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    Cherith CutestoryHillary Crosley Coker
    2/24/16 10:30am

    “I couldn’t put you in a Shakespeare movie, because they didn’t have black people then.” He literally said that. I told that casting director: “You ever heard of Othello? Shakespeare couldn’t just make up black people. He saw them.”

    They also didn’t have female actors back then. Why not have all the female roles played by 13 year old boys today? Realism wasn’t a thing for Shakespeare.

    Also, not that it matters, but Wendell Pierce is as always correct. London had a sizable African population during Shakespeare’s day. In fact, Shakespeare would certainly have known black people but likely would have never once met a Jewish person. So he had more to base Othello on than he had for Shylock.

    But it’s kind of amazing to think that William Shakespeare, born in 1564, was more open to diversity than most Hollywood producers today in 2016. Better female characters than many too.

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      Niko PerrierCherith Cutestory
      2/24/16 10:37am

      oh now... Hollywood movie execs would love a sudden herd of 13 year old boys driven by thirsty stage parents

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      Cherith CutestoryNiko Perrier
      2/24/16 10:38am

      The sexy, romantic Romeo and Juliet where Juliet is played by a boy. I’m sure they’ll be all over it!

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    TerrordidactylHillary Crosley Coker
    2/24/16 10:35am

    I wonder if we’ll ever see an out gay person accept an Oscar?

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      HarvestMoonTerrordidactyl
      2/24/16 10:40am

      Ian McKellen:

      “No openly gay man has ever won the Oscar; I wonder if that is prejudice or chance,” he said, while pointing out that several straight actors – like Tom Hanks and Philip Seymour Hoffman – have won the award for portraying gay characters.

      “How clever, how clever,” McKellen mused. “What about giving me one for playing a straight man?”

      For each of his nominations, the actor revealed he had speeches prepared that began, “’I’m proud to be the first openly gay man to win the Oscar,’’” he said. “I’ve had to put it back in my pocket twice.”

      There’ve been a few actors who’ve come out of the closet since winning an Oscar. Joel Grey, who won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Cabaret, came out last year. Two-time winner Jodie Foster gave a quasi-revealing speech at the Golden Globes in 2013.

      There have been several out musical performers who’ve picked up the Best Original Song trophy. Melissa Etheridge, Elton John, and Stephen Sondheim are just a few. But for a ceremony that consistently rewards straight actors for taking on LGBT roles (Jared Leto, Sean Penn, even Penelope Cruz in Vicky Cristina Barcelona), it’s a little strange that out actors have never been rewarded for bringing their chops to the silver screen.


      Read more at http://www.hitfix.com/the-dartboard/...

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      JennySaysTerrordidactyl
      2/24/16 10:42am

      The guy who wrote Milk won/accepted an Oscar for it; I’m not 100% sure but I think he’s an out guy. Are you referring to someone winning for acting?

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    mjoneslostherburnerkeyHillary Crosley Coker
    2/24/16 10:50am

    In 1985, I’m sitting in the casting office of a major studio. The head of casting said, “I couldn’t put you in a Shakespeare movie, because they didn’t have black people then.” He literally said that. I told that casting director: “You ever heard of Othello? Shakespeare couldn’t just make up black people. He saw them.”

    See I’m laughing, but in all seriousness, even on this very site, when you try to talk to white people about like the Moors and other POC in Medieval Europe white people come back at you like

    GIF
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      monkyvirusmjoneslostherburnerkey
      2/24/16 11:10am

      It’s TV that’s done that to people. We don’t realise that half the time when we see a POC in medieaval wear and think, even just for a second, “huh?” it’s because TV and other media have taught us for years and years that ONLY white people were around back then. Like none of us were there so why is there such a “that doesn’t seem right” reaction?

      I’ve been rewatching Merlin and it was so nice to see Guinevere played by a WOC. They have a lot of non-white extras as well. Obviously even better if there’d been more POC in the main cast but it didn’t feel like tokenism either so I can get behind that.

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      Cherith Cutestorymjoneslostherburnerkey
      2/24/16 11:10am

      It’s so fucking annoying. Especially in the Mediterranean, but not only in the Mediterranean, Europe has always been multi-ethnic and multi-cultural. Or at least going back to Ancient Rome.

      There are POC in Arthur stories written in the Middle Ages but when you try to add POC to the Arthur stories today people scream “PC run amok!”

