Forest Whitaker disparaged by film exec

http://livenews.com.au/Articles/2008/09/27/Movie_company_deems_actor_as_ugly_black_and_unbankable

Movie company deems actor as 'ugly, black and unbankable'

27/09/2008

Acclaimed Australian director Rowan Woods had to fight to keep Oscar winner Forest Whitaker in his new film Winged Creatures after a film company executive dismissed the actor as "ugly, black and unbankable."

Despite having "the hottest ensemble cast in town", including Guy Pearce, Kate Beckinsale, Dakota Fanning, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Jennifer Hudson, Woods said the company who owned the script wouldn't accept Whitaker as a leading man.

"The initial finance fell through when I stuck with Forest Whitaker for the role of Charlie," Woods said.

"An executive told me straight: `Even if he wins the Oscar he's ugly, he's black and he's unbankable.'"

Speaking at the Australian Directors Guild conference in Sydney this weekend, Woods said the company, which he wouldn't name for legal reasons, eventually let go of the script because of their disagreement over Whitaker.

The budget on Winged Creatures dropped from $US11 million to $US4.5 million because Woods wouldn't consider a Michael Douglas or an Al Pacino for Whitaker's role.

"The unbankable part of it was nearly right," he said.

"They wanted everyone but Forest Whitaker ... and this is one of the best actors on the planet.

"By the time we had stacked the cast around Forest the asking price for the movie had more than halved from its initial level."

Winged Creatures centres around a random shooting in a Los Angeles diner, and how it affects the lives of those who witness it.

It is Woods' third feature film after local productions Little Fish and The Boys.

He said he was instantly drawn to the multi-storyline drama by Roy Freirich.

"This wasn't the happy anecdote to my previous movies but it was too tempting," he said.

"There was a quiet ferocity to the screen play that confronted the hypocrisy of the US gun lobby without being overtly political."

Woods said his high profile cast was a pleasure to work with except for teenage starlet Dakota Fanning, who could be a diva on the set.

She initially refused to come out of her trailer on day one of shooting because her scene wasn't filmed first, and was "intensely jealous" of her young co-star Josh Hutcherson.

"Everyone was on their best behaviour on this film because they have got a `really serious Australian director who is known for his ensemble work'," Woods laughed.

"(Fanning) was the only one who was naughty."

Woods said while he thinks Fanning is a fine actor, on this film she didn't hit the mark.

"She is a gorgeous girl ... but she was the disaster," he said.

"There was something about her presence that wasn't ringing true.

"Most of our work was cutting her scenes and a lot of her scenes were cut."

Winged Creatures is due for a March 2009 release in the US with Australia to follow shortly after.

 

Aparently they never saw his performance on "The Shield". Wow, his character was so believeable that even I hated his guts. But Whitaker has always been a helluva actor, it was only a matter of time before he finally got an Oscar.

 

Forest

He was something else on The Shield!! I wanted to beat him up myself!! Forest is an awesome actor and can play many different characters!!!! Usually men actors are not judged harshly on looks like women actress' are-but that is utterly ridiculous!! He is one of the best!!

 

Give Me A Friggin Break!

Once again,

Discount a black man's acheivements, and bring him down to rubble. Even though Mr. Whitaker's Oscar winning performance in The Last King Of Scotland was outstanding, and well deserving an Oscar nod.

...and a real stand up guy in real life too. His kids go to the same private school as mine, and he, and his beautiful wife are really down to earth people. Wish I could say the same for a few other Hollywood has beens.

 

Typical white racist behavior

 

Fuck them peckawoods. Forest has an Oscar.

The Kid Rasta

 

I've been reading about this for the last day or so. Here are my thoughts.


Forest is black. That is undeniable. And being "black" is viewed as a negative when it comes to international box office. There are exceptions of course but that remains the perception.

