African Americans have long suffered from role “whitewashing”, as have other races, including Asians.
Having white actors play other races, often in a mocking way, is as old as the movie industry itself. And in 2013, there were complaints about the casting of Johnny Depp as a Native American Tonto in “The Lone Ranger.” Jake Gyllenhaal also found himself in the midst of criticism because as an actor of Swedish and Jewish descent he was cast for the lead role in the 2010 film “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time”. Last year, Ridley Scott found himself under surveillance because his film “Exodus: Gods and Kings” had non-Arab actors playing Egyptian roles. “The list of films in which white actors have played other races includes everything from romantic comedies to action adventures and fantasies to historical epics. “When white actors play other races”: BBCTom Brook reports.
But in the end I was able to make my film and they gave me the final cut (although they didn’t have to) and I have no complaints or excuses. They’re basically guaranteed to make a profit on VOD, so hitting theaters on an original story like ours (sequels are obviously a very different issue) is a big risk and few movies can carry that risk.
The story is just too strange, and the downside of adding $ 30 million in marketing costs to a $ 4 million investment is really huge. For the reasons I mentioned above, we didn’t do a “movie cut”, but that doesn’t bother me at all. So you really have to stand out when your movie is done. Now the thing is, they do something like 20 movies a year. So it really is an amazing opportunity that they are offering you. You have your budget and your schedule (4 million and 25 days in my case) and if you stick to it, you have complete freedom. Plus, when you shoot the movie, they really leave you alone. When they say they’re going to make a movie, they do. They have the option of giving their own movies the green light (below a certain budget level) so you don’t have to go through the ups and downs of ‘will I be able to make this movie or not’. “ “What was it like working with Blumhouse Productions, and are there any particular movies that they released that you enjoyed? (I myself am a sucker for the first “paranormal activity”.) ” “Blumhouse is such an amazing setup. “Phil Joanou on ‘Le Voile'”: To Independent perspectives, I’m chatting with the U2 filmmaker and music video maker about his new thriller for Blumhouse Productions.
But what ends up happening is you have these various characters that exist in this world that are not like them. And if you have a black gay character, it’s a twofer.
‘ About diversity on TV: “The problem is, on the one hand, TV has moved to this place where it’s more diverse, but what it ends up looking like is you have a overall TV show and they will make sure there is some diversity. They’re sort of trying to run away from him. The handful of those out there don’t want to be associated with it. The problem is always that we don’t have enough celebrities or black actors to make it matter. Regarding openly homosexual black actors: “I like having homosexual actors play in homosexual roles. It’s a shallow pool at the beginning the actors always express a fear, a reluctance because they will be stereotypical and they will not have other roles. They’re still developing a slew of white actors and actresses that you’ll see in a few months on the cover of Vanity Fair in the new issue of Young Hollywood. On young black talent in Hollywood: “Hollywood does a really horrible job of cultivating young black talent. Obviously, that’s why my work resonated with so many people.
People don’t think about these things, but it makes a difference for young black gay men to never see full versions of themselves in movies or on TV. We have isolated characters here and there, but they’re not the primary focus of anything, whether it’s reality TV where they’re fabulous sidekicks to real housewives from anywhere or we support characters in a scripted TV show… gay characters of color on TV, especially men, have white partners. But in some ways it makes me sad because the fact that so many people go back to ‘Noah’s Bow’ is proof of the reality that we haven’t had anything like it since then. “On the impact of ‘Noah’s Arc’ and other black gay characters on TV: ‘If anyone appreciates your work, that’s a good feeling.
“In their own words, actors about being black and (openly) gay in Hollywood”: A terrific series of interviews with Tre’vell Anderson at The Los Angeles Times (below are quotes from director Patrik-Ian Polk).