Actor Harry Lennix calls ‘The Butler’ ‘historical porn’

http://thegrio.com/2013/08/13/actor-harry-lennix-calls-the-butler-historical-porn/



l though director Lee Daniels’ Oscar-baity film The Butler, which is based on the life of real life White House service-worker Eugene Allen, is receiving rave reviews — one black character actor is lashing out at the project.

Actor Harry Lennix, who most film buffs may recognize from his roles in The Matrix trilogy, Get On the Bus and most recently Man of Steel, has said the filmmaker of took Allen’s story and “ni**erfies” it and he has dismissed the project as “historical porn.”

“I read five pages of this thing and could not go any further. I tried to read more of it, and I’m not a soft spoken guy, but it was such an appalling mis-direction of history in terms of taking an actual guy who worked at the White House,” said Lennix in a July interview with Shadow and Act. But then he “ni**erfies” it. He “ni**ers” it up and he gives people these, stupid, luddite, antediluvian ideas about black people and their roles in the historical span in the White House and it becomes… well… historical porn. I refused.”

Lennix doesn’t got into specifics about which scenes or characterizations in particular rubbed him the wrong way. And despite his take on the movie, Daniels was able to convince a veritable who’s who of Hollywood to take part in the film.

In addition to the lead role played Forest Whitaker, the movie features Oprah Winfrey, Robin Williams, Jane Fonda, Lenny Kravitz, Cuba Gooding Jr. and John Cusack, just to name a few.

Still, Lennix is far from impressed.

“While any sort of aberrant behavior happens in any community, it has become normative in black cinema that we are these bestial, deprived people, and I refuse to play with that,” he said

 

Gotta' admire the man for always speaking his mind.....lol.

 

He has a right to his opinion. If he has dough or the right script the actor should promote that project to the rooftops.

 

The sad part is that the meatier roles for black actors rarely get produced.

 

Wouldn't surprise me if Forest Whittaker got an Oscar for this role. I'm tired of it.

 

That is because there are scripts that are written for black male actors to play, but because of the issue of the "bottom line" in the studios, screenwriters, producers and directors have to consider the white audience. They want to please them. There are not many filmmakers today who have that courage to give an important, strong role to a black male actor. For most black male actors, it is work and it is better than none at all. I remember after seeing the film Red Tails, I got on youtube and saw some scenes. Like usual, the racists, thought that the true story of the 332 Pursuit Squadron was a myth and that no one spoke the way they did. I've talked to WW2 veterans and believe me, they believed most of the war films made by Hollywood were not true to the facts either. They were simply action adventure films. They have the events and they built a story behind it, casting it with actors to play composites of real people. Very seldom do real WW2 veterans play a part in them(an actual General was in the film Merrill's Marauders with Jeff Chandler and Claude Akins, Audie Murphy starred in the film To Hell And Back). Like I mentioned before, the unwritten rule is for the hero, or anti-hero to be white. A filmmaker like Jim Jarmusch might break the rules with films like Ghost Dog:The Way Of The Samurai(Forrest Whitaker's best and deepest role since Bird or Fast Times At Ridgemont High, imho), or The Limits Of Control with Isaac De Bankole(also from Ghost Dog). Or Ridley Scott for his vision. For most black filmmakers, it is a must to make heroes of the black male leads in their films. But, for white filmmakers, it is a risky move. This is why independent film are, in mho, the only way to do it. Indie filmmakers have a little more vision and a lot more courage, even if they don't have a lot of money. And of course, there is the issue of location and genre.

 

Stunning comments. Applaud this man for stepping OUTSIDE the box. I will reserve my judgement until I see the movie, but I respect this man for SPEAKING HIS MIND, even if it goes against the grain.

 

G, knowing of your situation you have shared with us on the forum, why not consider doing some paid independent column work for some of the entertainment blogs? Half of the paid indy bloggers whom they hire to search out and regurgitate other journalists stories, merely slightly paraphrase the author's story and mail it in....I think you could bring an added 'richment' of information and perspective if you were a contributor for a movie/music site. Think about it.

 

Thanks, Bliss. I had once thought about becoming a film critic when I was in school.