British actor Steve Toussaint has been cast in the first Game of Thrones spin-off. In “House of the Dragon” he embodies the sea serpent Corlys Velaryon. Now Toussaint has been insulted with violent racist remarks for his role in the drama series.
House of the Dragon premieres on August 21st. The cast was announced in February 2021. Toussaint plays the fictional character Corlys Velaryon, a dark-skinned sea serpent, in the new spin-off. In the play, the sea serpent turns out to be a wealthy lord in Westeros.
Fans criticize the official cast
Now the actor is suffering a violent shitstorm on social media for his role. The users bombard him with racist insults. A collage was released showing a depiction of the sea serpent next to a picture of the actor. In the course of this post, fans expressed their dissatisfaction with the official cast.
Toussaint explains, “So someone put that next to my picture and [äußerte sich entsetzt]. Then someone called me the N-word – that was in response to a director I had worked with who wrote, ‘Steve Toussaint is great’, and they said, ‘No, Steve Toussaint is a…’. There was also a Black American who is a big fan of the show who contacted me and said he was being berated for campaigning for me to get the role. And on platforms like Reddit, which I’m not on, there are discussions like this as well.”
“I didn’t realize it was a bigger deal”
Toussaint revealed to The Hollywood Reporter: “I didn’t realize it was a bigger deal until I was racially abused on social media when it was announced. Yes, that’s exactly what happened.” The actor tried to ignore the attacks as much as possible. “I was like, ‘Okay, that means a lot to some people, but I can’t let that bother me,'” he continued.
Racism from fan bases is no longer a rarity. The actress Moses Ingram from “Obi-Wan Kenobi” was recently the victim of racist hostilities.
Check out the official trailer for House of the Dragon here: