When Will White Hollywood Execs Get It? We Watch Films Too!
During a recent Hollywood roundtable in advance of the Oscar awards, Viola Davis, George Clooney, Charlize Theron, and Christopher Plummer discussed the difficulty they have getting interesting roles and interesting films made in the industry.
An interesting thing happened when Christopher Plummer wondered aloud why Viola Davis, despite her immense talent, had never had a leading role in a film. Davis kept it all the way real and told Plummer the answer was simple: race.
“I’m a 46-year-old black woman who really doesn’t look like Halle Berry, and Halle Berry is having a hard time,” she explained.
While Davis was told the group about the difficulty black actresses face in the industry, Theron chimed in–hoping to stroke Davis’ ego, but totally missing the point.
Theron playfully chided Davis, saying, “You have to stop saying that, because you’re hot as shit.’’
While I understand Theron’s willingness to want to remind her fellow female thespian that she’s JUST as beautiful as any other actress, she totally missed Davis’ point. Being a beautiful black woman who can act her ass off in Hollywood still doesn’t guarantee success.
There are scores of gorgeous, talented black actresses in Hollywood, and yet very few get the opportunity to anchor a major film. This is one of the reasons I was pleasantly surprised by Zoe Saldana’s casting in ‘Colombiana,’ because black women rarely get the opportunity to shine.
Clooney, who has been friends with Davis for years, seemed to understand where she was coming from and placed the blame on studio executives who are often removed from what people actually want to see.
Clooney explained, “The people who make these decisions always aim and the lowest common denominator and think the audience won’t get it ‘cuz their dumb.”
Despite the studio’s insistence that there is no ‘audience’ for black films or smart films or offbeat films or films where something isn’t being blown up every few minutes, Clooney insists, “There is a audience for all of this. We’ve just forgotten that.”
How can ‘the audience’ (black, white, Asian, Latino, etc.) demand better films from Hollywood?
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I am not surprised that Theron* didn’t get it. She is white SA after all and came to the conversation with shit ton of racial baggage that prevented her from actually hearing what Viola was saying. She grew up with a lawfully-enforced racial hierarchy she seems to want to fight.
I am a little tired of the Hollywood/black people/black actresses conversation because it seems to be going nowhere. Round and round we go.
* I remember when Theron first came on the scene in 1996 and she was promoting her role in 2
****** pressed submit too early*******
* I remember when Theron first came on the scene in 1996 and she was promoting her role in 2 Days in the Valley. At one point, she mentioned she left SA because it was no longer a place for white people. Given apartheid had just officially ended a two years earlier and Mandela had been released just 6 years before then, I thought it was the most tone deaf and racist thing to say. Also, white South Africans make up only 10% of the country, but own 80% of the assets. A lot of white South Africans struggled with having black people as equals and she seemed to be one of them. In recent years, she seems to be actively working against racism and bigotry, but I find it hard to forget her comments.
“I am a little tired of the Hollywood/black people/black actresses conversation because it seems to be going nowhere. Round and round we go.”
So.Very.True.
There are film projects that have been sitting for 30 years at the studios. 30 years! Because they’re just considered too offbeat or too limited in their appeal to do. Every few years, a director is signed, some actors are signed, scripts are sent out, and then it dies again because some studio head gets cold feet. And those scripts have white people in them, not black people.
Studio heads want a hit. And unless it’s about a really famous black person that a fair amount of white people like already (Ray Charles) or Denzel Washington or Samuel L. Jackson or Morgan Freeman agrees to be in it, the studio is probably not going to green-light a film with an all-black, or mostly-black cast. Because they just can’t see where the ticket sales are going to come from.
Charlize did what whites do in race discussions when they get uncomfortable. She made a joke to ease the tension and get the discussion off track. Otherwise it would’ve became “too serious” and it makes them quite uneasy. Even when deep down they know the deal. Hell, the interviewer knew the deal and that’s why he asked the question to Viola in the first place. It was a setup. Now they just simply want to see if you’ll ACTUALLY say the truth or play the good negro and make a joke of it yourself.
Whites don’t want real racial dialogue. They get that uncomfortable bag about themselves when race comes up or when their shit is being pointed out. They can sit and discuss black screw-ups all day but white supremacy means you’re not allowed to dissect and discuss their actions or question them…that’s how they see it.
It’s all good though because what goes around comes around. The paparazzi has made non movie stars, celebrities, and people are far more interested(and disturbed) by a Kim K than these other celebs. Also, REALITY TV has taken over so these white actresses who don’t want to hear black women talk about their absence from film or lack of stereotypical roles are piping hot over the fact that “Snooki” is the new(insert any white actress here). They’re totally undermining them and the clincher is they(reality stars) never had to go to acting school or put in their due.
Karma.
