Slumdog star says Hollywood is racist

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Tyler Perry, anyone?

Tyler Perry makes movies for a very specific (read: blatantly obvious) audience. He's also been on the scene for what 10-15 years?

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Tyler Perry makes movies for a very specific (read: blatantly obvious) audience. He's also been on the scene for what 10-15 years?

Yep. It's a silly comparison. Someone would have to blind not to recognize that many lead roles in films could have easily been filled by an ethnic minority without changing the story.

[SMR 368]

Yes there are scripts that are written for specific actors or require the actors who play certain roles to be of a particular ethnicity. In the 50s they used to do that by blacking up Hurt Lancaster so he could play Geronimo (non white actors had virtually no presence in Hollywood back then).

Now its a bit more complicated.

However even without addressing why, for example, nearly all DC or marvel comic book characters are white its arguable why a white actor needed to play the lead characters in Inception, The Matrix, Mission Impossible or even Star Wars. There is nothing about these films that could not be fulfilled by a non white actor. At the very least you have to ask why.

I think that looking at specific movies with white leads and asking why they didn't have non-white leads is counter-productive and even borderline racist. I can just as easily ask why the lead in I-robot couldn't be played by a white man. The fact is, the movie was only made once and they had to pick. You can ask in general why there aren't movies with non-white leads but that falls flat when you realize there are.

[_Simpson_ 250]

Tyler Perry makes movies for a very specific (read: blatantly obvious) audience. He's also been on the scene for what 10-15 years?

Well Dev Patel has only been in it for a few years and is already b!tch!ng. Point being is other races are well represented in Hollywood and we need to quit it with this PC nonsense.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I think the point is unless you are making a film where the script deals with a specifically ethnic story (like Once Were Warriors or The Colorado Purple), or where the subject matter assumes that the main character is White (James Bond, Indiana Jones, Superman etc) though that has more to do with biases in the source material, it is reasonable to question why big budget films like Inception, like Mission Impossible etc tend to favour White actors when nothing about the story specifically requires it.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Well Dev Patel has only been in it for a few years and is already b!tch!ng. Point being is other races are well represented in Hollywood and we need to quit it with this PC nonsense.

Are they though?

How many Pakistani/Indian A-listers can you name?

What about Arabs?

[_Simpson_ 250]

I think the point is unless you are making a film where the script deals with a specifically ethnic story (like Once Were Warriors or The Colorado Purple), or where the subject matter assumes that the main character is White (James Bond, Indiana Jones, Superman etc) though that has more to do with biases in the source material, it is reasonable to question why big budget films like Inception, like Mission Impossible etc tend to favour White actors when nothing about the story specifically requires it.

So what exactly is the issue you with Hollywood and how they select their actors?

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

The question is whether there is a racial bias in Hollywood. I think there is.

[^_^ 5,021]

Dev Patel can go fu## himself. He's the reason total strangers felt the need to talk to me about some goddamn movie. I walked into an elevator once and some old lady congratulated me. #######?

So yeah. Fu## slumdog and fu## Dev Patel.

[_Simpson_ 250]

Are they though?

How many Pakistani/Indian A-listers can you name?

What about Arabs?

Considering that there are only 3.5 million Arabs in America I would say yes.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Considering that there are only 3.5 million Arabs in America I would say yes.

There are three questions in my post. "yes" is not the answer to any of them.

[maya62 7]

Slumdog was successful because it is a very compelling story, not because of Dev Patel or any other actor. He is not striking in appearance or acting capability, imho.

Hollywood casting agents should check out Aamir Khan! Check out "Taare Zameen Par" (Like Stars on Earth), "Lagaan", "Fanaa", and "Ghajini". I would pay $10 to see him on the big screen anywhere!

HOT HOT HOT (and smart, too)

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Dev Patel can go fu## himself. He's the reason total strangers felt the need to talk to me about some goddamn movie. I walked into an elevator once and some old lady congratulated me. #######?

So yeah. Fu## slumdog and fu## Dev Patel.

[^_^ 5,021]

Slumdog was successful because it is a very compelling story...

I didn't think it was all that compelling.

[Jenn! 918]

How is trying to branch out beyond typical stereotypes "too PC"?

It is if you pretty much buy into the stereotypes, I guess.