McKellen, who is the co-founder of the LGBT rights charity Stonewall, said the criticism facing the Academy for the lack of diversity at the Oscars is “legitimate.”
Tuesday, January 26, 2016
Ian McKellen: Gay Actors ‘Disregarded’ by Oscars, Hollywood
McKellen, who is the co-founder of the LGBT rights charity Stonewall, said the criticism facing the Academy for the lack of diversity at the Oscars is “legitimate.”
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I am so sick of having this conversation. Yes, it is wrong that straight white people monopolize and industry, and there needs to be a change, and I think that the celebrities that have spoken out against the oscars have done a wonderful job in doing so eloquently, and respectfully (although I hardly think the oscars deserve that much respect), but very few have acknowledged what I see as the larger issue here, and that is that minority people (gender, race, sexual orientation) just down get hired as much as your average white leading man or woman. So while the Oscars should not have all white people in their acting categories, they don't have much of an option. We need to change the way we approach casting movies. My hope is that as we move on to next year, and the years after, not only do the oscars accurately represent the actors in their nominations, but that we eventually break into the top office, filled with white men, and start to change the way we see movies. I am so sick of having this conversation because I just want it to be over, and for us to be fixed already, but we have to keep having it, and we have to implement the ideas into our everyday life, especially in the entertainment industry.
While I am, of course, very much in support of the inclusion of a more wide range of diverse people working in the arts, and I definitely do think that gay/ LGBT actors in general need to have more of a voice in awards shows such as the Oscars, I don’t think that it is fair to compare the prejudice against people of color in entertainment and the prejudice against gay people in entertainment. I think that the implications of their respective lacks of representation are very different. It’s impossible to accurately represent the story of a black character on screen without a black actor. Their lack of screen time, I think, is due to the fact that there aren’t enough stories being written and produced which focus on black characters, and, because people of color aren’t normally thought of to be the “default” for a character in a story in which race isn’t a clear factor, actors of color are rarely given the chance to be shown authentically onscreen. However, it is possible (perhaps not preferable, but possible) to represent LGBT- related stories without hiring actual LGBT actors (many gay characters are portrayed by straight people). While this lack of connection to the character may not be ideal, it definitely doesn’t hold the same weight as the problem with diverse race representation within the industry. While I still do think there need to be more movies made which include characters of a wide range of sexualities, those characters don’t necessarily need to be played by actors who identify with those sexualities in order for the story to be compelling. Overall, while I totally agree with Ian McKellen’s concerns about the overall lack of diversity in the entertainment industry, I think it’s important to note the nuances between different groups’ representations.
For me this article again addresses the lack of diversity which has always been a problem in our industry, only now it is becoming a more and more visible problem. I feel that McKellen should not compare the discrimination against people of color and LGBTQ+ people because, as Sasha pointed out, they are very different. But he is absolutely right to point it out, especially now that people’s attention is focused on discrimination in the entertainment industry given the Oscars controversy. However what troubled me most about this article is that as I scrolled to the bottom the first comment on it was “Lets give Oscar to gays, black people, lesbians, asians, muslims, short people and many other people who feel disregarded. Give Oscar to me – i feel disregarded. Lets not give oscar to actors and directors who deserve it by their work.” This kind of attitude is so incredibly frustrating and infuriating. People who dismiss anyone who speaks up against discrimination because they think that everyone who is part of a minority group is just asking for handouts. These people ignore issues because the current status quo suits their privilege perfectly. They have never not been able to get what they want as long as they put in enough work, and they won’t understand that other people have to work three or four times as hard or simply refused the things they get by just showing up. In other words, my automatic assumption is that this comment was written by a straight, white male who does not think that he is privileged. That comment is a perfect example for the kind of aggressively passive attitude we as a community will have to fight in order to bring about change in our industry and our world.
While Sarah makes a good point in saying that “diverse” casting just doesn’t happen as much as it should, and therefore it is harder to make these award show representative of all races and genders, I think the main issue is the writing that gets approved in the first place. For some reason – and I’m not sure why exactly this is beyond years of religious reform and different sociocultural norms, gayness just isn’t something that has ever come out into the open until this decade. Even back in the early and mid 1900s, everyone knew about lesbians – women would have partners alongside their figurehead husbands (who would be blatantly get kicked out of the bedroom, to be frank) but for some reason, it remained a taboo, despite its raving popularity. Also, these award shows get focused on because they are in the public eye, all the behind the scene approval and editing and production work isn’t seen by the masses and that’s why this conundrum of underrepresentation is such a public and unsolvable issue.
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