Minorities in Hollywood

[twodollars]

I know there used to be a topic like this somewhere, but I couldn't find it.

There is an article in Newsweek about the unprecedented number of Oscar nominations for minority actors this year and wondering if this is a one-time occurrence or the beginning of a new Hollywood or just a fluke:

Color-Blind Hollywood

Angela Bassett couldn't find work for a year after being nominated for "What's Love Got to Do With It." ...

But rewriting history isn't easy. Actresses still haven't benefited much from Berry's win—no black woman has been nominated for best actress since she won. "We still don't have a female African-American superstar," says black-film historian Donald Bogle. "There's not even a female equivalent for Samuel L. Jackson or Morgan Freeman."

I wonder if the lack of female African-American superstar actress has more to do with the fewer good roles for women as a whole. There seems to be a lot of talented women fighting over so few good roles.

Also, I wonder if this trend of good roles for African-Americans and Latinos is going to continue? And when there will be some better roles for Asians as well?

I know in 2007, "Love in the Time of Cholera" is being released, which stars a ton of Latinos and sounds like a perfect Oscar-bait movie.

[Mutagen]

Hmmm... Radar Online recently ran a feature about the top ten most memorable stereotypes in cinema. It struck me as a fairly light article, but they captured a fairly broad range of stereotypes - from the Mystical Black Man to the Villainous Ay-rab to Long Duk Dong.

It always sorta kills me to see an actor I like play a really stereotypical role - like, Gedde Watanabe seems like a really nice guy, but you can also see why the Donger didn't go over so well. I am white so I don't feel it's my place to judge an ethnic minority actor for taking a stereotypical role, but I just feel so sorry for people sometimes.

[hushhush]

This was in EW yesterday:
Vanity Fair names It girls

It's about a Vanity Fair prediction of actresses who will be big names in the upcoming decade. I don't agree with a lot of their selections in the first place, but the one thing I can't help but notice is that they are all very....white. There's not a black or Hispanic face anywhere in that photo. In fact, the very first comment below the article says exactly what I thought when I saw it. A debate then rages in the comments section about minority actresses who were overlooked.

It's not like VF would have had to try really hard to find young, talented minority actresses to include. There are quite a few of them out there.

[Deleted]

It will be very interesting to see how Gabourey Sidibe's career will continue after the Precious hype dies down. It seems that Hollywood simply doesn't know what to do with African American actresses after a great role. They are either casts as the "best friend" or "sassy" one, or they end up on a television show and are never heard from again. I hope that doesn't happen to Gaby. To no surprise, her fellow young nominee, Carey Mulligan, is already working on a big budget movie, so let's see how Hollywood fares with GS.

As for the VF "It" girls, why are people surprised when they don't include women of color among that list. If their publicists don't do their work, then don't expect them on the covers.

Hell, Halle Berry has yet to be on the cover of VF. On the flip side, Beyonce has been on it twice albeit they had to "lighten" her up so to speak.

[normadesmond]

For me, the most significant fact relating to the casting of minority actresses, something which has hardly gotten any mention in the press, is the studios' unwillingness to do anything at all to promote Kimberly Elise after she had an unexpected sleeper smash with Diary of a Mad Black Woman. There's simply no way Gwyneth Paltrow or Kate Hudson could have done those kinds of box office numbers without seeing a major, major career boost. But the movie did precisely nothing for Elise's film career. That shows that minority actresses are overlooked even after they strike gold.

I do think critics bear some responsibility as well. Jonathan Demme is a big fan of Elise and cast her in his movies twice, to no avail. He also cast Thandie Newton twice and Denzel Washington twice. He has tried very hard to do color-blind casting, yet the moment he puts Anne Hathaway in his movie (Rachel Getting Married) the critics all line up to sing her praises as the Next Great Ingenue (as they did with Carey Mulligan as well) and shower her with acting awards. None of that happened for Kimberly or Thandie when they worked with Demme (twice each). In fact, Rachel Getting Married was hailed as a "return to form" for Demme after a supposedly disastrous career slump. I'm not so sure about that. This supposed post-Silence of the Lambs career "slump" is noteable for me, in that I couldn't help noticing the sheer number of crucial roles were played by black actors, and not playing the token "black person" either: Philadelphia, Beloved, The Truth About Charlie, The Manchurian Candidate. TMC was a remake of course, but quite a good one, in which Kimberly Elise replaces Janet Leigh, but comes off more like Jodie Foster. It's frustrating because Demme showed there what an African-American "Clarice Starling" might look like. I would love to have seen Elise do her own version of "Clarice" in that kind of film.

I hardly think Gabby Sidibe is looking at a glorious future in Hollywood (size issues as well as race issues) when the stunningly beautiful Elise (or Angela Bassett) couldn't even get any traction.

[Deleted]

I hardly think Gabby Sidibe is looking at a glorious future in Hollywood (size issues as well as race issues) when the stunningly beautiful Elise (or Angela Bassett) couldn't even get any traction.

ITA! Most likely Gabby will be looking at Tyler Perry movies that do not play well internationally or television because she's: 1. too black; 2. too dark; 3. not skinny; and 4. no one can pronounce her name.

Hollywood simply doesn't know what to do with AA actresses with talent. It's time someone actually calls Hollywood on the carpet for this. As for the men, Denzel and Samuel L. are over 50 and Will Smith is in his early forties, so their shelf life has limitations as well. Can someone like Anthony Mackie fill their void in the future? He can't play supporting roles forever.

[satellite]

I had a whole long post which I don't want to re-type at the moment, but the jist of it was that black, Asian, and Indian actresses have totally gotten the shaft after their "flavor of the month" status has faded.

How does Evan Rachel Wood get the VF cover years after her Thirteen "it-girl" status?She was good in The Wrestler, and "True Blood", and I do think she's talented, but she'd primarily been known as Marilyn Manson's girlfriend for like three years before that. Girlfriend is not an ingenue to me anymore.

[Augustus]

A lot of Asian actors go back to the Asian market and find work there.

And honestly, if you manage to break out in the Chinese market, whether as an actor or singer, you're pretty much set. As a matter of fact, lots of aspiring (mixed) Chinese actors don't even venture out to Europe or the US, but give it a go in Hong Kong and/or mainland China. Quite a few of them don't speak the language either, but learn their lines completely phonetically.

Still, it's quite revealing and appalling to see how minorities are only seen as "trends" in Hollywood.

[Witchie]

I expected to see some minorities represented in the Hollywood issue. Especially after the year, Zoe Saldana & Gabby Sibide had. Zoe stars in 2 mega-blockbusters. Gabby stars in one of the most successful arthouse films of the year. Frieda Pinto was in Slumdog Millionaires. The whitewash of Hollywood is ridiculous.

[chonies]

Feb 2, 2010 20:21:42 GMT -4 Augustus said:

A lot of Asian actors go back to the Asian market and find work there.

And honestly, if you manage to break out in the Chinese market, whether as an actor or singer, you're pretty much set. As a matter of fact, lots of aspiring (mixed) Chinese actors don't even venture out to Europe or the US, but give it a go in Hong Kong and/or mainland China. Quite a few of them don't speak the language either, but learn their lines completely phonetically.

Still, it's quite revealing and appalling to see how minorities are only seen as "trends" in Hollywood.

This seems to be happening in Bollywood--I don't know how much of a trend it truly is, but it seems I'm reading more and more about so-and-so grew up abroad, but "always loved Bollywood movies" and ends up getting dance lessons and speaks Hindi so badly it has to be dubbed. Katrina Kaif springs to mind, and I'm blanking on some other names.

Does Mindy Kaling get enough media attention to have to answer questions about her ethnicity?