11/05/2016 6:55pm A new Twitter campaign is taking up the baton for whitewashing in Hollywood films, using the hashtag #StarringJohnCho. While an unconventional and hilarious method, in a era when equality is meant to be strongly represented in society and the arts, the lack of leading Asian-American is anything but a laughing matter. StarringJohnCho has become a Twitter handle, hashtag and website, with each platform hosting a number of photo-shopped posters of John Cho in leading male roles, to highlight the inequality in everything from big-budget movies right through to romantic comedies. The website states: 'If studies show that films with diverse casts result in higher box office numbers and returns on investments, why doesn't Hollywood cast lead actors to reflect fact?' And it is an undeniable fact that Hollywood continue to cast white lead actors in roles that are traditionally Asian. From Emma Stone as Alison Ng in Aloha (2015) to Scarlett Johansson as Motoko Kusanagi in Ghost in the Shell (2017), studios continue to claim that there simply aren't any A-list actors of Asian ethnicity. Sadly, it's a Catch-22 situation, because for actors to become A-list, they must first be cast in leading roles. And with only 1% of leading roles supposedly going to them, it's a losing fight. So New York strategist William Yu has sparked the discussion by removing the 'perception issue'. Will it work? Only time will tell. Until then, I'm hoping Yu continues his movement with a female version, to show that gender equality too is something Hollywood can work on.
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24/02/2016 11:50am With the Academy Awards set to be handed out this weekend, the plague of diversity in Hollywood films is once again being called into question - this time in a recently released study. And it seems that having no actors or actresses of colour nominated in the Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Actor or Best Actress categories is just the tip of the iceberg. The report, released Monday, entitled 'The Comprehensive Annenberg Report On Diversion', comes from the Media, Diversity & Social Change Initiative at the University Of Southern California’s Annenberg School For Communication & Journalism. It finds that the epitome of the Hollywood A-Class are white males, and that women, ethnic minorities, and LGBT people often fall within the realm of 'invisibility'. In the most honest and brutal terms Hollywood "still functions as a straight, white, boys club." Utilising data from 109 films released in 2014, as well as 305 scripted TV shows, the study focused on 11,000 speaking roles and 11,500 directors, writers, show-runners and executives. And it provided a stark look at the major studios of Disney, Sony, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Universal, and Warner Bros. Statistics include:
Here's hoping Hollywood can do better next year, when The Academy's new steps will be put in place to secure greater diversity in their voting population, and hopefully on their winners podium too. |
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