Variety: Though diversity in casting has been strong on television recently, progress in feature films has been slower, Viola Davis and Tom Hanks discussed in a one-on-one interview for Variety‘s Actors on Actors.
Hanks, who recently starred in the drama “Sully,” noted that although diversity is a “bonanza” in television, the economics of film creates a barrier to increasing diversity.
2 comments:
Wait - Tom Hanks discusses diversity in Film and Television. Have you ever seen or heard the nbc debate done during the Olympics on whether or not female olympians should wear makeup? I believe the host (a woman) opens the discussion with "and here are two men with a lot of opinions". Why is Tom Hanks talking about diversity? He is a straight white man - he is the majority. I appreciate that he has an opinion on this matter - I just think he should not be the person to discuss this. And, rather than let Viola Davis, who, based on this interview, is better informed on the topic as it is more pertinent to her, take the lead on the conversation, Tom hanks dominates byu arguing that film just can't be diverse for economic reasons. He also states that television is diverse which it isn't - statistically, 72% the 2016-17 new shows on five major networks have white male showleads (http://variety.com/2016/tv/news/diversity-television-white-male-showrunners-stats-fox-nbc-abc-cbs-cw-study-1201789639/). That is not diverse. Economics are not a valid reason to not have diversity in entertainment. Tom Hanks makes a point about needing less diverse casting to get an audience. He equates it to a mostly eastern-asian cast movie in China. This just isn't a good comparison - the ethnic makeup in China is much more homogenous (with 98% of the population being Han Chinese) than america. Believe it or not - America is not 72% white male.
The notion that a movie cannot include people of color in order to make back its money overseas is weird to me, because why would China only want to see white people as well? I believe Tom, but I still don't know if I buy that: like in the new Ghost in the Shell movie with Scarlett Johansson, if there are other big name Asian actresses, why ScarJo herself? Does it really make a difference?
I think because films are such a higher investment than television that execs are afraid to break the system. Casting white people in their minds has always worked (except when it doesn't) and therefore they want to follow to formula. That makes for bad movies! I don't need any more of what I've already seen, thank you. Keep your audience interested. Keep it important.
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