The face of equality
Husband-and-wife comedians and commentators Michele A’Court and Jeremy Elwood share their views.
In case you haven’t been paying attention, over the past few years something profound has been happening in Hollywood. It’s always been a place for the beautiful people, but it seems someone, somewhere has decided to slowly but surely broaden the definition of what “beautiful” looks like.
More and more, we are seeing movies in which women and men from non-white ethnicities are taking centre screen, and the world seems to largely be just fine with that. Yes, there have been half-baked attempts at complaint and even boycotts from the same kinds of people who opposed #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo, but the movies haven’t suffered as a result, at all. Black Panther is destroying box office records on a weekly basis, and hit after hit for the past couple of seasons – Wonder Woman, Get Out, Star Wars – feature the type of casting that has long been a rarity on the silver (read: white) screen.
It’s a change that has been long overdue, but it certainly hasn’t come out of nowhere. Cable and streaming television has been leading the charge for quite some time, with diversity in shows such as The Wire, and strong female leads in Broadchurch, The Killing and more. Cinema is really only just catching up, but one thing that catches my eye in the above list is the genre leading the charge: the big-budget blockbusters; the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Star Wars franchise and DC Comics adaptations are not only casting these actors but casting them as heroes. It’s like someone took Spider-Man’s mantra literally, that “with great power comes great responsibility”. Although making some great profits won’t hurt, either. In fact, Forbes’ list of 2017’s highest grossing actors contains three women and three men of colour (plus two white guys called Chris, one called Tom and one representative of whatever the hell planet Johnny Depp comes from.)
The change is happening behind the camera, too, although perhaps not as visibly. Female or non-white writers, directors and cinematographers were all represented in this year’s list of Oscar nominees and, even if they didn’t win, that’s a definite sign of change.
Speaking of the Oscars, after the ceremony Donald Trump took to Twitter (of course) to lambast them as follows: “Lowest rated Oscars in HISTORY. Problem is, we don’t have Stars anymore – except your President (just kidding, of course)!”
Well, Mr President, I would argue that we do have Stars, they just don’t all look like you any more. They look like Jennifer Lawrence, John Boyega, Gal Gadot, Daisy Ridley, Idris Elba, Lupita Nyong’o and many, many more. And they’re no longer in a galaxy far, far away.
They’re coming soon, to a cinema near you.