Oscars

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Charlie Hunnam cast as a Mexican-American cartel leader in ‘American Drug Lord’

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Just my opinion: Charlie Hunnam fans have a reason to be worried about his post-Sons of Anarchy career. Hunnam’s career jumpoff was supposed to be Crimson Peak and Fifty Shades of Grey. But Crimson Peak sort of bombed and he dropped out of FSOG after a lot of breast-beating and dramatics. Then his next big career move was supposed to be King Arthur, and it was supposed to be Hunnam’s big summer offering this year… only the release date got pushed back from July 2016 to February 2017, which is not good. So what is Charlie’s next big career move? Playing a Mexican-American cartel drug-lord. Seriously. Before everyone completely loses it, Charlie has been cast as Edgar Valdez in what is a true story in the film American Drug Lord. Valdez was an American citizen, a high school football star in Texas, and he became the only American citizen to “rise to the level of cartel leader in Mexico.” Valdez was also light-skinned and blue-eyed, apparently, and he had the football and cartel-nickname of La Barbie. While Hunnam might “look the part,” this is still an example of Hollywood whitewashing. Even when Hollywood decides to make a movie about a Hispanic figure, they cast someone white (and English). Even when the casting could go any way – as in, they could have cast a Latino actor or a mixed-race actor – producers always go for the default white actor. As Vanity Fair points out, the industry press is already calling out this casting choice as whitewashing. I think the announcement came at a bad time too, when we’re in the middle of a discussion about representation and diversity and #OscarsSoWhite. This also comes on the heels of some particularly egregious whitewashing examples in film, whether it’s Rooney Mara as Tiger Lily in Pan, or Emma Stone playing an Asian-American woman in Aloha or everyone in Ridley Scott’s Exodus. Ugh. Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.

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Kristen Stewart: Conversations about gender pay disparity are ‘boring’

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Embed from Getty Images While I am legitimately disappointed that so many non-white artists were snubbed with #OscarSoWhite, I’m also a little bit disappointed that Kristen Stewart was snubbed too. Kristen walked away from this year’s awards season with some surprise critics’ awards for her work in Clouds of Sils Maria, and there were some hopes that she would make a late surge and end up with an Oscar nomination. Alas, it was not to be. But a lot of people like the current version of K-Stew. She’s less lip-bitey and she’s leaning in to her indie roots. Kristen is currently at Sundance to promote the drama Certain Women, and she chatted with E! News about what’s next for her career: Whether she’s offered roles in franchises all the time: “They’re not too common. Trust me, I would love to find a big doozy of a movie that’s interesting and worthwhile.” Would she play a superhero? “Maybe. Go print that—I can’t wait to play a superhero.” She really wants to direct: “Hopefully as soon as humanly possible. I really want to. I have to find the right thing. I started working when I was nine. I love this industry. I love what movies can do so I’ll find my story.” She’s been to Sundance many times & she loves indie films: “I’m not totally biased. I really like making the small ones and I like making the big ones. It’s just when you get the right people together who really care about something, who are not solely interested in getting just love and attention and money and stuff and it’s really for the love of the meditation on a subject and getting into something and baring your soul, [Sundance] is the perfect place to do it.” [From E! News] Since I was snowed in for the better part of three days (damn you, snowpocalypse!), I watched Avengers: Age of Ultron like three times on one of the premium cable channels. I was struck again by Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlett Witch role, which, to Olsen’s credit, she played well, the perfect mix of camp and legit drama. I wonder if that’s the kind of thing Kristen wishes she was up for – a supporting part in a Marvel movie, something like that. Or does she wish she could be Wonder Woman, steering her own franchise? I think it’s interesting that Kristen has been saying variations of “I’d love to do another big movie/franchise again” for the past year too – I mean, I know she’s not broke so it’s not like she needs the money. I think she’s just spent some time reevaluating what Twilight gave her, and she’d like another crack at a franchise, this time as an adult. Oh, and I saw this too late – Kristen spoke to Variety and she was asked about gender pay disparity. You can watch the video here, which I would recommend. She seems to acknowledge her privilege at the beginning, but she also basically tells women in the industry to suck it up. At one point, she says: “Instead of sitting around and complaining about that, do something. Go write something, go do something. And that’s easy to say. Like, f–k, it’s hard to get movies made. It’s a huge luxury. Who gets to just make movies? But that subject is just so prevalently everywhere right now, and it’s boring.” Oh, the discussion about inequality is boring, K-Stew? Just wait until she tackles #OscarsSoWhite. Embed from Getty Images Embed from Getty Images Photos courtesy of Getty, Fame/Flynet.

