Why dont more Black male actors cross over to the big screen?

It seems as if the next generation(after denzel) of BM actors are just dabbling around in tv shows.
blair underwood
lance gross(cooning out with tyler perry)
shemar moore
michael ealy(though he had a nice part in 7 pounds)
gary dourdan
terrance howard(not in t.v,but screwed up,being greedy and eventually got dropped from the Iron Man project)
etc etc
all these brothers have the looks/talent to make it big on the bigscreen

Denzels upcoming movie looks semi boring.Its as if he keeps on playing the same roles(cop)

Will smith shows versatility.Hes definitely the best guy we have.

 

Trailer of a (possibly) good upcoming movie.

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Looks wack

Typical black movie

i want to see something new.

and i was talking about black male actors,not female

 

This got very good reviews.

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Should have been given more opportunities to be a Hollywood film star. Hollywood wasn't all that interested in finding another leading black man when Denzel was still in his prime though.

I don't even know who this dude is.

Shemar has never struck me as being good enough to be a leading man unless in light weight romantic comedies or perhaps as a suave action star. As an actor he has gotten much better but he's still better suited for TV. And there's nothing wrong with that. I just wish he was on a quality TV show. Lost, BSG...even the crappy Grey's Anatomy and CSI are better than the current show he is on.

quote]michael ealy(though he had a nice part in 7 pounds)[/quote]

Again he is the victim of Hollywood not caring too much about establishing black leading men. He is nonetheless inching his way up there. It hurts that Seven Pounds was not a huge hit (for a Will Smith film) and that Spike's Lee Miracle at St Anna was a critical and commercial disaster. But I think he's getting there. Slowly.

Like with Shemar I have doubts about his acting chops. But he's good enough to at least have gotten more supporting roles such as the good looking competition for the leading man for the heart of the leading lady.

1)You're going on rumors that Terrence Howard was to blame for being dropped because he was greedy. There is no proof of this. And recent reprots suggest strongly it was a ruse by Marvel who is being cheap with everyone not named Robert Downey Jr.

2)If he had remained on Iron Man would it have meant anything? Look at how unimportant his role was in the first film. Clearly TPTB only care about RDJ. Every other characters matters little. This is not the Batman films we're talking about in which the moviemakers take advantage of the entire ensemble.

3)Howard didn't blow anything with what happened on Iron Man. But what could truly hurt his career is his mouth because he is either saying something crazy or something that totally contradicts what he had said previously. He comes across as a liar. And his mouth got him into trouble again recently with his take on Rhianna and Chris Brown. When he had to respond to it by saying he was "unaware" of what really happened between them it was too late. Smoking Gun went searching and discovered he had been arrested himself for hitting his wife in 2000 or 2001. He needs to shut the fuck up and just act. Its not as if he's saying anything truly interesting or insightful anyway.

Fuckin' A-men! Half of that is on Hollywood for not giving Denzel more elite scripts. The other half falls on Denzel for accepting such uninteresting roles.

Chiwetel is gonna be big according to most folks. Still...if he was white and had that much talent he would have already been thrust into the big leagues (probably starring alongside Kate Winslet by now).

Laz Alonso and Derek Luke are stuck in neutral. They were also hurt by the bust result of Miracle at St Anna. Laz has a couple of likely blockbusters coming up. Luke is in the #1 film in the country. Unfortunately its a Tyler Perry flick.

Anthony Mackie has great talent but terrible decision making skills. Or maybe he has a real bad agent. Whatever the reason he needs to choose better roles.

 

Remember this from Claudine?

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I remember and I finally got the soundtrack of that movie. Still loved it.

 

Remember this from Cooley High?

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That is a good movie.

 

Love Cooley High, especially that scene in the movie theater when homeboy gets hit in the head with the shoe, turns around and plants his fist in the first face he sees. haha

 

beige brothas

Vin Diesel is a another big black star but I just noticed something, most of the brothas you named (except blair) are all fair skin. Maybe, lightsin brothas really are making a come back.

 

Vin Diesel is black?

 

Diesel is biracial.

 

He has Italian and black ancestry. I read at wikipedia..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vin_Diesel

 

Vin Diesel is one of those biracial peeps that plays more
to the other side of his bi-race in which his italian side.
Don't know if that is becasue he is ashamed, haven't heard
much about his background to make that conclusion.

 

OMFG!! :smt013

 

Mor black actors don't cross over to the big screen because
then white male actors will then have to share the spotlight with
black actors. This country's general public may be changing, but
hollywood and mainstream media will remain the same. In the entertainment industry and the maisntream media blacks are and will
forever be second class citizens, second to white guys, third really if
you count them putting hispanic actors in front of us.

Prime example I always use because they make it so obvious is
that people's magazine sexiest man alive thing. The editor was
on t.v. once about 5 years ago and stated the requirements for
someone to get that and that is whoever had the best year.
So that means Will Smith, Jamie Foxx, USHER, got jipped.
Last year was clearly Will Smith and obviously Obama's year
and they gave that to hugh jackman. Mainstream hollywood and
media are afraid of the spotlight being takened by blacks so they
have to make sure that whites will always get the most attention.

