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Chris Rock on Hollywood: "It's a white industry"
- Thread starter Slayven
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……forgetit
Member
I'm black and don't find Tyler Perry funny, but I know plenty of white people who do. It has nothing to do with race and everything to do with taste/preference.
As he said in the article, Kevin Hart is one of the biggest comedians in the world and sells out arenas that are 10 times larger than what Jon Stewart is playing but because white money is seen as "better" than non-white money, Hart is the one who has to widen his audience, not Stewart. Every "black" movie that comes out makes money and black people are among the main drivers of entertainment, yet this bullshit narrative about movies aimed at black or non-white audiences don't make money. It's not based on any reality, just the racist beliefs in the minds of people who will swear up and down that they aren't racist.
And the whole "I can only relate to white characters" bullshit is just that, bullshit. We have people who learn to speak Klingon or whatever Lord of the Rings gobbledegook Tolkien created but you really believe that if a main character isn't white that it'll kill the movie because people can't relate? Most of the fucking stories in Hollywood are unrealistic nonsense that no one can relate to, but that doesn't stop them from being made. I'm tired of this lame, and tired, excuse. Just admit that you don't want to see black characters onscreen. I'd respect that a lot more than these stupid-ass excuses.
What? You are not making a whole lot of sense
User 73706
Banned
We have Adam Sandler movies. There's no inherent "black comedy is more dumbed down" rule at play. Both sides have audiences of many levels.
Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku!
Member
I dont see how this is even an issue now that movies are so big internationally. Can Chinese people relate to white characters more than black ones?
To be fair they could also consider Mr. Ed for Thor seeing as Beta Ray Bill exists. Comic writers already do wacky things gender/race wise to the heroes so that's not even an issue to me. Hollywood would do well to catch up to some of the comic writers.
I will be laughed for days. And I will be bumping this for days
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZU7Y1Hdww0
BRB's human ID is black
Great read for sure.
This is why I'm glad (and more excited) to see WB and their casting choices give a middle finger to Marvel Studios. They are picking award winning actors and mixing them up with up and comers. Hell, they changed a white character to a black person - usually, it's the other way around! And rumour has it they're looking for someone to fill the DC character Amanda Waller - a black woman. And not just a background character like in the Green Lantern movie, but someone who has a very large stake in the protagonists themselves.
And before people give flack to WB and their past duds, remember that the new slate of super hero movies are produced by a very different team. Specifically Charles Roven (who had nothing to do with Green Lantern, or Jonah Hex, or Catwoman) and Deborah Snyder - a female!
Very exciting to see the times change, but as Chris Rock points out it's going take a long time.
This is why I'm glad (and more excited) to see WB and their casting choices give a middle finger to Marvel Studios. They are picking award winning actors and mixing them up with up and comers. Hell, they changed a white character to a black person - usually, it's the other way around! And rumour has it they're looking for someone to fill the DC character Amanda Waller - a black woman. And not just a background character like in the Green Lantern movie, but someone who has a very large stake in the protagonists themselves.
And before people give flack to WB and their past duds, remember that the new slate of super hero movies are produced by a very different team. Specifically Charles Roven (who had nothing to do with Green Lantern, or Jonah Hex, or Catwoman) and Deborah Snyder - a female!
Very exciting to see the times change, but as Chris Rock points out it's going take a long time.
biggersmaller
Banned
True...though I was speaking to my larger point, that calling the whole industry racist because 21 cast a white lead or Exodus (again, probably terrible and will bomb) being absurdly racially tone-deaf is counterproductive. Both of these movies have been and will be criticized for their idiocy. Essentially, there are too many movies being made involving too many people to make sweeping generalizations on either side of the argument. Why not say the publishing industry is racist because FOXnews contributors publish million seller books?
Why don't we use Will Smith for that comparison instead?