Forest is "unbankable" (no such word but I'll go along. This means he is not a lock to pull even a semi-large group of moviegoers to the theaters just because he is in a motion picture. No shame in that. 99.5% of the actors in the business are no different. There's a very, very small group of actors out there who can give a movie an economic bump just because of their presence or at the very least bring the film some prestige. Forest ain't in that category. Sometimes you need a major role in a huge blockbuster to put you over the top. Six months ago Robert Downey Jr meant absolute ZERO to a film's box office chances. Now....after Iron Man....he has become this overnight huge movie star after being in the business for over 20 years. Crazy.

Is Forest ugly? Now that's when we get to the subjective part. I never saw Forest as ugly but for years I have heard black people call him that or other negative things. Now we want to act as if a major offense occurred when this jackass made those comments? Come on. If the guy had equated being black with being ugly then he is indeed worthy of a public lynching. But if that's not the case, if he is strictly attacking Forest's looks then he is simply guilty of being an asshole. And many people in the film industry are assholes. And many of them are vicious when it comes to criticizing the looks of actors, even some of the supposedly best looking actors/actresses on the planet. Its narcissism, folks.

Forest is like another recent Oscar winner: Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Both are character actors with incredible talent and both at times will get the leading role in a film. Neither has what we would view as leading man looks though. Nothing wrong with that. We don't need a bunch of pretty boys filling in every role especially whe every role does not require the actor or actress to be gorgeous. But lets not forget we are talking about the entertainment industry. Hollywood is full of shallow people making films for a shallow audience. And because of this Hollywood studios use pretty faces to sell their product most times. It is what it is. Whitaker ain't pretty and neither is Hoffman. But they are brilliant talents. Often though that comes a distant second to looks.

Now I will concede that an average looking white male gets an easier time of being viewed as sexy by the media or studio execs. Gene Hackman was one of the leading men of the 70s and early 80s but the dude never passed the looks test. Neither did Dustin Hoffman. But, hey, they are white.

I'll tell you another belief I have. White male execs, producers, directors love Forest. And its not just because he's reportedly a good guy and a great actor. No, they like black guys like Forest because those guys are never a threat to be seen as sex symbols. I am 110% heterosexual, but just as the straight black woman can be concerned with the presentation of black female beauty in Hollywood, I can be concerned with the presentation of black male appeal. The director of Crash originally tried to get Forest to play Terrence Howard's role in that film but Forest was unavailable. He would later settle on Terrence Howard. When I think about that my mind wanders until a certain thought breaks into my consciousness: how can someone who looks like Forest be married to a woman who looks like Thandie Newton (the director ALWAYS had Thandie in mind when writing script)? Yeah, there are examples out there of successful, average looking (or worse) dudes marrying great beauties who would typically be "out of their level." But for a film there is no way you could convince me that white guys would choose an average white dude to play Howard's role if the role was written for a white person. No, Hollywood would grab some dude who is even prettier than the wife. But when it comes to casting black men in roles all of a sudden looks don't matter.

Forest should be getting steady, well-written work. But I don't want to read or hear and reflexive defense responses that suggest Forest is a young Billy Dee Williams.

 

I mean, I get what you're saying, and your reasoning is logical. You do seem to have some sort of finger on the pulse of Hollywood's interworkings, so I shall not disagree with anything you said, but my thing is, amongst the thousands of actors out there, in the world of entertainment, being a best acting Oscar winner is a rare thing, as there is barely even 80 of them in all the world. Such an acheivement should put said accomplished individual atop a very unique status of Hollywood elite, thus being regarded as Entertainment Royalty. To reach this level of success in that industry, you'd think such an accomplished individual would be given just a bit more respect, and not disparaged similarly to what you'de expect to be the case for a fresh off the bus, casting couch destined, teenaged midwesterner, here looking for their big break in Hollywood. Right?

