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[Dreams-Visions]

Well...

Now I feel stupid.

Carry on (although I would argue a majority of people see The Rock as Samoan, not as a black man, but semantics don't really matter in a discussion like this)

Woah now. Just because you didn't know he is the classic definition of a black man doesn't mean the rest of us didn't. You're kinda on that island all by yourself right now. Don't move the goal posts to make yourself more comfortable. Just take the small L and get back up. No biggie.

 

[Principate]

I mean I feel like the point of this piece is a bit muddled when the most bankable stars in Hollywood that aren't White males are Black males (which is how Scarjo ends up as the only notable bankable large budget actresses). Though I understand what they're going for. I mean minorities in general and in comparison to white actors it's very obvious but when the lead actor is not a white male, it tends to be a black male with everything else bar white female being distant last. Though white females have no problems getting roles in films (gotta have that female counterpart) more so than even black males. Black males do get leading roles.

 

[bemusedchunk]

 

[sirap]

It could be worse.

You could end up like Brendon Fraser.

No brother deserves that.

 

[TheOfficeMut]

He's half black half Samoan.

Here's his dad:

Yo, is that his dad's dick protruding to his right? God damn.

 

[Skellig Gra]

He's Samoan, not black.

And this is so true. The closest one I can think of for a Deadpool moment was Jamie Foxx after Django Unchained, but that fame already seems gone.

His dad is black. And how many Samoans are major Hollywood stars on the Ryan Reynolds level?

 

[MilkyJoe]

He did Goodfellas in 1990 and Do The Right Thing in 1989

I know, and Jurassic Park. I couldn't have told you his name.

 

[Violence Jack]

Pretty much. Was it Empire that caused her to blow up so massively in recent times? She's making all these moves out of nowhere suddenly from doing whatever since the early 2000's

It was either Empire or Hustle & Flow.

 

[Aurongel]

Ryan Reynolds is such a terrible point of comparison for the thesis of this piece to test on. The dude is attractive but was damn near box office poison for a good long time and was a laughing stock after Green Lantern. He worked his ass off on Deadpool and succeeded in way, way more ways than just being an attractive white dude.

 

[The Kree]

I'm not exactly sure I get the premise of this. It seems very very specific to Ryan Reynolds.

White guys are allowed to fail over and over and over again. That's the point. It's like how they never hire Asian leads because there are no Asian stars because they never hire Asian leads. And it's the same kinds of excuses they make for female action leads. Batman and Superman can have a thousand shitty do-overs but they kept saying we couldn't get one Wonder Woman movie until they have "the right script."

 

[Slayven]

If you are a young half way good looking white dude in Hollywood, people will fall over themselves to give you a shot.

But a minority or a woman you get half a shot. Minority women get less.

Wentworth fucked around and said he was gay and half black, dude disappeared for 10 years

 

[El Topo]

Collin Farrell, Gerard Butler, Taylor Kitsch, Josh Hartnett, Clive Owen, most of the Bladwin brothers.

Plenty. Guys get chance after chance.

Plenty of people get chances, but very few careers are as weird as Reynolds'. Kitsch for example is clearly a different case, since he got two huge roles out of basically nowhere early on and his career has considerably slowed down since. Frankly I think cases like Kitsch (or Hammer) are a bigger problem, especially as Hollywood focuses more and more on 3rd party properties and sequels.

That said, if we step away from Reynolds and focus on those that you listed, it clearly shows a double standard in how (white) actors are treated.

 

[Ronin Ray]

Well...

Now I feel stupid.

Carry on (although I would argue a majority of people see The Rock as Samoan[, not as a black man, but semantics don't really matter in a discussion like this)

Sorry it would be beyond stupid to argue that and you would be wrong anyways outside of Cuba Gooding JR and Wesley Snipes what other brother would qualify for this maybe Jamie Fox ? Does Halle Berry qualify ? Her career has seemed to be down lately

 

[Saint Gregory]

McConaughey is another example. Dude failed and failed and failed but still stuck around until he hit it right.

I feel like McConaughey is much better example of this than RR but Ryan is probably easier to pick on right now.

It's not his fault and the difference the article is attempting to highlight between RR and some of the minority actors mentioned in this thread is that Ryan never really had a huge bankable box office hit (at least nothing that you could attribute to his star power) yet he was able to hang around and get work until he finally did.

I'm actually trying to think of any actor of color that kind of hung around like that in middling films and was given a lead role in a major film later and I'm drawing a blank. I don't mean to discredit RR or diminish how hard he worked to make Deadpool a success but it's a fair point to bring up it's just unfortunate that he's the one being used as an example.

 

[Frozenprince]

If you are a young half way good looking white dude in Hollywood, people will fall over themselves to give you a shot.

But a minority or a woman you get half a shot. Minority women get less.

