'I got death threats on Romeo and Juliet': Black actor calls for industry-wide action

Romeo and Juliet star Francesca Amewudah-Rivers has called for industry-wide action to protect black and brown actors from racist abuse, after she revealed that she did not "feel safe" while working on the West End production.

Speaking to The Stage about the racist backlash to the announcement of her lead casting opposite Tom Holland, Amewudah-Rivers said: "There were many days where I didn’t know how I was going to get through it."

As well as online harassment, Amewudah-Rivers said she received hate mail at the Duke of York’s Theatre and emphasised that "the flurry of abuse was sustained throughout the whole job".

“I received death threats, hate mail sent to the theatre,” she said. “I didn’t feel safe at work.”

"I know what it means to move through life in a black body. Racism is something we have to navigate every day, so I was very aware of the potential for something like this to happen.

"I think what I was unprepared for was how long it went on for, and also having to navigate it while doing the job. It was four months of battling against this energy, and it’s something I still have to deal with.

"I really had to reckon whether it was worth it, this sustained feeling of duress."

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Now, having finished her turn as Juliet, Amewudah-Rivers has called for "broader conversations industry-wide" about the protection of global-majority actors.

"It is not enough to represent our communities onstage, there also needs to be an infrastructure of support," she said.

"Safety has to be at the forefront. We can’t do our best work if we don’t feel safe, if we don’t feel held, if we don’t feel understood."

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