![]() ![]() It’s incredible! Why isn’t she being bombarded with scripts?” (By contrast, The Danish Girl, which won Alicia Vikander an Oscar and the title of Hollywood’s new It girl, had an opening weekend of $185,000.) “That film opened with $25 million dollars. To illustrate her point, Prince-Bythewood noted the recent box-office success of Sanaa Lathan’s latest movie, The Perfect Guy. “They always ask, ‘Where are the black stars of this age?’ And the truth is, we don’t develop stars because there are so few films starring people of color that are actually made.” But the studio was doubtful they could market a movie without a major star. When Prince-Bythewood was working on Beyond the Lights, a film about a global music star who falls in love with a cop that saves her from a suicide attempt, the director had her heart set on Gugu Mbatha-Raw, a rising British actress, for the lead role. But when dealing with major studios, it’s much harder to sell a movie starring a black ingenue or up-and-coming black actor. The fact that Southside With You was a small indie production, and that its actors needed to have some sort of physical resemblance to its real-life counterparts, certainly helped keep Sumpter and Sawyers, both relatively unknown, in the lead roles. The film, which reimagines the Obamas’ first date in Chicago-they watched Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing and kissed while having a late-night ice cream-was a hit when it first premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and has drawn favorable reviews for its two lead newcomers, Tika Sumpter and Parker Sawyers. The lack of romantic roles for black actors has come up over and over again during the recent press tour of Richard Tanne’s new movie, Southside with You. Why is that not in the realm of possibility in Hollywood?” Not that I’m the hottest person, but I’m a person who has sex people date me. And I’ve been auditioning for like four years. “I’ve never auditioned to be a love interest never. “So many things I go out for are like, sassy black assistant, sassy black best friend,” she said. During a July appearance on Anna Faris’s podcast, Anna Faris Is Unqualified, actress Phoebe Robinson (who has her own podcasts, 2 Dope Queens and Sooo Many White Guys) bemoaned the fact that she has never even booked an audition for the role of romantic lead.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |