The Help

[baileydash]

It would be nice to see more colorblind casting in mainstream movies. But women of color are kinda invisible. So, it's not gonna happen.

[Neurochick]

Feb 13, 2012 2:07:48 GMT -4 baileydash said:

It would be nice to see more colorblind casting in mainstream movies. But women of color are kinda invisible. So, it's not gonna happen.

Which is kind of sad since real life seems to be going faster than the crap that Hollywood puts out. I mean right now, there's a black First Lady and what does Hollywood do? Make a movie where two black women are playing maids. I guess that says it all about what Hollywood really thinks about black women.

[Mutagen]

Feb 9, 2012 22:50:21 GMT -4 @huntergrayson said:

If her performance as a maid in this means an Oscar win and she then has the power to move into producing (as she has said she wants to, to have better roles for African-Americans and films made by black filmmakers), then isn't it kinda a good thing?

I have to point out that this is exactly what Hattie McDaniel did, or tried to do, with her Oscar win - behind the scenes, she tried hard to empower other black peformers. The fact that we are still having this conversation 73 years later is really, really sad.

[Chenoeh]

Women of color are absent from Shakespeare, bodice ripping hoop skirt costume dramas, war movies, war crime movies, or romantic comedies without an obvious cultural slant

I've seen excellent productions of Shakespeare starring women of colour, Portia in Merchant of Venice springs to mind. That was a stage production in the UK mind, I gather casting tends to be more colour blind here though. I'm not really sure what point I'm trying to make here

[Neurochick]

Feb 14, 2012 14:27:13 GMT -4 Chenoeh said:

Women of color are absent from Shakespeare, bodice ripping hoop skirt costume dramas, war movies, war crime movies, or romantic comedies without an obvious cultural slant

I've seen excellent productions of Shakespeare starring women of colour, Portia in Merchant of Venice springs to mind. That was a stage production in the UK mind, I gather casting tends to be more colour blind here though. I'm not really sure what point I'm trying to make here

Unfortunately movies aren't color blind. The first comment is VERY correct. Women of color are absent from movies where the cultural slant isn't there. Why can't women of color play superheroes or romantic partners?

[sugarhigh]

Yep, I'm thinking of two movies I recently saw - 50/50 and Midnight in Paris. None of the parts in either movie NEEDED to be played by a white person. In 50/50, a person of color could have replaced Seth Rogen or Anna Kendrick with no harm to the script. And it's not like either were the box office draws. In Midnight in Paris, a person of color could have replaced Rachel McAdams (heck someone of equal or above status like Zoe Saldana could have replaced her) or Michael Sheen. It's just that producers/directors never even consider minority actors.

[Neurochick]

Feb 15, 2012 16:45:19 GMT -4 sugarhigh said:

Yep, I'm thinking of two movies I recently saw - 50/50 and Midnight in Paris. None of the parts in either movie NEEDED to be played by a white person. In 50/50, a person of color could have replaced Seth Rogen or Anna Kendrick with no harm to the script. And it's not like either were the box office draws. In Midnight in Paris, a person of color could have replaced Rachel McAdams (heck someone of equal or above status like Zoe Saldana could have replaced her) or Michael Sheen. It's just that producers/directors never even consider minority actors.

Very true. It's more about the way that producers/directors see black people. They can see a black woman as a domestic, but not as a romantic partner. And to me that's just straight up racism/ignorance/douchebaggery, what boils down to is that these Hollywood producers/directors see black women, not as women, but almost as another species.

[Deleted]

You make a valid point with Midnight in Paris, and it is true for far too many films. But I feel like I need to defend Seth Rogen's presence in 50/50. It was based on actual events in the screenwriter's life, and Seth Rogen was essentially playing himself. And he happens to be white. The movie was a labor of love for him, so are you saying he should've been cast aside so he could be played by a person of color? I would think that would smack of tokenism.

[sugarhigh]

I would be okay with replacing Seth Rogen in every movie...by a minority of color, a woman, my dog, a cabinet, etc. He's terrible and he was terrible in that movie (which I thought was pretty crappy overall).

I don't see why Rogen had to be cast even though it was a labor of love for him. It was the screenwriter's life portrayed on film but he wasn't cast as the lead. Minority characters get replaced for white actors all the time - see Airbender, but those movies still get made and seen with hardly an outcry by anyone except minorities.

But if Seth Rogen was essential, then one of the guys JGL meets while having chemotherapy could have been replaced. Or JGL's girlfriend.

[Deleted]

Feb 13, 2012 14:24:59 GMT -4 Neurochick said:

Feb 13, 2012 2:07:48 GMT -4 baileydash said:

It would be nice to see more colorblind casting in mainstream movies. But women of color are kinda invisible. So, it's not gonna happen.

Which is kind of sad since real life seems to be going faster than the crap that Hollywood puts out. I mean right now, there's a black First Lady and what does Hollywood do? Make a movie where two black women are playing maids. I guess that says it all about what Hollywood really thinks about black women.

Real life is going faster than the movies but television is doing a much better job at catching up. "The Jeffersons" portrayed an upper-middle class black family a decade and a half before movies such depictions appeared on the big screen. Regina King is kicking butt and taking names on "Southland" but I despair of ever seeing a female, black police detective as the lead character in a movie. And Penny Johnson played a delightfully multi-dimensional FLOTUS on "24". TV is far from perfect and its near-whiteout is reprehensible but at least when black actresses are cast on tv, they stand a chance of playing something other than "the black roles".