Interactions

Tatyana Ali, of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” fame, has done five Christmas TV movies and even produced one. Based on her fan interactions, she says it’s clear that viewers care about diversity.

“They literally always bring up how nice it is,” said Ali, who stars in “Christmas Hotel” airing Dec 21 on Lifetime. “These are people who have been fans of Christmas movies for years and they always bring up how nice it is to see people of color, how much more exciting it is for them to tune in.”

Candice Frederick, an entertainment reporter and critic based in New York City, said studios, especially in TV, are still “more willing to throw away millions of dollars on a white actor than an actor of color.” Though Hallmark films seem to cater to an audience that’s “very white middle America who eat that up,” networks like BET can go after other demographics.

“I just kind of find it low-hanging fruit. Not to say that’s a bad thing,” Frederick said. “You can’t not win with a Christmas movie during Christmas time.”

Tina Perry, president of OWN, said filling roles with more diverse actors in general is a great way to sprinkle unique cultural nuances in a very formulaic genre. The network’s three original holiday movies have all-black casts.

“There’ll be a distinction I think for viewers when they watch and compare the Hallmark and Lifetime (movies) with our movies,” Perry said. Even the music is “more jazzy, R&B, a little soulful, which I think is going to be really fun for our viewers and just give it a different feel.”

Akana, 30, thinks the issue is with a Hollywood system that’s still shedding racist stereotypes while claiming there are few Asian actors. For a long time, she said most of the auditions she got were for stereotypical parts like a massage therapist or the girl who was “upset she got a B.” She credits her YouTube channel, which has 2.5 million subscribers, for helping her leverage better auditions.