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Ian McKellen: Hollywood still discriminates against gay people & black people

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Over the holidays, I finally got around to seeing Mr. Holmes, the critically acclaimed film about Sherlock Holmes’ last case. Ian McKellen was the ancient Sherlock, and he was actually quite brilliant. So brilliant, I kind of wonder why he wasn’t a bigger part in the awards discussion. Ian has been nominated for two Oscars in his life, along with a slew of other awards for stage and screen. Most of those nominations and awards came after Ian came out of the closet. But I’m willing to acknowledge that Ian is sort of gay unicorn, much like Neil Patrick Harris: they are out gay men accepted by the “mainstream” to a large extent, possibly because they’re white men. Why do I bring this up? Ian has said some words about #OscarsSoWhite, and he draws a larger correlation with the groups shunned by the industry: women, LGBT and actors of color. Sir Ian McKellen has told Sky News he has “sympathy” for black people in Hollywood who feel discriminated against but added that gay people are also still being “disregarded”. The 76-year-old, who is gay and a co-founder of the rights group Stonewall, said criticism surrounding the lack of diversity among nominees at the Oscars is “legitimate”. Sir Ian said: “As a representative of the industry they’re in, it’s receiving complaints which I fully sympathise with. It’s not only black people who’ve been disregarded by the film industry, it used to be women, it’s certainly gay people to this day. And these are all legitimate complaints and the Oscars are the focus of those complaints of course.” [From Sky News] I don’t have a problem with what he says. He’s practicing “yes and” activism/alliance and he seems open to intersectionality. He’s not saying it’s a competition to see which is the most aggrieved group, he’s just saying that these groups (black people, LGBT and women) are largely disregarded by Hollywood stories. And he’s right. In another interview Monday, this time with the Guardian, Ian pointed out something really interesting: no openly gay actor has won the Oscar. He said: “No openly gay man has ever won the Oscar; I wonder if that is prejudice or chance.” He pointed out that Tom Hanks, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Sean Penn have all won Oscars for playing gay men but, “What about giving me one for playing a straight man? My speech has been in two jackets … ‘I’m proud to be the first openly gay man to win the Oscar.’ I’ve had to put it back in my pocket twice.” Damn, that actually tugged on my heartstrings a little bit. Even if Ian never wins the Oscar for acting, I have to think he’s got one coming for lifetime achievement, right? Embed from Getty Images Photos courtesy of Getty, Fame/Flynet and Pacific Coast News.

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Charlotte Rampling: The #OscarsSoWhite debacle is ‘racist to whites’

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Charlotte Rampling got a “surprise” Oscar nomination for her film 45 Years. I still haven’t seen it, although the reviews for Charlotte in particular are wonderful. Rampling was snubbed for nominations at many awards shows (including the BAFTAs), but the Academy showed her some love… at the same time they were actively snubbing artists of color. So when Charlotte was doing a French radio interview this week, she was asked about the growing controversy of #OscarsSoWhite. And Rampling showed off why she’s so popular with the over-60, overwhelmingly white Academy voters. Oscar nominee Charlotte Rampling has claimed the current campaign to boycott the 2016 Academy Awards over claims of a diversity deficit is racist to white people. Asked for her take on the current furore over all-white lists of nominees on French Radio network Europe 1 on Friday morning, the British actor did not mince her words. “It is racist to whites,” she said. “One can never really know, but perhaps the black actors did not deserve to make the final list,” added Rampling. Asked if the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences should introduce quotas, a proposal which no current advocate of increased diversity has mooted, she responded: “Why classify people? These days everyone is more or less accepted … People will always say: ‘Him, he’s less handsome’; ‘Him, he’s too black’; ‘He is too white’ … someone will always be saying ‘You are too’ [this or that] … But do we have to take from this that there should be lots of minorities everywhere?” When the interviewer explains that black members of the film industry feel like a minority, Rampling replies: “No comment.” [From The Guardian] We can all shake our heads and roll our eyes, but HAND TO GOD, this is honestly how many Academy voters feel. And I’d just like to point out how sad/hilarious/insensitive it is for an old white Englishwoman to claim that white people are the victims of racism. It would be like Winston Churchill claiming Indians were racist against him. When a group that has historically been the oppressor of other races suddenly claims to be the victim of racism? It’s almost magical. An angel just got his wings. Photos courtesy of WENN.

