The cover story for this month's Vanity Fair is "A New Hollywood", but ironically, it looks a lot like the old Hollywood. The picture features nine actresses on the come up, with one striking similarity: they are all rail thin, White women. In the age of Obama, is this still the representation of Hollywood? Ya damn skippy!
Not that I expected Gabby Sidibe (“Precious”) to appear in this shoot, because let’s keep it real, we’re not gonna see too much more of her unless we see less of her. However, for the sake of diversity, I would’ve anticipated at least one actress of color to be included. Black, Hispanic, Asian, Indian, something! Vanity Fair thought otherwise, sticking to the script and selecting actresses that may prove to be leading women for years to come or fade into bolivion (Word to Mike Tyson!).
With all of the accolades and nominations that Precious is receiving, it won’t change a damn thing in Hollywood, because it is a Black film, with a Black cast and Black issues that was marketed to Black people. Well, at least that’s how it’s boxed in and with the uniqueness of its leading characters, it’s hard to see the momentum from this film carrying over into many additional roles.
As far as we like to believe we’ve come, the truth is we’ve got a long way to go. Taraji P. Henson was nominated for an Academy Award for her role in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, next she starred in a Tyler Perry film, then nothing. Movies like Precious or Talk to Me are few and few between. The kind of roles where Black actors, actresses and filmmakers can show their range and relate deeper stories are minimal at best and box office hits at an even smaller percentage. Spike Lee has made over a dozen landmark films, yet Inside Man, a decidedly mainstream film is his only box-office smash.
For all of his success Tyler Perry’s films are still limited in their reach (not my inner hater typing), they have big opening weekend numbers, because you run out to see them. Yet, the numbers fall dramatically into the second week and the films are damn near out of the theaters after three weeks, because there’s no crossover appeal or in my opinion, the films are just too shallow to be taken seriously.
Ahh, there’s the rub. A series of films that feature a character as outlandish as “Madea” are a goldmine, yet more profound films like Talk to Me, Miracle at St. Anna or American Violet go largely unnoticed. It’s this dichotomy within our own film community that keeps more of our stars from crashing through the glass ceiling.
Yes, Eddie Murphy, Martin Lawrence, Denzel Washington, Will Smith and Halle Berry are huge stars and have made millions of dollars, but Zoe Saldana who starred in Star Trek and box-office buster Avatar can’t even get invited to a cover shoot from Vanity Fair.
Gone are the days of Stepin Fetchet, Mantan Moreland and the countless “Mammy” characters that appeared in films in their primitive stages, we are a more diverse, complex, inclusive country these days and have more than enough capable representation in Hollywood to stand toe-to-toe with the heavyweights on screen and behind the scenes. While the slogan in politics became, “Yes, we did,” in Hollywood, it has to be, “Damn, can we?”
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