be making my West End debut as Juliet with The Jamie Lloyd Company. It’s a dream to be joining this team of incredible artists with Jamie at the helm. I’m excited to bring a fresh energy to this story alongside Tom, and to welcome new audiences to the theatre.”