ONLY WAY THIS WOULD CHANGE IF SOMEBODY SAY SOMETHING,
SPEAK UP, CALL THEM OUT ON THEIR RACISM. I HAVE SAID THIS
BEFORE, IM TELLING YOU RACISM IS ONLY BIGGER THAN US IF WE
ALLOW IT TO BE. OBAMA IS A GREAT EXAMPLE OF WHAT IM TALKING
ABOUT, WHENEVER RACISM WAS BROUGHT UP DURING HIS ENTIRE CAMPAIGN OBAMA FACED IT AND SPOKE UP STARTING WITH HIS SPEECH
ON RACE HE GAVE LAST YEAR. WE NEED AN OBAMA IN THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY BASICALLY.

 

Bear with me , folks, because I have another long winded response. In fcat its a two-parter:


Is People magazine generally unfriendly towards black men? Yes, in my opinion. And I have gone over reasons why over the years. But to be fair the three guys you listed above may not exactly be swoon-worthy types.

Look even a heterosexual man like myself can tell the difference between a good-looking dude and a pretty boy. I don't know if any of those three examples are pretty boys and its those types that typically get picked for Sexiest man Alive. The problem is Hollywood doesn't have interest in casting and grooming black guys who are pretty boys. Not in terms of giving them movie careers. And when I mean pretty boys I mean ones that women will refer to as "gorgeous" or even "beautiful". Sure there are differences of opinion and at times I'm surprised that some women consider some dudes (regardless of race) to be gorgeous. But the true standouts are the ones that get universal thumbs up from everybody. While no one is going to be viewed as 100% attractive to every member of the opposite sex in the world, a person with outstanding looks will be viewed that way by most. For example when it comes to black male stars Billy Dee Williams and Denzel were considered sexy by not just by most black women but by most white women, most Hispanic females, etc. But even in this era of increasing (almost homoerotic one could suggest) casting of white pretty boys by studios, Hollywood doesn’t show much interest in doing the equivalent for black men.


I’ve discussed this topic probably too much already on this board but what I say is the truth. I mean why wasn’t Blair Underwood given more chances at substantial film rolls once his time at LA Law was over? He isn’t a great actor but he is a pretty good one. He’s also reliable, a good family man, a guy who has not had any problems with attitude or behavior, seems to be liked by his co-stars and has the looks that appeal to women of all races. Perhaps there weren’t enough quality roles around. If so why? Because 99% of the good roles are written by white men for white men? Or maybe he was too “pretty” for a black guy. Too handsome. Because that type of guy is a threat and if you are going to live with that threat you live with it one at a time for each generation. And Denzel was the current lone black leading man for this current generation. Billy Dee was the guy for the generation before that. So ask yourself were the studios going to cast him in a black romance? The answer is no because the studios didn’t care about black romances. Were the studios going to cast him alongside white women in romantic comedies? Lets get real. So if he is not going to get those opportunities or the ones that give him the Denzel-like roles in dramatic motion pictures and historical dramas what other opportunities were going to come his way? Comedies ala Eddie Murphy? Underwood didn’t have that comedic touch. So all that I ca think of now is his getting roles as the “buddy or young and inexperienced, hotshot rookie who pairs up with a more experienced character played by an older white actor. But in either category Blair Underwood would potentially draw attention away from his white co-stars because of his looks. And white studios and white America aren’t comfortable with that. The white male, with some rare exceptions, must always be the hot guy. White men who write, direct, produce and finance film make sure of that more than anyone else.

I have read my share of scripts and it seems like especially more and more the white male characters (unless it’s a comedy) have the adjectives of “good-looking” or “very handsome” squeezed into their description. Its probably unnecessary because Hollywood will want to cast that type anyway. But if these same scripts have a black male included such adjectives don’t materialize. Coincidence? Maybe not. I think I wrote before that the one time in Hollywood history that I can recall I which a very handsome black man was cast alongside a very handsome white male whom he could have ended up stealing some of his thunder was in “Miami Vice”, the TV series. Typically what Hollywood does is cast an Anthony Anderson type to fill in the black role.


Anyone here ever see “Thirteen”? In that flick there is this really good-looking black guy who plays the boyfriend/love interest for the lead character in parts of the film. In fact the actor himself was picked out personally by Evan Rachel Wood herself after the director gave her pictures of guys to choose from. With the critical acclaim and the buzz that that film got I though this dude would use that small role as a launching pad to bigger things by now. However sadly even though he is still acting he has not gotten anything better than that film since. Why is that?

