Now making him somebody who rises above... the pettiness of others is very important... and the difficulty nowadays and the danger in the play... but at the same time some of its excitement... is that for a black actor to play Othello... without seeming to endorse... the idea of black men being more angry, more passionate, more gullible... than people who aren't black gives the play an edge... but at the same time a degree of difficulty, of danger.