 

Very good post and a reasonable response. Here’s my take: Academy awards do not necessarily give you the respect that you are suggesting. Nor should it. The Academy is so much about politics that often the winners of best film, best actor, best actress aren't necessarily the best of that year (and isn't it all subjective anyway?). Often times what many consider to be the best movie, or actor, etc doesn't get nominated at all. All winning an Oscar should mean is that you did give a very good performance that particular year, the studio behind you ran a brilliant campaign and you hit did a hell of a job doing a media tour to get the word out about your performance. And even then when you win there is the fact that a large chunk of the eligible voters still never saw your performance and will a) vote blind b) allow a family member or friend to vote for them or c) allow the buzz to dictate who they pick (that's why doing non-stop media blitzes are so crucial these days). That's how the game is ran. Oh, and did I forget to mention that at times it comes down to a popularity contest or that often awards will be giving to undeserving performances simply because the nominee had been overlooked in previous years and decades.


What gets you true respect amongst veterans in Hollywood are a) box office clout and b)longevity. Forest is respected for the latter. He's been around for decades and has always been a great actor. To some superficial folks the Academy Award is the big difference maker but to most execs and producers that Award means nothing UNLESS they are trying to add some prestige to a particular film, especially one they hope is an Oscar winner (The one award that does mean something to the studios is Best Picture because that gives execs bragging rights and is the ultimate artistic honor---it justifies them and their studio and its something their studios can boast about even decades later -------although if you gave an exec the choice of having a movie that wins Best Picture or a movie that grosses $300 million domestically its no contest, they're going for the dough). Anyway winning an Oscar as an actor means you claim a rare and coveted prize amongst actors and you can now add the title of Academy Award Winner to your name. Other than that it doesn’t necessarily guarantee you better roles (just as k Louis Gosset Jr), more fame or more respect. And if you do get more respect you can easily lose it quickly too (see: Marissa Tomei and Cuba Gooding Jr). But if you are an actor who has been banging it out for years, doing great work in front of the camera and gaining respect from your co-stars one film at a time over the course of a decade or more then that’s even more important, in terms of how you are viewed, as any Oscar you won. Anyone thinks Morgan Freeman only gained respect from his peers after he won his Oscar? Of course not.

As for the comments directed at Forest I will say that while there is obviously rampant racism in Hollywood you can bet that white actors/actresses are insulted like that too by people behind the scenes. Normally though word of this doesn’t come out, if it comes out all, decades later in some biography. I am mostly upset that the guy who blew the whistle went public because, really, I’m sure it doesn’t make Forest feel any better. Stars have fragile egos too. You think Forest won’t be thinking about what his peers are thinking the next time he comes up to the podium at one of those movie award ceremonies. This could make him overly self-conscious. I’m sure someone out there turned down Phillip Seymour Hoffman because he didn’t look like Ben Affleck. By the way even silly nobodies I Holllywood make these judgments. Michael Bay told one interviewer that when casting for Transformers he had Shia visit his office. After Shia left Bay sought the opinions of the women who worked at his office (all of whom I’m sure were under 28, gorgeous and either failed actresses or college educated girls who always were full of themselves in thinking they should be part of Hollywood. Bay asked the women if Shia passed the “hot” test (or something like that). They said no, that his looks didn’t meet a certain standard essentially. Again we are talking about women who probably are answering phone calls for goodness sakes. But they still had an opinion.

Of course Bay hired Shia anyway but my point is that in Hollywood Land folks can be rough.

 

Jamal the last paragraph of your first post hit the nail on the head, I know hollywood picks alot of black guys who lack sex appeal. Its quite funny and im personally tired of seeing these sort of brothas on screen. Although I think forest is great and that this director would not have said that about perhaps a gene hackman or dustin hoffman.

 

I think Forest is kinda cute in his own little way.

 

Makes sense!

The Hollywood entertainment industry seems to be both fickle, and quite unpredictable, whilst also being void of any guarantees of future success, or continued alliances, regardless of who you may be.