We really can’t demand anything when Mr White is financing them. We have to find a way to make our own even if they are low budget. You gotta crawl before you can walk
(I replied to the wrong post. I meant to put my comment here. But it still, kind of, applies to the other post too. So, sue me. LOL)
Cosign! There are enough monied black folks in the entertainment world to make some things happen. Tyler Perry is doing his thing all by himself, so imagine what could happen if a few blacks with some big bucks pool their resources…
They DO get it. We’ve been watching and continue to be brainwashed by their movies for almost a century now! We don’t need white Hollywood or white people. Can we please stop begging for white validation ?
The last sentence of your post sealed the deal for me. I hope Mary J. Blige, Spike Lee, and any other black person who hasn’t been nominated for/or won an Academy award would read this!
@Jamizziv3….and these same people will turn right around and claim black people are complaining.
But, remember…so many black folks in Hollyweird are so white washed…we will get the same movies…anyway. How about….we don’t ever make another black movie…ever. works for me.
Cosign! There are enough monied black folks in the entertainment world to make some things happen. Tyler Perry is doing his thing all by himself, so imagine what could happen if a few blacks with some big bucks pool their resources…
If blacks demand that the state provide better services for the less well off, they’re chewed out for being too dependent on government by whites and their nigro flunkies.
However, nigro flunkies seem to have no problem begging Hollywood to give em a job, and fame and even awards (for doing a job they begged for).
So
it’s alright to beg Hollywood to do more for bl?cks
but’s it’s not alright for blacks to demand the government do it’s job.
Wow – I wish I could go back to being the idiot I was a month ago.
why a month ago?
because what said above hadn’t occurred to me at that time, so it was not another hypocrisy I was troubed by.
But I’m aware of it now which means I have to find a way to manage it without breakin my foot off in someone’s arse.
:-)
You bring up an interesting point about Blacks demanding more jobs from Hollywood than demanding the government do its job. I wonder why we aren’t demanding more of EACH OTHER? Perhaps if we demanded nothing but the best from within our own communities, then we wouldn’t have to worry about havihng to go to anyone else with head bowed and hat in hand demanding jobs or anything else. Perhaps if we would demand that our men and women take more seriously the responsibility that goes along with procreating children, or that we demand that the parentrs of our children become more actively involved in the lives of their children, or demanded that we spend our money more wisely and responsibly, and I could go on and on, then perhaps the results of all of these demands would generate success within our own community to the point where we’re basicially showing that we don’t have to beg anyone outside of us for ANYTHING.
secret16
Martial rhetoric in which we call upon ourselves to do more for ourselves is all very good, but it’s very insulting to blacks given that we’ve given more and LOST more to this system than any non-black has ever contributed to it.
It implies that we’ve had as much liberty to do for self as everyone else but have fallen short through our own failings.
Well, that’s not how I see it. you’re leaving a whole lotta history outta the picture.
Things didn’t come to be the way they are for blacks beause blacks failed to keep step every one else. No, anytime blacks have tried to do for self we’ve been smacked down.
Ours is an imposed dependency.
That’s what white supremacy does where ever it goes, it wants total control of its victims and for its victims to be totally dependent -
and powerless. (see details of pending war Iran for more on this point)
So since that’s the case we have every right to demand that the system provide for us until we are indeed able to do for self.
What we should demand of each other is a much higher awareness of this simple fact and a commitment to struggle against it.
I don’t think Charlize meant any harm. So what she doesn’t “get it”. Yes there is a Hollywood standard of beauty that will be hard to diversify, but Viola should use this opportunity to blaze the trail for black actresses who don’t “look like halle” while she’s on the A list and stop beating a dead horse.
gmarie…How do you suggest she blaze this trail? *crickets* some stuff is just really easy to say…huh. The next time she’s playing a maid she should go extra hard or something?
I don’t think any of us know what Viola meant….her comments were open for interpretation…. Not just about who looks better…. there is also the whole actual black women vs. I’m 1/4 black..but, I’m a black actress….no actually you are not. and Halle won an Oscar, she’s not working as much as one would think.
@ The Best Anon, (girrrrrl your name be so long!)
I concur 100% with your comments! Very thoughtful and precise.
George Clooney just earned some major cool points with me in that video.
i don’t know what the fuss is about .. charlize theron is an african america women… she might be white but she is an african american women… i thought all AA stick together.. all joking aside… remember the 90′s and early 00′s when almost every month they was a black movie out in thearters; i wonder what change.. oh i know the unemployment rate for black people went up from 7% to 17%… at this time we have less discretionary money available.. That will change 3 to 5 years from now when the economy gets better…when black people start working again…i promise you that…i should know i work for a think tank for one of the movie studios.
You work for a think tank and couldn’t conjugated “change to changed?”