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The Oscars are ‘almost at a point of crisis,’ Oscar voters claim they’re not racists

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Here are some photos of Michael B. Jordan at the Louis Vuitton Menswear show in Paris yesterday. Look at this young man’s smile. He’s lovely, isn’t he? He’s always thoughtful and professional and hard-working. And despite the fact that he’s shown over the course of four years that he’s just as much of a star as Ryan Gosling or Bradley Cooper, Michael has never been nominated for an Oscar. I still feel strongly about this: Michael gave a heartbreaking, star-making performance in Fruitvale Station, and it still upsets me that the Academy didn’t recognize it. When he reteamed with Ryan Coogler for Creed, once again people raved about his performance, how good he is, how talented and multifaceted as an actor. And once again, MBJ was ignored. This is part of the reason why #OscarsSoWhite is a thing. This is just one example of how the Academy has been ignoring great work from racially diverse artists. We’re now one week removed from the Oscar nominations announcement, and one of the most interesting things is that the #OscarsSoWhite discussion just keeps getting bigger and bigger. While I personally don’t think that a boycott will do much, I’m glad the boycott conversation is happening because it’s the vehicle by which we’re having this larger conversation about race, representation, diversity and equality in Hollywood. The Hollywood Reporter is using the boycott conversation for the same reason, and in this week’s issue, they’ve got several pieces about #OscarsSoWhite. Here’s a short column by Dawn Hudson, the CEO of the Academy: There’s not one part of the industry that doesn’t need to be addressed, and it’s been this way for 25 years. The needle has hardly moved. It’s cultural, it’s institutional, it’s our society at large, it’s our education system — all of it — before you get to an industry that’s supposed to reflect this beautiful world. And the industry has been building up over a very long time, starting with white men running the studios who hire other people who look like them. It just hasn’t changed that much, and it won’t until there’s a concerted effort on every single front: talent, the executives in the studios, the people we mentor. If you have a person of color directing a film, there’ll be more people of color on the crew and in the movie. You have to overindex now on every hiring opportunity you have. You have to look at women and people of color every time there’s an opening and really not stop until you’ve worked to find qualified candidates. That’s for directing, crewing up, filling a marketing position, finding interns, hiring your next assistant. If you did that, it would go a long way. At the Academy, the people we’ve hired in the past four years have been between 45 and 50 percent people of color. Our staff also has worked very closely with the executive committees in all the Academy branches to identify talented artists of color to make sure they’re being considered for membership. That has resulted in every class in the last four years being more diverse than the previous classes. We are stepping up our efforts in every area. You’ve already seen a change in membership and new members. You’ve seen a change in our staff. But I was devastated that the acting nominations were all white. There are a lot of artists of color who have put out really good work in more films than in other years. This feels like an inflection point, almost at a point of crisis. Everyone is talking about this. It’s not going to be overnight — just the pace can go faster. As [Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel] said, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” [From THR] “Almost at a point of crisis”? Good. I say the conversations should keep happening. Let the pressure keep building and building until the Academy really does feel like there’s a genuine crisis. Because THR also published another story which included interviews with voting Academy members, including actress Penelope Ann Miller. Here’s what she said: “I voted for a number of black performers, and I was sorry they weren’t nominated. But to imply that this is because all of us are racists is extremely offensive. I don’t want to be lumped into a category of being a racist because I’m certainly not and because I support and benefit from the talent of black people in this business. It was just an incredibly competitive year. I loved Beasts of No Nation, and I loved Idris Elba in it — I just think not enough people saw it, and that’s sometimes what happens. Straight Outta Compton was a great film; I think it just lost some Academy members who are older. There were a lot of omissions of white people that I think were just as disappointing — I’m sure [Spotlight’s] Michael Keaton is bummed, you know? There were an incredible number of films in 2015 that were primarily about white people. Talk to the studios about changing that, not the Academy. There’s only so much we can do. I think when you make race the issue, it can divide people even further, and that’s what I worry about.” [From THR] She’s basically saying that sure, she voted for some black people so that means she’s not racist, but of course it’s no big deal that no actors of color were nominated because their performances just weren’t up it. And maybe Michael Keaton is bummed a little bit, but he was still nominated last year, an honor that was not bestowed on David Oyelowo for his extraordinary performance in Selma. And Keaton gave a great performance this year in a film that’s nominated for Best Picture, because of course it is – all of the Best Picture nominees this year are about white people. #KeatonIsBummed is the new #OscarsSoWhite. Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.

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Will Smith on #OscarsSoWhite: ‘It feels like it’s going the wrong direction’

