Oscar’s Black & White World
Image by AFP/Getty Images via Daylife
“What’s wrong with this picture?”
Not the one to the left, to the left. So said the cover of Entertainment Weekly 14 years ago when not one black actor, not one black actress, and only one black behind-the-scenes talent managed to score an Oscar nomination. The Academy finally began to right years of wrongs around 2002, when Sidney Poitier was given an honorary Oscar, and both Denzel Washington and Halle Berry won in the leading acting categories. “Two birds in one night,” Washington famously quipped when accepting his honor. Was it mere coincidence that Whoopi Goldberg happened to be hosting that night?
But in Hollywood, the blackout continues. It’s still hard to find regular work in high-profile Hollywood movies if you’re black and your first name isn’t Halle, Will, Denzel or Morgan. Do first-class actresses like Angela Bassett and Alfre Woodard rarely appear in films anymore and spend most of their careers toiling on the small screen because they are over 50 (and we all know what becomes of actresses of a certain age who are not named Meryl), or is it because Hollywood just doesn’t know what to do with black actresses other than Halle Berry (besides cast them in secondary roles as doctors and officers of the law)?
Until Gabourey Sidibe’s nomination for Precious: Based on a Novel by Sapphire this morning, no black actress had been up for a leading actress Oscar since Berry’s Monster’s Ball win. Why? It might come down to numbers: Aside from Berry’s string of post-Oscar flops and Tyler Perry movies, how many mainstream films since then have been headlined by black actresses?
On the flip side, since Denzel Washington won for Training Day, a total of six black actors — Will Smith, Jamie Foxx, Don Cheadle, Terence Howard, Forest Whitaker, and, today, Morgan Freeman — have been nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, and two (Fox and Whitaker) have won. This year, three black performers are in the Oscar running, while Precious director Lee Daniels is now the second black director to be recognized by the Academy, and the first since John Singleton, who was nominated for Boyz in the Hood nearly 20 years ago.
Poor Spike Lee.
But today, let’s not weep too much for Spike Lee and blacks in Hollywood. Other minorities have it much worse in Hollywood and with the Academy. We don’t live in a black and white world, so when will Asian actors and actresses get their due? Last year, when Slumdog Millionaire won Best Picture, none of its stars were even nominated in the acting categories. The cast of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon suffered a similar fate when that film was up for Best Picture in 2001.
And there are plenty of talented Hispanic and Spanish actors and actresses turning in excellent performances every year (though rarely in complex central roles in mainstream Hollywood fare). Yet, the Academy waves its rainbow flag by pretending that Penelope Cruz is the only Spanish flame in town. This morning, she earned her third nod in four years for basically relocating last year’s Oscar-winning Vicky Cristina Barcelona performance to Italy and throwing in a song and dance.
Come on, Academy! She’s already got Javier Bardem. Does she really need another Oscar nomination, too?
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But its even worse behind the camera.
Its easier for a Black man to become president of the United States, than for him to become the head of a Hollywood/Santa Monica/Culver City film studio, television network, or a prominent, online content site.
The last Bush Administration had more high-profile folks of color, than the the current senior leadership of all the Hollywood/Avenue of the Americas film and television firms COMBINED.
How right you are. And maybe there lies the problem. Until there are more people of color behind the scenes and behind the camera, there will continue to be too few people of color in front of it.
In response to another comment. See in context »To illustrate how far we’ve come, think of how difficult today it would be to successfully pitch to the networks, a prime-time sitcom with a white, red-haired woman married to a mixed-race, Latino man.
Sixty years ago, we called this outlandish concept “I Love Lucy.”
In response to another comment. See in context »Bill, why do you think we’re regressing instead of progressing? Surely, there were fewer minority execs then than now. Yet, in the ’70s and ’80s, there were multiple shows, usually sitcoms (which is a whole separate issue), anchored by black characters (Good Times, The Jeffersons, Sanford & Son, What’s Happening, Diff’rent Strokes, for starters), and today, there are none. The only time you see blacks on the networks in prime time is when they are part of an ensemble (usually medical or law enforcement). And on cable, it’s no better. If the cable networks can create Emmy-caliber star vehicles for Glenn Close, Holly Hunter, Mary-Louise Parker, Kyra Sedgwick and Toni Collette, why not Angela Bassett and Alfre Woodward? Is the final season of ER (doctors again) the best they can do for Angela?
In response to another comment. See in context »Jeremy, I’m not certain that we have that many more non-white executives in programming and senior leadership today at the major broadcast networks, cable networks, and production companies, than what had existed in the 1970s.
I also believe that post-Civil Rights/Black Power energies in 1970s America, informed producers like Norman Lear, to diversify the tube
at the time. Aren’t we post-racial today (written with right eyebrow arched…)?
Also, the advent of outlets such as BET, TV One (and formerly, the CW and UPN), has led, I think, to a sort of de facto television segregation in terms of product, executive talent, and viewership.
I think that “The Game,” “Girlfriends,” and “Everybody Hates Chris” were superior to most of the sitcoms that I currently see on the “majors.”
My experience (I’ve worked with several cable networks…) is that vehicles are being created for Glenn, Holly, Mary-Louise, Kyra, Toni, Edie…largely because such a roster perhaps, reflects the true composition of those who lead the program decision-making process.
In response to another comment. See in context »