You do seem quite knowledgeable on the rationale of Tinsel Town. I'll regard your input as that from a very reliable source. I gather you are actually employed somewhere within the industry? As for myself, the closest I've come to having my 15 minutes of fame, coincidentally just happened earlier this year, when I appeared on a very popular reality court t.v. show, which aired only a week, or two ago. I won't say which show I appeared on, but the production studios are in Hollywood, on Hollywood. You're probably familiar with it.

Thanks for your insight.

 

Forest Whitaker is my dawg. He's an amazing actor.

 

Nothing wrong with that.

 

Ask yourself who is the replacement to Denzel Washing as The Leading Black Man in Hollywood? We have a few contenders right now but there is no clear successor even though Denzel is approaching or is in his mid-50s. That's crazy. I guess some will say Will Smith is and surely Smith has an appeal that transcends Denzel in many ways. But Will was never, initially at least, thought of as a matinee idol. Not like Billy Dee Williams or Denzel.

The sad thing of course is that Hollywood (and perhaps black America is to blame for this too) only allows one mainstream black male idol at a time. Meanwhile Hollywood is trying to create a 100 white male idols each year and if Hollywood has to import them from overseas then so be it. You will never have just one white male idol or just twenty-five. Hollywood wants as many as possible. And they don't wait until those idols are in their 50s before thinking about replacing them with fresh blood. Of course Hollywood doesn't put much importance on the look of black male actors (they do for black females because every female these days has to be gorgeous it seems) because it ain't as if black men are being cast for romantic comedies or erotic thrillers. These guys are not even used for sex scenes. Denzel Washington will go down as the most sex-less matinee idol of all time. Great actor, classy guy, mostly asexual on the screen. Will barely approach women in a true sexual way on screen. And as I posted last year a lot of this falls on Denzel's shoulders; he didn't want to do a lot of that onscreen relationship stuff that white leading men get a chance to explore almost every film.

A rarity is "Miami Vice". The TV series. Casting a guy like Phillip Michael Thomas who had a chance to take away some of the thunder form the white male co-star (in terms of sex appeal) doesn't happen much. Over the years I can't recall how many times, even when young, that a film would cast a bunch of pretty white boys to play even gruff street roles but when it came to the black guy they seemed to pick someone actually from the streets (or looked like they came from it) because they were suddenly interested in authenticity when it came to that part of the casting. No, casting a guy like PM Thomas is not the norm. Casting Bill Bellamy or Anthony Anderson to pair alongside the white guy is the more typical route (some of you may even get the references). Heck, I recall when the Miami Vice film was going into production and folks on message boards were thinking of who other than Jamie Foxx should play Tubbs. Some pathetic choices were thrown out there (including Ice Cube and Martin Lawrence). I thought these folks were on drugs. But at the same time I also realized that there weren't a lot of well known black male idols being developed in Hollywood in the first place.

 

"Fastlane" and "K*ville" respectively. :grin:

Phillip Michael Thomas was the man in the first season of "Miami Vice" before Don Johnson's star really took off. He had a few hot love scenes as I recall. I can think of three in that first season alone. You see nothing like that on commercial TV today, not even with white TV stars.

 

WINNER!

You speak the truth. I gotta recheck my MV DVDs though because I only recall two love scenes involving Tubbs in season one (one with the lovely Pam Grier).

 

All of you make very good points (esp Jamal and Karma). But you know the old saying..."if you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself." I know that's easier said than done.

 

Ive noticed that too about Hollywood being more choosy when it comes to the looks of white male actors,than Black male actors..............i does seem as if they dont want any good looking Black males on the big screen.
Ive often wondered as well,why there wernt any fresh,young upcomming Black male talent.
Question to Jamal,whom,of the Black male actors do you think can possibly have the chances of being the next denzel?When it comes to sex appeal and talent?

 

I think Will Smith is an actor with looks, talent, likeability, intelligence, and can pull the big box office hits off that the big dogs at the top tend to like. He seems like a well rounded guy as well.