Wentworth fucked around and said he was gay and half black, dude disappeared for 10 years

Dude was the star of the biggest network drama going and struggled to get cast in a Resident Evil movie.

 

[Magic Mushroom]

I wanted to say Foxx has Sleepless coming, but it came and went last month.

Baby Driver.

 

[TheFlow]

Well...

Now I feel stupid.

Carry on (although I would argue a majority of people see The Rock as Samoan, not as a black man, but semantics don't really matter in a discussion like this)

He identifies as both. He even made a joke about him being black in his upcoming baywatch movie

 

[Dabanton]

This will always be a thing, certain actors are given multiple chances to 'get over' with the public. Although if Deadpool didn't get off the ground I think Reynolds would have been done as a leading man.

 

[CrichtonKicks]

Reynolds is an awful point of comparison because we don't know what his post Deadpool career even looks like. He's only had one movie since then, Criminal, and it bombed just as much as his other movies.

Collin Farrell, Gerard Butler, Taylor Kitsch, Josh Hartnett, Clive Owen, most of the Bladwin brothers.

What? Most of them are in Straight to VOD hell right now and are trying to salvage themselves on TV since movie stardom has long passed them by.

 

[Kthulhu]

That literally sounds like the situation Will Smith is in.

He should stop signing on for shit films. Suicide Squad and Collateral Beauty were critically panned and deservedly so.

He's better than those films and he knows it.


Also, how dare the article call Men in Black and Independence Day bad films. Yeah they aren't high art or anything, but they aren't bad.

 

[NastyBook]

It could be worse.

You could end up like Brendon Fraser.

No brother deserves that.

Replaced by an old man that looks 30x better than him in the film franchise that made him a star to begin with.

Just a nasty way to go.

 

[FunkyPajamas]

Collin Farrell, Gerard Butler, Taylor Kitsch, Josh Hartnett, Clive Owen, most of the Bladwin brothers.

Man, I'll never understand Hollywood trying to manufacture stars out of some of these. Farrell and Owen at least can act but they have no star power. Just keep working on smaller indie projects instead of trying to make them into blockbuster stars. I have a soft spot for Harnett because of Lucky Number Slevin and 30 Days of Night but he should probably stick to TV or independent movies as well. The other guys can go straight to hell.

Look at Zoë Saldana, her one leading woman role tanked so she's an ensemble piece ever since.

You mean Nina? Because she also had Colombiana before. I mean, I'm not saying she's got plenty of chances, but it wasn't a one-time thing either. And both movies were panned critically. She's also been kind of.. I don't know if arrogant, or just out of touch with reality when responding to criticism.

 

[The Salt Life]

I wanted to say Foxx has Sleepless coming, but it came and went last month.

Think Fox already had that moment with Ray
He was in not the greatest comedy movies leading up to that.
Then he did that joint with Tom Cruise
Then he did Ray and was on every ones radar.

 

[Starfish Hero]

Ryan Reynolds is such a terrible point of comparison for the thesis of this piece to test on. The dude is attractive but was damn near box office poison for a good long time and was a laughing stock after Green Lantern. He worked his ass off on Deadpool and succeeded in way, way more ways than just being an attractive white dude.

I mean, that's kinda the point. Reynolds starred in flop after flop and was still able to get a movie like Deadpool greenlit. That doesn't happen if he's black.

 

[Frozenprince]

Reynolds is an awful point of comparison because we don't know what his post Deadpool career even looks like. He's only had one movie since then, Criminal, and it bombed just as much as his other movies.



What? Most of them are in Straight to VOD hell right now and are trying to salvage themselves on TV since movie stardom has long passed them by.

But they were all allowed to fail countless times before that point. Cuba Gooding Jr has one bomb and he's poison to Hollywood FOREVER.

 

[Principate]

I mean, that's kinda the point. Reynolds starred in flop after flop and was still able to get a movie like Deadpool greenlit. That doesn't happen if he's black.

Took 10 years to get green lit with money out of his own pocket. He hardly landed on the role, he personlly spearheaded it. I'm pretty sure there's plenty of black actors that could do the same.

 

[Slayven]

Dude was the star of the biggest network drama going and struggled to get cast in a Resident Evil movie.

Prison Break was huge.

Steven Yuen is hustling for a 5 lines in a movie now that he left the show

 

[Man Called Aerodynamics]

Ryan Reynolds is such a terrible point of comparison for the thesis of this piece to test on. The dude is attractive but was damn near box office poison for a good long time and was a laughing stock after Green Lantern. He worked his ass off on Deadpool and succeeded in way, way more ways than just being an attractive white dude.