A misspelling on a comment is one thing, but improper verb conjugation while talking about how you work at a think tank is quite another.
Either you don’t work for a think tank (most likely) or your think tank’s contract should be terminated by whatever studio is employing it.
it’s funny how people tend ignore the obvious when facts are presented to them… squirrel… i was never a good speller but the facts are the facts… historically most all black cast movies have never (and i repeat never) done well to warrant a big production budget… don’t hate, educate yourself
” (be)cause they’re dumb.”
Not “their”.
I thought “Columbiana” was made ‘outside’ of the Hollywood system? Like way outside…like via France.
We have to work outside of the Hollywood system. We just have to. And ARE. See AFFRM and Ava Duvernay and other filmmakers/directors who are creating and financing their own works.
Yes, I thought the same thing, I thought that film was put together by some French production company. Regardless, I agree with you and some of the other comments here…we need to look away from the big American studios and get our money elsewhere so we can tell our own stories.
There is no conspiracy; most of the people running studios and doing deals in Hollywood don’t even like each other that much. Many of them HATE each other. There is no getting together and everyone decding to do something.
It’s all about the money. These guys (mostly Jewish) running the studios would sell out their mother for a high-grossing film, no matter who was in it, or what it was about. Conversely, they run, not walk away from anything they think is not going to make their money back. They are risk-averse.
Which is why anything different (read: risky) has to have a really big name (or several merely big names) attached to it, or it won’t get made by a big studio. They’re trying to cover their bets. The ideal combination is something fairly conventional with a really big name (or names).
The very worst combination from Hollywood’s perspective is something very different with no big names. That movie is, 1) Not going to be made, or, 2) be made on a shoestring budget, or, 3) going to get their financing overseas or from an individual.
Examples:
1) Thousands and thousands of potentially great movies, many of them “black” films
2)”Rocky” – made for a million dollars, won three Oscars, earned $230 million so far, “Napoleon Dynamite” – made for $400,000, earned $50 million so far, “The Blair Witch Project” – made for $22,000,earned $250 million so far
3) Currently, “The Artist” (overseas financing), “Red Tails” (financed by George Lucas), “Albert Nobbs” (financed by Glenn Close)
It’s a volatile business, and it’s difficult to predict what will be a hit until after it’s all done and all the money has been spent.
Options 2 and 3 may be the best choice for most “black” movies, at least in the near-term.
+100
Everyone’s got an opinion…this is good information, good facts instead of just yapping. It’s obvious to me why black film makers can’t rely on studio money here in America, and we just need to go to Plan B or Plan C instead of waiting on the major studios to think that our films are a good investment.
We have to do for ourselves like these white film makers did before they got famous.then you can call your own shots.
I’m not buying it, I think there is a conspiracy by the white men that run the studios. I think they want everyone to look at those youtube videos of sistas fighting at Burger King and think that black women act like that. I think they want people to think of rappers yelling curse words into a microphone with their pants hanging down when they think of black men. I think they want black men getting arrested for crimes on the evening news to be what white people think of black men. I think they want people to think of fat single mothers when they think of black women.
They don’t want us in their movies. They don’t want people to see how beautiful black women are and how handsome black men are. I think the men running the big powerful studios are doing everything they can to keep black people down, because that’s what white people do, they’re the devil in a suit.
Demanding better films will fall on deaf ears. Stop going to see the foolishness they promote will send a bigger message because it will hit them where it hurts: their pockets!
it’s funny how people tend ignore the obvious when facts are presented to them… squirrel… i was never a good speller but the facts are the facts… historically most all black cast movies have never (and i repeat never) done well to warrant a big production budget… don’t hate, educate yourself
I encourage any person of color hoping to play a role in the entertainment industry to go the independent film route. You can drastically reduce production costs and have 100 percent creative control. Let the studio’s chase you and create a product with actual creativity and integrity.
Bisous, I agree. If you’re a black director/writer (as I am), you need to do what you do, and not wait on a studio for financing. Studios are not going to give you their money in order to prove yourself. When Kevin Smith shot “Clerks”, I think that movie was made for less than $90,000 because there was zero interest from everyone. It’s made around $21 million, and now Kevin Smith can get financing if he wants it. As you say, now the studios are calling him instead of him trying to beg money from them.
There is a market for good little movies that have black people in them, but the major studios are going to sit back and wait for that market to prove itself before they invest in those movies. As far as the studios are concerned, the only genre of black movies that has proved it’s viability so far is the genre that Tyler Perry rules.
Zoe Saldana is black? I thought she was Dominican.
Apparently, even Dream Works is having touble getting financing for their studio. Hard to believe, but according to “The New York Times”, things are tenuous:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/30/business/media/dreamworks-caught-in-a-real-life-drama.html?_r=1&hp#