End of Part One

 

Part Two




Getting back to the three examples of Will, Jamie and Usher. Will has obviously grown on a lot of women as the years has progressed and is a big star of course. He’s a good-looking guy who yes can even come across as sexy to women these days. But is he Sexiest Man Alive material? I mean I don’t know about that. Maybe I’m the wrong person to judge but I’m guessing he isn’t. Its like saying that if a younger Tom hanks built his body up like Will and was the king of the box office would he qualify as Sexiest Man Alive? Probably not.

Jamie Foxx? Lets get real. Jamie Foxx himself repeatedly talks about how he isn’t a pretty boy like co-stars Tom Cruise. Even with his ego he knows not to put himself on some pedestal concerning his looks. In the real world he would probably stand out a lot more but in terms of the pool of actors he has countless fellow thespians who are better looking than him. The thing that stand out the most in terms of his appeal to women was when he was cast in Miami Vice. The black women were pissed. They wanted someone who was hot like Philip Michael Thomas. They were throwing out names such as Blair, Shemar, Terrence Howard and even Will Smith. When large numbers of women don’t think of you as cute (especially those of your own race) its hard to be considered a legitimate Sexiest Man Alive type.

As for Usher I guess you could make a stronger argument. But he’s not a slam dunk either. We’re not talking about Ricky martin here who had all the ladies of all the races swooning. Even Chris Rock was raving about his looks back in the day. All the girls love Usher’s body but they tend to be split when it comes to his face. And that’s a good segue to bring up that its not just the lack of leading black men in movies, there’s also a lack of them in music too. There are no guys who can live up to a young Marvin Gaye or Sam Cooke in terms of the looks department. No it seems like black men who sing, especially if they are really good looking, is a threat to society as well so they have gone the way of the dodo bird. When Terrence Howard was asked about competing I the R&B game he said he didn’t think he would be able to compete with Justin Timberlake I terms of sex appeal (I’m sort of paraphrasing here). Terrence typically modest about his looks but the thing that stood out is that when reaching for a good-looking guy to compare himself in the R&B genre the guy he came up with was a white dude. A white dude who actually isn’t all that on R&B charts to boot. Ridiculous. Are the two pretty boys with close associations with R&B Timberlake and Robin Thicke? Could you see that happening in reverse for country music or even pop music? Maybe Chris Brown was the main sex symbol in the R&B genre up until last month but now his career is about to crash and burn.

Main point is you don’t have to be gay to understand what’s going on. Just as straight black women are always so worried about having beautiful black women represent them in music and in Hollywood, shouldn’t us straight black men want the same thing for the guys representing black men throughout the world? All races try to put their “best foot forward” when it comes to this type of representation. Sure there are average looking white male actors and musicians who are successful. But when the media conglomerates are trying to MAKE stars they tend to go after the white guy who can model in GQ. By doing so they are trying to sell the idea of white men as sex symbols. Same thing happens for white women and Latinos and Asian women, Same happens for black women too. Regina Hall isn’t beating out this latest crop of gorgeous black actresses for roles. And in the music department all the attention is put on Beyonce, Alicia and Rhianna. As superficial as it is at least the corporations and the media are aggressively selling the idea of black women as sex symbols. That is NOT happening for black men at all.



If you really want to know what’s going on don’t be worried about High Jackman for getting the Sexiest Man Alive title. Instead pay attention to his being cast as Wolverine in the first place. In the comic book Wolverine is a short, hairy, kinda ugly type of dude with an awful haircut. But who did they pick to play him in the X-Men films? No other than a guy who is good-looking enough to win the Sexiest Man Alive selection. You see what I’m talking about? You guys are getting the order wrong? What should have caught your attention in the first place was half a decade ago when a pretty boy like Jackman got chosen. That was the perfect example of how modern Hollywood isn’t going to have a white male lead in a franchise unless he has some pretty qualities to him. In this upcoming film called “Wolverine” all I’m hearing about the character of Gamble is that the actor playing him is a hunk. For God’s sakes are the studios trying draw us fanboys in or are they going for the women and the gays? Because I don’t give a fuck if the dude playing Gamble is a hunk. But Hollywood does. The sex appeal of white men must be shoved down everyone’s throats.

I know this post is already way too long but I have one more example of black male ineptitude. Chris Rock is doing another remake (lame) with a mostly black cast. This time it is of an English-language film that only came out a few years ago, “Death at A Funeral”. The plot of the original and this upcoming remake is that a funeral turns a family inside out when its discovered that the departed was actually gay. The family learns this when his male lover shows up to pay his respects. The film has signed up Chris Rock, martin Lawrence and Tracy Morgan. I know a bunch of you guys are probably thinking “wow what a great lineup.” But I try to think of what I consider to be the bigger picture. You see also in the cast is another pretty white boy from the X-men franchise, James Marsden. Since he is the only white person cast in the film so far I’m guessing he is playing the gay lover (I could be wrong). My problem though is why not cast a young black leading man in that role? Also why is it that best looking guy in the mostly black cast going to be the white guy. Perhaps its picky but its that type of stuff that catches my attention and its they type of stuff that happens too much in Hollywood.

 

Come again!!