Sam Worthington, Chris Hemsworth, or Jai Courtney might be better examples of actors who kept getting plum roles despite audiences just not liking or connecting with them very much. The premise, that only young white male actors get this preordained next-big-thing treatment, is sound. Ryan Reynolds is just not a great demonstration of it, since Deadpool was such a singular circumstance.

 

[hbkdx12]

It was either Empire or Hustle & Flow.

Not trying to derail the thread although i feel it's tangentially related, the question then becomes that why does her prominence back into the limelight come at the expense of two roles that are wrought with criticisms over negative black stereotypes.

I'll never forget the "historic" year where denzel and halle berry became the first two african americans to simultaneous win best actor and best actress (Training day and Monsters ball) but when you look at both of their roles for which they won, denzel being an angry raging conniving black man and Halle being an overly sexualized down on her luck single mother/widower who gets "saved" by a white man, you kind of have to raise some eyebrows.

 

[Toothless]

Woah now. Just because you didn't know he is the classic definition of a black man doesn't mean the rest of us didn't. You're kinda on that island all by yourself right now. Don't move the goal posts to make yourself more comfortable. Just take the small L and get back up. No biggie.

Sorry it would be beyond stupid to argue that and you would be wrong anyways outside of Cuba Gooding JR and Wesley Snipes what other brother would qualify for this maybe Jamie Fox ? Does Halle Berry qualify ? Her career has seemed to be down lately

Alright, I apologize for this presumption. I'll admit I'm more saying that myself and pretty much everyone The Rock has come up with irl typically refer to him as Samoan if we talk about his ethnicity (which is rare in and of itself), BUT that's all anecdotal so it really is irrelevant to the thread. I understand now that he's a black man, sorry y'all.

 

[Volimar]

If you are a young half way good looking white dude in Hollywood, people will fall over themselves to give you a shot.

But a minority or a woman you get half a shot. Minority women get less.

Wentworth fucked around and said he was gay and half black, dude disappeared for 10 years

He has a lot of emotional problems and was the subject of a lot of ridicule and harassment when he gained weight. He's said and done some dumb things but it looks like he's straightened up since then. Love his Captain Cold.

 

[Aurongel]

I mean, that's kinda the point. Reynolds starred in flop after flop and was still able to get a movie like Deadpool greenlit. That doesn't happen if he's black.

Deadpool wasn't willed into existence spontaneously on the basis of his race alone. It was an adaptation of a very popular comic book character and was the perfect storm of grass roots marketing and carefully selected leaks to generate public interest.

I agree with what the author is going for here but using a lightning in a bottle film as your example is fundamentally the wrong approach. Its such an asinine way of proving your point.

 

[FunkyPajamas]

Sam Worthington, Chris Hemsworth, or Jai Courtney might be better examples of actors who kept getting plum roles despite audiences just not liking or connecting with them very much. The premise, that only young white male actors get this preordained next-big-thing treatment, is sound. Ryan Reynolds is just not a great demonstration of it, since Deadpool was such a singular circumstance.

I agree. Add Channing Tatum in there as well.

Besides, it's not like Reynolds is Hollywood's darling right now. Is he getting the parts that would normally go to Gosling, or Leo, etc?

 

[Toothless]

I agree. Add Channing Tatum in there as well.

Besides, it's not like Reynolds is Hollywood's darling right now. Is he getting the parts that would normally go to Gosling, or Leo, etc?

Channing Tatum is a great actor! If anything, the guy needs to be in more movies! So do Michael B. Jordan, David Oyelowo, and Lupita Nyong'o which is the problem here.

 

[Volimar]

Deadpool wasn't willed into existence spontaneously on the basis of his race alone. It was an adaptation of a very popular comic book character and was the perfect storm of grass roots marketing and carefully selected leaks to generate public interest.

I agree with what the author is going for here but using a lightning in a bottle film as your example is fundamentally the wrong approach. Its such an asinine way of proving your point.

Agree with all of this. The author could have done so much better just discussing the barriers to success for hard working black actors/writers/directors. For every Tyler Perry how many hit the wall that white talents wouldn't?

 

[Frozenprince]

Channing Tatum is a great actor! If anything, the guy needs to be in more movies! So do Michael B. Jordan, David Oyelowo, and Lupita Nyong'o which is the problem here.

Canning Tatum is a good comedian, he's a shit dramatic actor.

The Eagle was a tire fire.

 

[sirap]

Prison Break was huge.


Steven Yuen is hustling for a 5 lines in a movie now that he left the show

I feel bad for my Asian bros.

You either die or get your dick made fun of.

 

[CrichtonKicks]

I agree. Add Channing Tatum in there as well.

Unlike the others, Tatum has been bankable several times. He hits often enough to compensate for his misses.

