Movies with BM/WW Couples

Oh yeah, I've always heard that. Makes me wonder if I should check out more British movies & TV shows.

 

fixed it for ya'.

 

She's the actress from the Harry Potter movies right?

 

yes

 

My friend, that has nothing to do with any of this. It is not typically the actress, regardless of her nationality, making the casting decisions. It isn't as if when I learned this news a couple of days ago I thought "well of course this all happened because Watson is British". I instead thought that the director, producers and studio decided to do something quite rare....cast a black male as a romantic interest opposite a more established white female star in a major motion picture.

It helps that Boyega was cast in a SW film that gave him clout. It helps that Boyega is an outstanding young actor based upon his two lead performances before Star Wars. It helps that Boyega recently switched to a new agency which may have been more aggressive in seeking out high profile roles for him. And if he auditioned with Watson (I'm sure TPTB brought in a dozen or so young actors which she was tested alongside of to test for chemistry) it would have helped if Watson wasn't put off by the idea and responded in a positive manner to Boyega's auditions. Still in the end it comes down to the studio system being truly bold and breaking down barriers by making such casting decisions. The fact that Boyega was able to audition in the first place (this is typically not the case for actors of color in these scenarios) was a huge win. The fact that he won out is a major league breakthrough.

 

Those guys are already freaked out by him being the male lead in the next Star Wars.

 

Those racist fanboys must get over that. Great to see Hermoine doing it with a brother. Boyega would be the first since Billy Dee Williams to be in a SW flick.

 

You forgot Samuel L Jackson.

And the dude that played Jar-Jar.

 

Thanks George Lucas for Jar-Jar :smt030

 

He redeemed himself with Red Tails though

 

Definitely he had to fund the movie out of his own pocket

 

James Earl Jones - Voice of Lord Vader in Star Wars

James Earl Jones was the first Black man to be in Star Wars. Not seen but his recognizable voice resonated fear thru out the galaxy with the mastery of the Dark Force.

May the Force be with you. Always...

 

You should. Lots of it in British shows.

 

Most definitely. It has been a staple of British television for a couple of decades now, long before it was seen on US screens (and it's still not the norm).

I hear what you're saying, but TDK has a point. Many mass-market white US actresses are reticent to do scenes with black male leads and risk angering their white male fan base.

 

Yes,The Voice James Earl Jones. Thank goodness for White actresses from overseas and a few brave American ones like Julia Stiles. She had that chemestry with brothers.

 

Provide proof of that. That's all I ask. Otherwise what you claim is nothing more than tired conjecture and urban legend.

In the porn business we know for a fact this is the case because plenty of "dodgers" have come out and said they avoid black guys as onscreen lovers. But so far as mainstream Hollywood has concerned we have heard none of that. Now maybe many of the those American Hollywood ladies feel the way that you claim, but until they say that shit you have nothing on them. And its a moot argument anyway because as I pointed out those ladies essentially never get to a point of having to make such remarks because the people making films almost never chose a black male actor that the ladies would have to reject in the first place. You are far more likely to find black actors publicly remarking of avoiding white women as love interests in order to not offend their black female fans.

 

I Remember a situation on the ER TV Show where the black actor had requested not having an on-screen relationship with a white female costar so he wouldn't offend his black female fans

 

its not the definitive proof you are looking for, but I do recall not too long ago Kristen Stewart was cast in the movie Focus along with Ben Affleck, but then Affleck dropped out and replaced by Will Smith. Stewart then dropped out saying that she didnt think that a romance between she and smith would be believable because of the age difference between the the two of them but Affleck and Smith are only 4 years apart in age.

Speaking of Will Smith his movie Hitch was discussed at some length as well when he was promoting it in the UK he said this

“There’s sort of an accepted myth that if you have two black actors, a male and a female, in the lead of a romantic comedy, that people around the world don’t want to see it. . . . We spend $50-something million making this movie and the studio would think that was tough on their investment. So the idea of a black actor and a white actress comes up—that’ll work around the world, but it’s a problem in the U.S.”

Mainstream hollywood actress will never come out and say that they would refuse to work with black males, unlike in porn where such a position seems to enhance a girls profile. In mainstream many of the studios are corporate owned and scandal is one thing many corporations want to avoid as it is not good got their bottom line.

 

And people got on Stewart about it but she never made any such claim that she dropped out because Smith was black. Again...until you have them on record saying such a thing you can't claim with any certainty that is going on.

I can just as easily claim, without verification, that plenty of upcoming and even established white American actresses would have jumped at the chance to play alongside Smith in Focus once Stewart dropped out. In fact TPTB pursued other white actresses who were reportedly interested. Margot Robbie defied odds and won the role. She just so happened to be Australian.

I've had discussions on this very subject a dozen times. It spoke more to the reluctance to the studios and some directors making certain casting decisions than it did white actresses turning down such situations.

Look, in many respects things won't happen until certain people of clout make things happen. That's how taboos are broken. Denzel probably didn't want to have a love scene with Pheiffer in "Love Field" which is why he may have in part turned that role down. He didn't want there to be a romantic angle between his character and Julia Robert's in "Pelican Brief" even though Roberts and the director of the film were all for it. He turned down the opportunity to have Kelly Lynch as his love interest ( as written in the script) in that crappy scifi flick he did with Russel Crowe. So that whole angle was taken out. Lynch, an American, was okay with playing the love interest though. She didn't get a vote.If Will Smith had accepted Matrix don't you think they would have kept Trinity white? Smith allowed TPTB to tone down the romance angle in Hancock. Couldn't he have stopped that with his clout. If some of these onscreen romances have gone ahead perhaps we would now be a point in which they were more common place.

By the way it is interesting that the black actors almost at the forefront of exploring IR on screen are British (Ejiofor, Elba, Boyega, etc.). Maybe that says filmmakers don't consider black Brits to be "too" black. Maybe it says black British actors have less hangups on this issue than their American counterparts. Maybe it says a little of both.

Then you will never have the proof you need to make your case as well as you wish. I think there may be a little truth in what you are saying but I think for the most part it is overblown. Actors/actresses want to work. When they were casting interest for Denzel (who no longer appears to be afraid to be onscreen alongside white women) in "Flight" , there were reportedly many who auditioned for the role. That includes Olivia Wilde (American) who was one of the finalists. In the end it just turns out that a British actress won out.

 

Oh bullshit man. Are you seriously trying to claim that actors don't have final say over whether or not they accept a role that they've been offered?

Plenty of women in Hollywood will not accept romantic roles opposite black actors. This is a well-documented fact. Look at J. Lo, who turned down every role that she was offered with a black male lead (eg Hitch and Pluto Nash) after she broke up with Diddy and made a concerted effort to be mainstream.

While it's true that there are an increasing number of foreign born actors getting work in Hollywood, the fact is that the vast majority of non-black women (especially white women) who are open to doing romantic scenes with black men aren't from the States. There's really no arguing this point.