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    Slay.douché - (dreams to be a puppy)Hillary Crosley Coker
    2/24/16 10:36am

    Wendell Pierce is f*cking awesome.

    That is all.

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      GELLA - LLAPSlay.douché - (dreams to be a puppy)
      2/24/16 10:45am

      he is a good actor.

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      Stig-a-saw-us wrecks loves nuclear power.Slay.douché - (dreams to be a puppy)
      2/24/16 10:49am
      GIF
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    A Friend Called 5Hillary Crosley Coker
    2/24/16 11:05am

    Lets also add: “or fat” in there. I was a talented actress who made the unpardonable sin of being fat. Since I also had a pretty face and was not a slapstick- funny- fat girl, the industry could not wrap their minds around that combo and it was brutal.

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      PantsFeverA Friend Called 5
      2/24/16 11:27am

      Preach, Sister. This thissity this.

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      Tupiniquim - white cat with hands is all of usA Friend Called 5
      2/24/16 11:36am

      I was waiting for someone to add “fat” to the list. Very very few people manage to break through the barrier against fat actors and actresses. Any one who veers from the size 0 beauty standard is fucked.

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    LynxHillary Crosley Coker
    2/24/16 11:11am

    I thought the gayness was what was going to freak people out, and in a lot of ways, it’s the femaleness that causes more problems in a straight, male world. That, I didn’t expect.—Kimberly Pierce

    D:

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      Artist Formerly Known as SkymallLynx
      2/24/16 12:06pm

      This. For all the ‘liberalism’ in Hollywood, there is so much misogyny. That’s the dirty little secret no one talks about.

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      LynxArtist Formerly Known as Skymall
      2/24/16 12:56pm

      I think people think of Hollywood as this club of super rich liberal people, but in reality, it’s a rich boys club. So if you think of it in that way, duh, of course, femaleness is going to be the #1 problem because you get a group of dudes together, they have some weird ideas about women. Hello groupthink.

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    recidiviciousHillary Crosley Coker
    2/24/16 11:56am

    But why is Julia Roberts there?

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      paultoesrecidivicious
      2/24/16 12:17pm

      Because she’s a woman in Hollywood.

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      recidiviciouspaultoes
      2/24/16 12:55pm

      But is she Hollywood’s BEST woman in Hollywood? I think not.

      Seriously though, it rubs me the wrong way a little that they’re including her, given she’s had no problem in the past leveraging her own relatively privileged position against those who are less so. Fuck her, she’s not about all women, she’s about Julia Roberts.

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    JujyMonkey: Clever tagline goes hereHillary Crosley Coker
    2/24/16 10:47am

    Executives in Hollywood are so stupid, racist, and sexist that it’s surprising that they’re not running for president on the GOP ticket.

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      mekkiJujyMonkey: Clever tagline goes here
      2/24/16 11:00am

      Not enough money in politics.

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    SodburgerHillary Crosley Coker
    2/24/16 10:47am

    This spoke to me the most, as a fellow Indian American woman in a field of work where we are few and far between:

    MINDY KALING My role is not just artist. It’s also activist because of the way I look. On so many shows and movies, race was a gesture, and in mine it’s the premise. I can’t ignore that what a lot of people see is an Indian woman who doesn’t look like a Bollywood star. It piques their interest, and they’re not bad for wanting me to tell stories about it, and I’m not wrong for not wanting to. I want to fill my desire to write vibrant, flawed characters, but then also be a role model to young people. It’s stuff that I think about all the time. Some people don’t have to think about this at all.

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      Carrie MathisonHillary Crosley Coker
      2/24/16 10:49am

      I remember my first meeting with the producers on “Erin Brockovich,” before Steven Soderbergh came onto it, and saying, “This scene where she’s shimmying down a well in a micromini? I can’t do that.” [They said], “But that’s really what happened.”

      It’s cute how people who make movies seem to think (or pretend to think) that the camera shows everything that “really happened” when you have a couple hours to show what happens over weeks.

      Did you have a scene where she’s pooping? Sleeping? Taking twenty minutes to shave and fix her makeup? But those really happened! You can’t possibly mean that.... you pick and choose from real events to tell a story in a specific way!?

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        miss_cheviousCarrie Mathison
        2/24/16 11:23am

        “It really happened” is almost always the justification for some bullshit. Because if “it really happened” to involve a person of color or a non-sexy woman, then the “this isn’t reality!” excuse comes into play.

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