Adele James defends her casting in Netflix's Queen Cleopatra

Adele James, the lead star of Queen Cleopatra, has responded to the criticism around the portrayal of the Egyptian ruler as dark-skinned.

Netflix invited substantial backlash and legal trouble after it unveiled James in the titular role for its documentary, which premiered Wednesday.

Egyptian legal counsel argued that the documentary was promoting Afrocentrism, and urged the authorities to take legal action against the streaming services and everyone else involved in the project.

During an appearance on The Wayne Ayers Podcast, the British actress rallied in favor of the casting, saying, “Blackwashing isn’t a thing, is it?”

“I find it sad that people are either so self-loathing or so threatened by Blackness that they feel the need to do that, to separate Egypt from the rest of the continent,” the Casualty star shared.

It’s unclear whether James is of mixed heritage, though the producers of the series noted: “Her ethnicity is not the focus of Queen Cleopatra, but we did intentionally decide to depict her of mixed ethnicity to reflect theories about Cleopatra’s possible Egyptian ancestry and the multicultural nature of Ancient Egypt.”

Jada Pinkett Smith, who is also a part of the documentary, offered her own two cents, saying, “We don’t often get to see or hear stories about Black queens, and that was really important for me, as well as for my daughter (Willow), and just for my community to be able to know those stories because there are tons of them.

“The sad part is that we don’t have ready access to these historical women who were so powerful and were the backbones of African nations.”