Amory
Member
I love this part:
"Black kids watch The Lord of the Rings and they want to be the Lord of the Rings. I remember when they were doing Starsky & Hutch, and my manager was like, "We might be able to get you the part of Huggy Bear," which eventually went to Snoop Dogg. I was like: "Do you understand that when my brother and I watched Starsky & Hutch growing up, I would play Starsky and he would play Hutch? I don't want to play fing Huggy Bear. This is not a historical drama. This is not Thomas Jefferson. It's a movie based on a shitty TV show, it can be anybody. Who cares. If they want me to play Starsky or Hutch, or even the bad guy, I'm down. But Huggy Bear?"
"Black kids watch The Lord of the Rings and they want to be the Lord of the Rings. I remember when they were doing Starsky & Hutch, and my manager was like, "We might be able to get you the part of Huggy Bear," which eventually went to Snoop Dogg. I was like: "Do you understand that when my brother and I watched Starsky & Hutch growing up, I would play Starsky and he would play Hutch? I don't want to play fing Huggy Bear. This is not a historical drama. This is not Thomas Jefferson. It's a movie based on a shitty TV show, it can be anybody. Who cares. If they want me to play Starsky or Hutch, or even the bad guy, I'm down. But Huggy Bear?"
Woah woah woah, who said anything about ANYTHING being dumbed down? I said IF that's what the "black audiences" he himself spoke of like, then their taste is different. I don't know if that's the case and I never even suggested it had even the slightest thing to do with being more "dumb". Tastes can be different without one being superior.
And aren't Sandler's movies mostly box office disasters these days? I don't think ANY audience likes him at this point.
Yup. Read that with his exact voice and mannerisms. lol.
desertdroog
Member
Warm Machine
Member
Are people not upset more than a black actor is playing a storm trooper because the Empire is an allusion to Nazi Germany? Besides, the plot is completely unknown so how he figures into the story is pretty much a mystery. I'm guessing he sneaks onto the ship.
In so far as black directors and actors, film school is expensive and few people ever go to film school and do anything after the fact. Unfortunately socio economics probably dictate who ends up in school and who goes on to make films let alone getting a camera in the first place. But the world has changed and anyone who wants to can get something decent and shoot and distribute without artificial gating.
Success is the best measure of a working director. Why Tyler Perry, Spike Lee, Antoine Fuqua, F. Gary Grey, and the Hughes Brothers have made multiple films. Production companies bank on safe, proven bets.
Personally I like seeing actors like Will Smith, Vin, Morgan Freeman, Sam Jackson, Djimon Honsu, and so on on screen because they are charismatic. My race has nothing to do with it because I want to see the character they are playing inhabit the world. There isn't an actor out there that I think looks like me or is a reflection of my lifestyle. I want to see people who are in circles I don't travel in and that are interesting to me.
In so far as black directors and actors, film school is expensive and few people ever go to film school and do anything after the fact. Unfortunately socio economics probably dictate who ends up in school and who goes on to make films let alone getting a camera in the first place. But the world has changed and anyone who wants to can get something decent and shoot and distribute without artificial gating.
Success is the best measure of a working director. Why Tyler Perry, Spike Lee, Antoine Fuqua, F. Gary Grey, and the Hughes Brothers have made multiple films. Production companies bank on safe, proven bets.
Personally I like seeing actors like Will Smith, Vin, Morgan Freeman, Sam Jackson, Djimon Honsu, and so on on screen because they are charismatic. My race has nothing to do with it because I want to see the character they are playing inhabit the world. There isn't an actor out there that I think looks like me or is a reflection of my lifestyle. I want to see people who are in circles I don't travel in and that are interesting to me.
You're giving people too credit. The Empire is a broad allusion to Nazi Germany only in the sense of the totalitarian dictatorship/taste in fashion. The Emperor didn't really have a beef with people of different colors, I think it was alluded that he didn't like aliens in the prequels but nothing explicit. Hell the actor who played Jango Fett is an Maori/Scottish/Irish mix so there goes the whole purity argument.
People are just upset that a Black dude who isn't already famous( and thus palatable) is one of the leads of Star Wars.
Zen_Arcade
Banned
Why can't people relate to the black guy? Granted there are some cases where the perspective of a black person would be different from a white person, but the vast amount of themes you would use in a movie would probably be easily relatable no matter what the race of the character is.