 

[FunkyPajamas]

Alright, I apologize for this presumption. I'll admit I'm more saying that myself and pretty much everyone The Rock has come up with irl typically refer to him as Samoan if we talk about his ethnicity (which is rare in and of itself), BUT that's all anecdotal so it really is irrelevant to the thread. I understand now that he's a black man, sorry y'all.

For what is worth, I didn't know The Rock was half black either. I'm not into wrestling so the first time I saw the guy was in The Mummy Returns, and then a few years later he started doing more movies and I remember him saying he was (part?) Samoan. So you're not the only one that was ignorant about the guys ethnicity.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

I feel like Will Smith took a back seat so he could foist his crappy children on us. And that he did a lot of not so great Oscar bait films (Pursuit of Happyness, Seven Pounds, Concussion) when he could have just continued to knock out box office hits.

Eddie made sort of the same mistake after starting a family. He decided to start doing all family movies so his kids could watch his movies. That's why we stopped seeing cussin' hilarious Eddie after the 90s ended.

His 80s and 90s works, specifically:

- Trading Places
- Coming To America
- Boomerang
- Beverly Hills Cop
- Harlem Nights
- Life

Reside on the pantheon of comedy movies in the black community. Untouchable in our love for them and forever quotable to this day.

Unfortunately, his run starting in the early 2000s traded in his edgy comedy for family-friendly stuff that was poorly received critically and far from what people really wanted from him. Whether or not he ever returns to "old eddie" is an unknown. But Eddie's early work will always be the stuff of legend to black Americans.

 

[Kthulhu]

I wonder if Black Panther will help Chadwick Boseman?

 

[Toothless]

Canning Tatum is a good comedian, he's a shit dramatic actor.

The Eagle was a tire fire.

Foxcatcher is incredible partially due to his performance. He needs to do more dramatic stuff like that, it's very impressive.

 

[Slayven]

Eddie made sort of the same mistake after starting a family. He decided to start doing all family movies so his kids could watch his movies. That's why we stopped seeing cussin' hilarious Eddie after the 90s ended.

His 80s and 90s works, specifically:

- Trading Places
- Coming To America
- Boomerang
- Beverly Hills Cop
- Harlem Nights
- Life

Reside on the pantheon of comedy movies in the black community. Untouchable in our love for them and forever quotable to this day.

Unfortunately, his run starting in the early 2000s traded in his edgy comedy for family-friendly stuff that was poorly received critically and far from what people really wanted from him. Whether or not he ever returns to "old eddie" is an unknown. But Eddie's early work will always be the stuff of legend to black Americans.

Life, Coming to America, Harlem Nights, and Trading Places are some of the best comedy movies period. Life is one of the greatest movies period

 

[PSqueak]

I'm not exactly sure I get the premise of this. It seems very very specific to Ryan Reynolds.

Yeah, was thinking the same, i mean, what's we're looking for here? Black actors getting their dream projects after years of sub par movies?

How does this not apply to Will Smith?

 

[Staccat0]

I think the question is a little weird, but maybe I misunderstand.

It seems to me that people like Ryan Reynolds who are insanely attractive but get 900 chances are benefitting from an over abundance of white roles right? Not sure why he is the example. We all know there aren't enough black roles.

 

[FunkyPajamas]

Channing Tatum is a great actor! If anything, the guy needs to be in more movies! So do Michael B. Jordan, David Oyelowo, and Lupita Nyong'o which is the problem here.

Unlike the others, Tatum has been bankable several times. He hits often enough to compensate for his misses.

I like the 21 Jump Street movies, so I agree on the comedy. I've watched a few of his action films and he's terrible I think. I don't think I've watched any of his dramas (I assume sappy romantic movies); I can't imagine those being any good. Am I wrong?

Foxcatcher is incredible partially due to his performance. He needs to do more dramatic stuff like that, it's very impressive.

Man, I stand corrected. I can't believe I forgot Foxcatcher. You guys are right. Go Tatum!

 

[CrichtonKicks]

Did I miss something and Harlem Nights became an overlooked classic at some point? Because for a long, long time it was seen as a major dud for that point in his career.

EDIT- Meant Harlem Nights. I confused Life for something else.

 

[sirap]

Don't sleep on it.

It's fucking crazy.

 

[FunkyPajamas]

Did I miss something and Life became an overlooked classic at some point? Because for a long, long time it was seen as a major dud for that point in his career.

I was thinking the same. I loved most of his movies until that point. Life was not a highlight.

 

[Kthulhu]

I like the 21 Jump Street movies, so I agree on the comedy. I've watched a few of his action films and he's terrible I think. I don't think I've watched any of his dramas (I assume sappy romantic movies); I can't imagine those being any good. Am I wrong?

Man, I stand corrected. I can't believe I forgot Foxcatcher. You guys are right. Go Tatum!

Was he any good in the cluster fuck that was Jupiter Ascending? I heard that he was alright in that.