‘Safety has to be at the forefront’: Francesca Amewudah-Rivers, racially abused for playing Juliet, calls for better protection

When young actress Francesca Amewudah-Rivers was cast as Juliet opposite Tom Holland as Romeo, racists took to social media to abuse her. It was horrifying to witness.

Amewudah-Rivers was more than qualified for the job—she was an Oxford University graduate with other Shakespeare plays under her belt—but that didn’t stop the tidal wave of hatred. Some people showed their utter cast of education on the subject by claiming that Romeo and Juliet were historical figures (yes, really), while others simply pointed their fingers and screamed “woke.”

Director Jamie Lloyd and his company released a statement condemning the abuse, saying, “This must stop. We are working with a remarkable group of artists. We insist that they are free to create work without facing online harassment. We will continue to support and protect everyone in our company at all costs.” Not long afterwards, a group of Black female and non-binary creatives, including Lashana Lynch, Freema Agyeman, and Wunmi Mosaku, signed an open letter in support of Amewudah-Rivers.

It was good to see so many people condemn the abuse, but now the question arises: How can Black actors be protected from seeing racial hatred online in the first place? Amewudah-Rivers has now spoken out about what she faced and called for better protection. She told The Stage that the abuse wasn’t just online —she received physical letters as well, and some of them were outright death threats.

It was a terrifying situation she faced, all in the middle of trying to do a stressful and high-profile job. She said:

“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.”

She began performing her role as Juliet in May 2024, and got good reviews for her performance. The Guardian said of her, “Francesca Amewudah-Rivers brings her own spiky charisma as Juliet, all the more heroic given the backdrop of social media racial abuse she has received.” But of course even the best reviews in the world weren’t enough to make up for being sent death threats.

Amewudah-Rivers has now asked for there to be “broader conversations industry-wide” about the protection of actors of color, and for an “infrastructure of support.”

“Safety has to be at the forefront,” she said to The Stage. “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. I think more needs to be done, especially because I know I’m not alone. I know other actors who have had similar experiences, more recently, too.”

Unfortunately, you don’t have to look very far at all to see actors racially abused for nothing else than appearing on stage or screen. Take what happened to Halle Bailey when she was cast as Ariel in The Little Mermaid—endless screams of “woke” were present there, as well.

Going back even further, take Amandla Stenberg in The Hunger Games, who received racial abuse while she was a child for no reason at all. Or, if you want to be truly depressed, take the other time Stenberg was abused for performing while Black, when she played twins Osha and Mae in Star Wars show The Acolyte.

Francesca Amewudah-Rivers is absolutely right. Something needs to be done about this situation.