Jewish film director angry after being criticised for casting Hopkins in role

A leading Hollywood director has said he has taken“huge offence”at criticism he received after casting actors, including Anthony Hopkins, to play members of a Jewish immigrant family in a new film.

Armageddon Time features Hopkins playing Aaron Rabinowitz, a Jewish immigrant from Ukraine, a Holocaust survivor and grandfather to the film’s young protagonist, Paul Graff, played by Banks Repeta.

The new film also has other Jewish characters played by non-Jewish actors.

There has been criticism that a stream of recent films and television series – includingThe Marvelous Mrs. Maiseland The Shrink Next Door – have cast non-Jewish actors to play Jews.

It is a phenomenon some have named “Jewface”.

But James Gray, who directedArmageddon Time, said:”“I reserve the right to cast someone like Anthony Hopkins.

“Does that person watch ‘The Godfather’ and complain that Marlon Brando is from Omaha, Neb., and not an Italian New York guy?”

In an interview with the New York Times, Gray was told that Hopkins “doesn’t jump out as Jewish.”

But Gray said”I take huge offence to that as well. Because that means what people want is (putting on a Yiddish accent) …

“I’m Jewish, I reserve the right to cast someone like Anthony Hopkins.”

Gray added:“At some point, we have to acknowledge that our whole function as artists is to try and step into the consciousness of someone else and find compassion and find something of emotional power in doing that.”

Armageddon Time is inspired by Gray’s own upbringing, and is set in Queens, New York , in 1980 and follows the friendship between Paul and his Black classmate Johnny Davis (Jaylin Webb).