Sunday, 4 May 2014 02:18 pm
Racism or Prizism?
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deckardcanineIn the latest Entertainment Weekly, Mark Harris has a column complaining about how rare it is for even vastly praised Black actresses (or maybe Black actors in general; he doesn't put much emphasis on gender) to get good movie roles. It's not a bad article, yet I'm not convinced that the examples he gives stem mainly from the source he believes.
I don't deny that show business is a bastion of ongoing racism and sexism, subtle or otherwise. After all, you can legitimately turn down actors just for the way they look, regardless of skills. Even with modern technology, cosmetic procedures, and high budgets, no sane casting director will consider, say, Lupita Nyong'o and Daniel Day-Lewis for the same part, whatever that may be. And it's almost inevitable that minorities will be less in demand.
But Nyong'o, the primary focus of Harris's article, has more standing in the way than her dark skin and exotic name. There's the Oscar curse -- or rather an Oscar curse, since the term gets applied to more than one phenomenon. I'm talking about how actors who win Academy Awards when they weren't previously all that famous have trouble landing good roles afterward. It's not just a superstition or an arbitrary long-time statistical pattern; it happens because companies have a hard time seeing those actors in any roles unlike what they won for. There weren't many masters of ceremonies for Joel Grey after Cabaret; Louise Fletcher couldn't keep playing harsh nurses after One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest; and Jean Dujardin, for all his popularity in early 2012, never takes center stage anymore and thus remains largely silent on screen. The curse doesn't always strike (I doubt Day-Lewis was a household name before My Left Foot), but it strikes often enough that I fully expected the difficulties of both Dujardin and Nyong'o. And had Quvenzhané Wallis won in her single digits for Beasts of the Southern Wild, she'd be on her way to the next Tatum O'Neal.
Harris also mentions Viola Davis and Halle Berry as undersupported Black actresses. Well, I for one could not have placed Davis before The Help (I'd seen her only in bit parts), so the Oscar curse may well have hit her too. Berry seems to be another story: Harris notes that she made bad choices but has been given less of a chance to recover than White actors. That puts aside how many embarrassments Eddie Murphy made before garnering an Oscar nomination for Dreamgirls. I suspect it's largely a matter of overall history.
On the other hand, Harris sees more progress in the realm of TV. At least, that's what he implies, providing only "Scandal" and an upcoming CBS drama (which he doesn't name, but IMDb lists "Extant") as examples. I am vaguely aware of subcultural differences between TV and movies, but let me know when you come up with more evidence. Perhaps it simply takes more than a one-page article to present a compelling case on the matter.
I don't deny that show business is a bastion of ongoing racism and sexism, subtle or otherwise. After all, you can legitimately turn down actors just for the way they look, regardless of skills. Even with modern technology, cosmetic procedures, and high budgets, no sane casting director will consider, say, Lupita Nyong'o and Daniel Day-Lewis for the same part, whatever that may be. And it's almost inevitable that minorities will be less in demand.
But Nyong'o, the primary focus of Harris's article, has more standing in the way than her dark skin and exotic name. There's the Oscar curse -- or rather an Oscar curse, since the term gets applied to more than one phenomenon. I'm talking about how actors who win Academy Awards when they weren't previously all that famous have trouble landing good roles afterward. It's not just a superstition or an arbitrary long-time statistical pattern; it happens because companies have a hard time seeing those actors in any roles unlike what they won for. There weren't many masters of ceremonies for Joel Grey after Cabaret; Louise Fletcher couldn't keep playing harsh nurses after One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest; and Jean Dujardin, for all his popularity in early 2012, never takes center stage anymore and thus remains largely silent on screen. The curse doesn't always strike (I doubt Day-Lewis was a household name before My Left Foot), but it strikes often enough that I fully expected the difficulties of both Dujardin and Nyong'o. And had Quvenzhané Wallis won in her single digits for Beasts of the Southern Wild, she'd be on her way to the next Tatum O'Neal.
Harris also mentions Viola Davis and Halle Berry as undersupported Black actresses. Well, I for one could not have placed Davis before The Help (I'd seen her only in bit parts), so the Oscar curse may well have hit her too. Berry seems to be another story: Harris notes that she made bad choices but has been given less of a chance to recover than White actors. That puts aside how many embarrassments Eddie Murphy made before garnering an Oscar nomination for Dreamgirls. I suspect it's largely a matter of overall history.
On the other hand, Harris sees more progress in the realm of TV. At least, that's what he implies, providing only "Scandal" and an upcoming CBS drama (which he doesn't name, but IMDb lists "Extant") as examples. I am vaguely aware of subcultural differences between TV and movies, but let me know when you come up with more evidence. Perhaps it simply takes more than a one-page article to present a compelling case on the matter.