Hari Seldon
Member
Yeah that Sony leak seems to back him up a bit.
Source: http://fusion.net/story/30789/hacke...llywood-studios-stunning-gender-and-race-gap/
Source: http://fusion.net/story/30789/hacke...llywood-studios-stunning-gender-and-race-gap/
alexandros
Banned
Yup.
Warm Machine
Member
The empire is the empire. All we know about it watching the OT is that it is run by humans and those without helmets are universally lighter skinned.
In so far as John Boyega, I think people need to watch Attack the Block and realize that he is a pretty good actor and has a good deal of screen presence.
In the original Phantom Menace script the people of Naboo were written as being a lot more racist against the Gungans. It is still hinted at in the film but not to the same degree.
DOWN
Banned
What are you trying to start?
Buddha Beam
Banned
Wouldn't that be the new Star Wars? The apparent star of the movie is a black male.
Mmm...reality?
BeatResetsTheWorld
Banned
What are you talking about? They need to not cast asian people as white
Is it wrong that I can and do fap to that shit?
Ironically enough BLACKED is a pretty decent about the whole hi-def, pretty makeup, romantic scenes though the taboo element is always lurking in the subtext.
Zantetsuken
Member
You're missing some key information from that post you quoted.
True but in the case of a Tyler Perry in black and I find nothing relatable to it. I'm not a woman, I didn't grow up in the south, my parents are West Indian immigrants and I was raised a Muslim. Basically I don't think a Tyler Perry movie is made to speak to all black people but a very specific identity like you began to explain
AbsolutBro
Member
Slightly off-topic but Beta Ray Bill is more bad ass than Thor anyway. Thor was basically born with Mjolnir in hand, it was his destiny. BRB picked it up when everyone was like "no one but Thor can wield Mjolnir!" and then proceeded to beat Thor's ass so bad even Odin was like 'Damn... that dude needs his own hammer!"
It extends beyond just actors though, which was one of Rock's points. There are a lack of minorities in areas like lighting and grips. Areas that require significant education or risk on behalf of the studio to perform successfully.
It's less, why aren't there more black blockbuster and more why aren't there more minorities selecting the fart sounds in Paul Blart or rigging the explosions in Bad Boys 3.
Tim the Wiz
Banned
First off, black audiences aren't monolithic. Second, Chris Rock addresses this point in his article:
I really don't think there's any difference between what black audiences find funny and what white audiences find funny, but everyone likes to see themselves onscreen, so there are some instances where there's a black audience laughing at something that a white audience wouldn't laugh at because a black audience is really just happy to see itself.
More than that, I wouldn't want minorities on film to be relegated to exclusively Tyler Perry-esque flicks, or biopics on a prolific minority figure.
Zen_Arcade
Banned
What's a human ID? I mean I can kind of gather that it's what alien races would be if they were humans but where do they go into detail about this for different characters?
CassidyIzABeast
Member
Speaking of Tyler Perry that Uncle Ruckus bit about him running a underground railroad had me screaming
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3guMnptc6is&feature=youtu.be&t=10m13s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3guMnptc6is&feature=youtu.be&t=10m13s
I hope the Asian markets reject this kind of patronizing approach. There were a few notable chinese artist who thought their role was semi-major ones in Iron Man 3 and the chinese trailer was implying as such. Turns out to be only shown on screen for a couple of seconds and was cut out in the International version. Asians markets in general don't have a problem with 'relating' to white protagonist, Transformer was the most financially successful film in China's history.
I'm not asking for more token Asian representatives in Hollywood films, what I like to see more is in people being more receptive to lead that are not of their race and ethnicity.
ultracal31
You don't get to bring friends.
Keep in mind that probably the main reason why Transformers did so well in China is that the state controls a lot of the movies that get made which leads to mostly period or cop dramas movies so a big, dumb american movie is going to be a breath of fresh air.
Beta Ray Bill bonded with a human to save his life and now can turn into that human form.
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