LEE CELANO/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Exit
the lack thereof of quality roles for
African-American actors, I look for
stuff like that,” he said in an interview with HuffPost Entertainment.
“I want the script that Ben Affleck
or Leonardo DiCaprio couldn’t do
because of scheduling. I want that
one. I want those types of roles.”
Hollywood is even worse at including women of color in awardwinning performances, (Halle
Berry is the only black woman to
ever win the Oscar for Best Actress for her role in Monster’s
Ball, one with a complex and
controversial relationship with
race), and this year’s Emmys were
a shockingly white-male affair.
12 Years, The Butler, Fruitvale
and Mandela all cleared an extra
hurdle: they are all independently
financed films that were created
without the interest or fiscal support of the major movie studios.
True equality in the Best Actor
race doesn’t mean only rewarding
black men in roles white men could
never play. Instead, we’ll know
when Hollywood casting directors
and the Academy of Motion Picture
Arts and Sciences view people of
color as deserving of equal opportunities to shine when a black man
in the role of a fictional caring father, son, teacher, student, doctor,
BEHIND
THE SCENES
HUFFINGTON
10.27.13
The only black man to
win Best Actor for a role
that could have been played
by a white actor is Denzel
Washington, who won in
2001 for his turn as a LAPD
detective in Training Day.”
author or otherwise non-racially
coded character is nominated for
and wins Best Actor.
Until then, however, let’s raise
a glass to this year’s class of outstanding performers, because
maybe, just maybe their success
in this year’s awards rat race
will jostle the shamefully whitewashed powers that be within the
industry. Forgive me for
not getting my hopes up.
Denzel
Washington
won an
Academy
Award for
Best Actor
playing a
race-neutral
role, while
Halle Berry is
the only black
women in
Oscar history
to win Best
Actress.