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

Great points jamalspunky, but like I said at the end of mines...
Is that black guys let it happen, lets be for real, if will or blair said
what you said in interviews or said that the mainstream media pushes
the influence of white male handsomeness over black and gave examples in film and on the sexiest man alive issue. I gaurantee they will be expose
because it is so easy to see. Why is it easy to see? Because black guys aren't even there...They are not chosen for sexiest man alive, the bachelor, alongside their "precious" mainstream white actresses and so on.
The mainstream media is just holding up the blindfold it can easily be knocked down, but black folks in entertainment are either blind themselves, scared, or addicted to the money.

But the point is that beauty is in the eye of the beholder but the media
tries and succeeds at changing that into whatever they say it is.
Omarion, Marquis Houston & Justin Timberlake. Three stars who broke away from their succesful groups, but who got the most media attention, justin timberlake, if Omarion and Marquis got the most media attention it
we wouldn't be talking about justin timberlake.(who by the way I like at times when he is not being too corny lol. he has a habit of doing that.)
It is all the media's doing, the unfortunate thing is that their manipulation
of what is sexy has gotten to most of american women and the very
truthful saying "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" has been falsified
into a lot of women in the country blindly believing that beauty is in the
eye of the media. And the mainstream media believe whtie is above the rest especially when it comes to men, because they do not want us(bm)
to take all their women form them.

Eminem is another fin example of this. Short, average built, pointy nose.
He himself even says he is not good looking even talked about how
small he is in the pants, but he is consider a sex symbol when it comes
to bad boys in the industry. Colin Farrel & LL Cool J. Now Im guessing
the women here would pick LL over Colin along with many others, but
when they were both in that movie S.W.A.T. Most of the media attention
went to Colin....

George Clooney, Denzel Washington, Blair Underwood...The Older guys. Thats all you hear is george clooney this and george clooney that, but yet denzel has 2 oscars and his movies makes more money and Blair is everywhere on t.v. and promoting his book. George Doesn't have to do a thing and yet you hear him alot because the media spotlighted him more
than the both of them. And alot of female stars contributes to it so much
it is starting to look like follow the leader, everytime the hottest white guy is getting spotlighted you would hear almost in a row female stars
picking the same guy(white guy) in which they would find "hot". But nothing when a hot black guy is in the spotlight. But that
could also mean even within the industry beauty is in the eye of the media.

But like I said all of this could easily be called out if somebody is not
afraid to stand up to the media' racist attitude. Easily. Again we need
an Obama in the entertainment industry.

 

Well said on both posts Jamal. Problem is too many black folks don't care or are too afraid to take a stand and do something about it. Most want to play it safe.

If things go as planned, my company should take off within the next year. Yeah, these will be modern B-movies (most action films), but I plan on having BM leads who can be considered sexy by ALL women and who can act (no rappers). I will also be heavy on the IR relationships. I also want to establish a pool of Black Male singers (NO RAPPERS) that are talented and want to venture into the music business.

We have always been a threat to White Hollywood and always will. Hell, we're a threat to ourselves; at the height of the popularity of Black films (Blaxploitation) in the 1970s (you know when black actors were the heroes, winning the fights, saving the day and getting the girls - sometimes white, not getting kicked in the ass or being a jigaboo sidekick), there were people like Jesse Jackson, groups like the NAACP and CORE who condemned these films without offering any kind of alternative. Thus that put a lot of Black actors out of work until Spike Lee came out and gave Black audiences something other than Whoopi or Eddie Murphy.

Whatever we do, we can't make anyone happy. Some people would rather have us playing buffoons or asexual character or putting the unattractive of black actors instead of a good looking actor who can present a sense of pride and dignity.

 

Disowning Claire

If hollywood won't do it, then maybe indie film makers will. In fact, they have often led in making IR films with WW/BM. I don't understand why people care so much for hollywood. My suggestion is that we support indie films, and that we push to make indie films ourselves. I've said this before, but with the technology available, we can make our own movies or TV shows to reflect our desires. I'm doing that WRT video games. I am an RPG player; I love games such as Final Fantasy. But I have many problems with RPGs. There is rarely a black person, and I think that many of the cliches are messed up. And I have not played a "hard sci-fi" RPG ("hard" not mean difficult, but "hard" meaning that it is strict towards real world scientific principles). So I am actually making my own game. Pretty much, I am making the game that I would want to play myself.

On a related note, there is a new indie movie called Disowning Claire.

http://www.disowningclaire.com/

 

uhmm......Biracial is black!!!

Yes he's biracial but in this country, a biracial person with Black ancestry is considered black. Point blank, just like Halle Berry, Just like THE ROCK, Alycia Keys, Shemar Moore, Mya, etc. Anybody can look at Mr. Diesel and see his black features, it's obvious...at at least to black folks but I know some non-blacks who can't tell. Oh well, maybe something will happen and he'll do a mariah carey and then all of sudden start claiming the black side for personal gain just like she did

 

If Will or Blair made those comments they would be branded as whiners by the public (the white public at least) and likley by the media too. It would especially be uncool for Will to even talk about racial barriers considering his current stance as top box office draw. Now Will and Blair can go out of their way to ensure a next generation of black male leads get all the help and opportunities they can. However the outcry of such hypocrisy has to come from us in the public who want to see things change. And it would help if black producers and directors would be interested in opening the door for new black leading men.

