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This
has been a banner year for black actors. Samuel L. Jackson (Coach
Carter), Will Smith (Hitch), Ice Cube (Are
We There Yet?), Bernie Mac (Guess Who) and
Tyler Perry (Diary of a Mad Black Woman) have started
in films that debuted in first place. Terrence Howard won critical acclaim
for his role in Crash and his breakout role in Hustle
& Flow. Progress is great anywhere we can find it and I
will be the first one in line to applaud these brothers and their achievements.
But it prompts me to ask, where are the black actresses?
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Many
of us naively believed, when Halle clutched that golden Oscar
statue, that it would usher in a new day for black actresses.
That day hasn't come. Good roles for actresses of all colors have
always been hard to come by. But when an actress is of color or
over 40 - or God forbid, both - those roles become even more scarce.
Most movies still have male leads and it used to be that an actress
could count on the role of the girlfriend or wife (not necessarily
the juiciest role or the best written, but a role just the same).
Yet, when it comes to playing the love interest or wife for a
black actor, those roles are increasingly going to non-black actresses.
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When
promoting his movie, Hitch overseas, Will Smith told
The Birmingham (England) Post “There’s sort of an accepted
myth that if you have two black actors, a male and a female, in the
lead of a romantic comedy, that people around the world don’t
want to see it. We spend $50-something million making this movie and
the studio would think that was tough on their investment. So the idea
of a black actor and a white actress comes up — that’ll
work around the world, but it’s a problem in the U.S.”
The
compromise? Cuban-born, Eva Mendes. She’s not white, so she won’t
ruffle any feather inside the States. And she is not black so she won’t
alienate white people outside of the States. So much for a color blind
society. And Hitch isn’t an isolated incident. The summer release,
Underclassman starred Nick Cannon as a young bike cop
who goes undercover at a high school and falls for one of his teachers,
played by Roselyn Sanchez. See Honey, Training Day
and BLANK for other examples of this trend.
Mendes has seen a career boost by playing the wife or significant other
of several black actors but even she thinks the phenomenon is strange.
She told Newsweek, earlier this year, “ "I don't even know
what to say about it anymore. Certainly I've benefitted, because I've
got to work with Ice Cube, Denzel and Will. But it's lame. I wish the
mentality wasn't so closed."
Let’s
look at the first part of Smith’s premise. Two black actors will
hurt international box office by branding a film a ‘black film.’
What is so different about two black people in love? We have the same
issues as any other couples: trust, fidelity, communication, meddling
friends and family. And let’s face it. It’s not as if Hollywood
is churning out inventive and original concepts. A movie with two black
romantic leads is similar enough in plot and character to any other
movie with white or non-black romantic leads. Nevertheless, many whites
will still dismiss it as a ‘black film’ What’s wrong
with a black film? Are they scared to see it? Do they think they won’t
be able to relate? Minorities see white people in love every day and,
cultural differences aside, there are enough similarities that we can
all find something that we can relate to, why can't they?
Unfortunately, the second part of his premise has some truth to it.
There are a number of people whose feathers will get ruffled by the
combination of a black actor and a white actress. I did a Google search
on Hitch and came across a few white supremacist sites.
I won’t repeat some of the things said there but suffice to say
that they were really relieved that Smith got with Mendes and not a
white woman. Really relieved.
There is a third reason behind this trend and it could spell the death
knell for black-on-black, on-screen love. The bottom line. Black people
will support (arguably) films that feature black actors. Hispanics will
support (arguably) films that feature Hispanic actors. So, according
to studio logic (if there is such a thing), they can score with both
audiences by featuring leads from both ethnic groups. And they won't
piss off a bunch of white folks in the process. It's a win-win-win situation
. . . unless you are a black actress.
Get
more celeb info! Visit Karyn Beach's website at www.divasoulsista.com.
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