Steve Toussaint on racism he faced after his ‘House Of The Dragon’ casting: I was racially abused
Steve Toussaint
The much-anticipated 'Game of Thrones' prequel'House of Dragon' is all set to release this August. The series has been in making for years and this time makers tried to add more people of colour as compared to the first part, which faced backlash over the lack of diversity. But amid all, Hollywood actor Steve Toussaint is talking aboutthe bullying he faced after his GOT prequel casting was announced.
This is not the first time when any black actor is sharing the heartbreaking story of the racism he faced on social media.Steve, who is playing a lead role in the series of Lord Corlys Velaryon, a.k.a. the Sea Snake, during his interview with The HollywoodReporterrecently opened up about all the hatred he received online.
HBO's GOT spinoff 'House of the Dragon' is a gateway for more stories to be told
Some furious fans of the franchise just not accepted the actor of colour being cast as the lead role and were quick to react to the casting and not in a good way. “I didn’t realize [the casting] was a big deal until I was racially abused on social media,” says Toussaint. “Yeah, that shit happened. I was just like, ‘Oh wow,’ and then I thought: ‘OK, so this means a lot to some people, but I can’t allow that to bother me.'” He said.
Further adding that Martin's world is still a fantasy, he said, “it still has to reflect a world.”
House of Dragon showrunners Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik also reacted to the diversity debate and said how the world has changed from 2011 to 2022.
“We knew from the outset that we wanted to change that conversation,” Condal says. “The world changed a lot between 2011 and 2021 and [so did] what audiences expect to see on camera. The conversations Miguel and I had were: How do we create a diverse cast forHouse of the Dragon but still do it in a way that feels organic to the world and doesn’t feel like pandering or tokenism — and also havethem not be pirates, slaves and mercenaries like you tend to see in high fantasies?”
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the first full trailer for the forthcoming spinoff 'House of the Dragon' was released.The series is a prequel to the original HBO show and is set long before the Game of Thrones' and tells us the history of House Targaryen.