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I get that not everyone likes or enjoys Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith, but can we agree on something? Like, Will Smith is a major movie star for a reason. He’s incredibly charismatic. I was reminded of that while watching his interview on Good Morning America on Thursday. Will stopped by GMA to discuss his wife’s boycott of the Oscars and the subsequent backlash. And while I defended Jada previously, I have to say that if she wants people on her side, she just needs to send Will out there to speak on her behalf. He has all the charisma in that family. Here’s the video: Some assorted quotes: He wasn’t part of Jada’s video but he supports it: “I was out of the country at the time, and I came home [and said], ‘What happened?’ She’s deeply passionate, and when she’s moved, she has to go. I heard her words, and I was knocked over. I was happy to be married to that woman. I appreciated the push. There’s a position that we hold in this community, and if we’re not a part of the solution, we’re a part of the problem. It was her call to action for herself, for me and for our family to be a part of the solution.” The two times Will has been Oscar nominated, he lost to black men: “That was huge. So when I see this list and series of nominations that come out — everybody is fantastic, and that’s the complexity of this issue. Everyone is beautiful and deserving and is fantastic, but it feels like it’s going the wrong direction. It reflects a series of challenges we’re having in our country at the moment. There’s a regressive slide toward separatism.” The regressive slide: “The nominations reflect the Academy, the Academy reflects the industry… and the industry reflects America. There’s a regressive slide toward separatism, toward racial and religious disharmony.” He says Jada isn’t just mad about Will’s snub: “For Jada, had I been nominated and no other people of color were, she would have made the video anyway. This is so deeply not about me. This is about children that are going to sit down and they’re going to watch this show and they’re not going to see themselves represented.” He won’t attend the Oscars without Jada: “It would be awkward for me to show up with Charlize [Theron]. We’ve discussed it and we’re a part of this community, but at this current time, we’re uncomfortable to stand there and say that this is OK.” Yeah, I think he’s telling the truth, and I think this is what he really believes. I also think that Jada’s video wasn’t his call, but after days of seeing his wife attacked, Will decided to get out in front and talk about it. While Will hasn’t been a major player in Hollywood for a few years, he’s still well-liked within the industry, in America and in the world (he’s a majorly bankable African-American star internationally). For Will to sit here and call out the Academy – and as he makes clear, the industry – it’s a big deal. Photos courtesy of WENN.

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Cheryl Boone Isaacs calls for more diversity within the Academy’s voting blocs

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As we discussed earlier, Chris Rock is currently feeling the pressure to possibly pull out of hosting the Academy Awards. Also feeling pressure? Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the president of the Academy and an African-American woman (the first African-American woman to hold that position). Cheryl was openly critical of her organization last year when the #OscarsSoWhite debacle first broke, but now it’s the second year in a row with no actors of color up for any awards and with all of the Best Picture nominees being films about white people. Boone Isaacs released a statement last night about the ongoing controversy: “I’d like to acknowledge the wonderful work of this year’s nominees. While we celebrate their extraordinary achievements, I am both heartbroken and frustrated about the lack of inclusion. This is a difficult but important conversation, and it’s time for big changes. The Academy is taking dramatic steps to alter the makeup of our membership. In the coming days and weeks we will conduct a review of our membership recruitment in order to bring about much-needed diversity in our 2016 class and beyond. As many of you know, we have implemented changes to diversify our membership in the last four years. But the change is not coming as fast as we would like. We need to do more, and better and more quickly. “This isn’t unprecedented for the Academy. In the ‘60s and ‘70s it was about recruiting younger members to stay vital and relevant. In 2016, the mandate is inclusion in all of its facets: gender, race, ethnicity and sexual orientation. We recognize the very real concerns of our community, and I so appreciate all of you who have reached out to me in our effort to move forward together.” [From USA Today] My thought: she’s doing what she can do. She’s not in charge of who gets hired for what project, and she’s not the face of diversity at a studio level. But she can change the makeup of the Academy voters and she can change the way minorities are represented within the Academy. I would also make a suggestion that Boone Isaacs put her finger on the scale about some things, and actively participate in some Oscar campaigns for more diverse films, like she could host Academy screenings for films that are more diverse and give those films the stamp of approval, you know? Meanwhile, David Oyelowo presented Boone Isaacs with an award yesterday for MLK Day. Oyelowo was notably snubbed for an Oscar last year for his work as Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, and he had harsh words about the Academy (not really Boone Isaacs specifically). Some highlights: “The Academy has a problem. It’s a problem that needs to be solved. A year ago, I did a film called Selma, and after the Academy Awards, Cheryl invited me to her office to talk about what went wrong then. We had a deep and meaningful [conversation]. For 20 opportunities to celebrate actors of color, actresses of color, to be missed last year is one thing; for that to happen again this year is unforgivable… The reason why the Oscars are so important is because it is the zenith, it is the epitome, it is the height of celebration of artistic endeavor within the filmmaking community. We grow up aspiring, dreaming, longing to be accepted into that august establishment because it is the height of excellence. I would like to walk away and say it doesn’t matter, but it does, because that acknowledgement changes the trajectory of your life, your career, and the culture of the world we live in… This institution doesn’t reflect its president and it doesn’t reflect this room. I am an Academy member and it doesn’t reflect me, and it doesn’t reflect this nation.” [From The Hollywood Reporter] That made my chest hurt. David really did want an Oscar nomination. Despite what people say, everyone really does want the nomination. They want to be acknowledged by the most prestigious film organization in the world. They want to feel like their voice, their art, their story is being represented. And for a second year in a row, they were told to suck it. Embed from Getty Images Photos courtesy of Getty, WENN.