You see this is what scares me. Its unnerving that so many times when I read black folks talk about whom they think are the "sexy" leading men out there and then they throw out names of guys who don't really fit the description of leading man. LL Cool J? Sure he has a lot of female fans but do you think he is leading man material? The dude is bald and in his mid-forties too right? So in SWAT in which you had a younger guy like Colin with a full head of hair, well, most times the girls will prefer that. This is not to say that LL didn't have many ladies getting hot because of his biceps and all but at the same time lets not act as if LL is Shemar Moore in the looks department. He is Bruce Willis with a better physique, better lips and a nicer tan (damn that sounds so gay :smt078) But is he ideal? Don't know if he passes that test. Of course when Colin looks like an unwashed, drunk Irishman he isn't too much of a ideal leading man either.

I really wish people would stop using Obama in these discussions. I must have read one hundred "What Will Obama's Election Do For Blacks in the (book, TV, film, theater) industry....so on and so on. It means aboslutely nothing his election. Not when it comes to this type of stuff. Also I think its a bad analogy. We don't need a once in a lifetime Special Black Man to come in and sweep America off its feet in any of these industries if it does not lead to other black men besides him rising and getting similiar opportunities. In the movie industry we already have had that with Denzel and his tenure has not led to openings for any other black leading men.

 

SmoothDaddy, I have no idea if any of your plans wil work out (I hope they do) but the first important victory has been won just by your being aware of how this thing is being spun. Self awareness is key and frankly I don't think enough black men are aware of the media warfare that is limiting their image.


And the fact that you, as a black male, are interested in finding and developing black male singers instead of rappers makes it clear that you are ahead of the curve. We need other folks across the globe to get up to speed.

 

I believe everyone has some great points here. And it's glad to read your 'two,' Jamal. Yeah, Hollywood is something, isn't it? You would think after it's bad history with black actors in general, the "new" liberal society that's cropping up and just the progression of good actors overall, that this industry would finally wise up and start to broaden its shoulders to offer better opportunities. But we still have white men as the ultra super leading man, who appears now to be able to get ANY female he wants without any real societal prejudice whatsoever and leave the rest of us behind in the dust.

And we all know of Hollywood's reasoning for why the black male actor gets the roles that he does. "This is what's out there right now." "This role will reach the largest audience." "This is best for his career." Etc, etc.(I'm paraphrasing a bit) But notice it's never a juicy role that REALLY expands everyone's perception of black men. And that doesn't look to change anytime soon. And as for a major black male actor to speak up and call these practices out, he'd severely risk his opportunity(s) for future work. Because undoubtedly, white Hollywood would spank the hand as simply a complaining negro whose criticism is unfounded.

But "SmoothDaddy" has the right idea, success or failure. It's really time for black producers to go searching for projects outside of Hollywood. And begin to attract edgy black writers and qualified black directors who will represent us well and make us think with the art that they put out. He mentioned the '70s. Lately on Directv, I've been checking out some old classics when black culture was represented as an extension of American society and not some ghetto-hood joke for other races to laugh at. Black movies can be good again if we start to expect better and demand better.

 

what the hell are you talking about? :smt104

 

I didn't mean an Obama in that sense, I meant in the sense of speaking
up about whats really going on with racism in hollywierd, you feel me?
Obama spoke up about racism in the non jesse jackson al sharpton way
and just put it on blast when he made his speech about race. We need
someone to put racism on blast.

You are right on your LL cool J in comparison with Colin Farrel analogy, but
hollyweird would put any white man ahead of the morris chestnuts, tyrese's, blair underwood's and denzel's and so on. Examples are the comedic actors such as Jack Black, Ben Stiller, Jim Carey and Owen Wilson probably the ugliest(when I say ugly I mean dude has a weird shape in facial features.) white guy that Jennifer Aniston ever kissed. So you are right, but overall any white guy would do over black guys like Blair, shemar, tyrese, usher, tyson, taye and so on.

But I think we are all in an agreement that the racism in hollywierd needs
to be called out.

 

Indie films makes more IR than mainstream, they don't make the most.
Even indie films have trouble going there at times. Like in the movie
"Dirty pretty things" with the actor chiwetel ejifor(I know I butchered his name.) and actress I think her name was audrey tatou. There was
a "pelican brief" scene at the end in other words no kissing scene but they acted like they were for the tease.

 

Dirty Pretty Things was not an independent film. It was a foreign film. And unlike with Pelican Brief at least the characters were actually in love to some respect.

 

My friend, no need to worry. I know they will. If Tyler Perry or any 10th rate knucklehead rapper can get things going, I know I can.

Thanks for the support, I know that I'll need it.

 

JamalSpunky, you should get a blog. I always enjoy reading your post.

 

Thanks, Summit. But I don't think I have enough time to consistently put in the type of quality work I think blogs deserve.

 

Well I meant indy as in the sense of it not being mainstream branded
when brought over here in american cinemas.

 

I'm not sure if its a matter of the black actors not wanting to cross over but more so is there a demand for them to star in these films?

If the casting directors aren't looking for more black male actors I wouldn't expect things to change any time soon.

 

I'd read it. He's obviously hooked into the industry in some way.

 

The thing is if you wait around for change it'll likely never come. But if there are a folks out there who are good enough, smart enough and motivated enough to make a difference, the chances of change become greater.

 

I was listening to a discussion earlier this morning about how minorities are not really represented in terms of lead roles in movies and television.

Jobs such as hosting late night or daytime talk shows.

And writing films for characters where the casting director has a minority in mind to play the part.

Whoopie Goldberg was discussing how most of the lead roles she was able to get in the 80-90s mainstream films were originally written for white female actresses.

Not to mention, Asians--amongst other natoinalities--are hardly represented in those positions as well.

So yes, there is definitely an imbalance in the whole thing.