Denzel Washington has one thing in common with Liam Neeson: they’ve become late-in-life action stars. I actually don’t understand what Denzel has been doing with his career over the past few years, as he puts out movies like 2 Guns, The Equalizer and Unstoppable. I didn’t see any of them, but that’s because they didn’t look very good at all. Perhaps Denzel has just been offered really awful scripts, or maybe he just wants to make some money for his retirement, but whatever is happening, I think we can all agree that his career has taken a weird turn, right? Well, some of those (bad) films were released by Sony, and as you can imagine, the Sony Hack has revealed some interesting stuff about the way executives dealt with Denzel’s films.
Shockingly, the email in question does not involve Amy Pascal or Scott Rudin making racist “jokes” about how Pres. Obama probably loves Denzel because they’re both black. The email is from executive Michael Lynton, who suggests that in the future, Sony shouldn’t hire black actors like Denzel for leads in films. The argument Lynton makes is that the rest of the world is “racist” and they don’t want to see black actors in lead roles, so every time they cast someone like Denzel in The Equalizer, their foreign box office is going to sink. Thus, they shouldn’t hire black actors for lead roles, obviously. About Denzel specifically, Lynton wrote:
“He’s reliable at the domestic [box office], safe, but has not had a huge success in years. I believe whenever possible the non event pictures, extra ‘bets’ should have a large inherent upside and be made for the right price. Here there isn’t a large inherent upside…I believe that the international motion picture audience is racist — in general pictures with an African American lead don’t play well overseas.”
The Daily Mail notes that The Equalizer actually did great overseas, and the film grossed $191 million worldwide. I mean, that’s not Marvel money, but I’m sure Sony picked up a tidy profit on what was probably a pretty crappy movie.
What bugs me about this is two-fold. One, it feels like executives are just itching for a reason to avoid diversity casting/hiring at all costs, and they will use any excuse. Like, “Denzel doesn’t do well overseas because they’re the racist ones so let’s never hire him as a lead ever again.” And they say that in earnest, without a hint of irony. Two, it’s like it would never occur to them that people everywhere might avoid a movie because it’s crappy. Like, of course it has to be about race, right? It’s not that studio made a really bad movie, right?
Oh, and the rest of the world is racist and they don’t care for African-Americans? I guess that’s why some of our biggest American exports are Oprah, Beyonce, Pharrell Williams, Will Smith, Samuel L. Jackson, Eddie Murphy, etc.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Come on…everyone loves Denzel.
If everyone loved Denzel he would still be getting the A-list projects.
Because he’s 59.
And apparently black so that is why the Sony exec’s won’t give him A list projects anymore.
BINGO, mernymerlyn
Can he sue? They’re on record openly discriminating against him for being black. He can argue that they’re holding back the good scripts, not considering him for roles that they give to other actors his age… and then donate the money to a worthy cause.
Everyone seems to forget he was nominated for an Oscar just last year. Anyone remember Flight? Great movie and great performance.
I think his age is certainly not working in his favor, either. He’s dad or grandad, not the romantic or dramatic lead he was once. Those roles will go to the two reigning African-British actors, Idris Elba or Chiwetel Ejiofor. They both play American very well.
I still love Denzel, but everyone ages out in Hollywood eventually.
I came here to honestly ask how many do. I’ve just never understood his (former?) dreamboat leading man role. His acting is fine I guess, but there’s something about it that makes him feel..idk…less accessible than some other bigshot handsome actor? It’s that I just can’t feel a connection to him in roles I have seen him in. Maybe I don’t feel he connects with his characters. Something kind of cold/stand-offiish/off-putting prevents a warmth from developing for him in me. Maybe I just haven’t watched enough of them, or seen the wrong ones.
Eh.
“I came here to honestly ask how many do.”
I guess just look at most of the comments here for your answer?
If you don’t think he connects with his characters you must have never seen Malcolm X. He looked nothing like Malcolm X ,but he was the embodiment of Malcolm X. Also,a Soldier’s story. It’s a smaller role ,but he’s great in it.
Please, role of his life in my opinion is officer Alfonso Haris in Training Day. He was brilliant, playing dark challenging caracter.Perhaps, they are not many roles for his type. He is one of my favorites out there.
I never cared for him either. It has nothing to do with race, I happen to love Will Smith no matter what movie he plays in (I only skipped the latest one where he is trying to turn his idiot son into a star, bleah) and Chris Rock and Fishburne (he can absolutely be badass) and Samuel Jackson and so on, but Denzel? No thanks.
I always thought he came across as a stuck-up, holier than thou guy, doing press like he was doing people a favour promoting his movie, and I could never see his hotness. So I think a more accurate comment would have been that maybe people do not want to see Denzel.
That does in no way excuse the attitude of “let’s not cast a black actor, foreign audiences don’t want it.” BS. Foreign and domestic audiences want to see a good movie, and yes some stars can be a bigger draw at the box office but if a movie is good then it will make money even if Chris Pratt (who?) and a green Zoe Saldana team up with a walking tree and a snotty raccoon to save the galaxy.
I think in some ways the problem is that he is too good. He played some very honorable characters in his younger years but then he did Training Day which was very different from characters he played in the past. That started a series of films it seemed where he played slimeballs. I went from really liking him to just not wanting to watch his movies anymore. I couldn’t help transferring my feelings for the characters to the actor because he played them so believably. My dad has heard several stories of what a good guy he is and how he gives back quietly to his home town all the time. He also keeps close with the friends he grew up with and doesn’t really play the Hollywood game.
•AntiSocialButterfly•
I think it’s because he plays his characters sometimes as remote or aloof. But not all his characters are like that. My favourite movie he’s in and directed is Antwone Fisher — he’s still a bit remote in it but the movie certainly isn’t.
I love his older movies but am not so nuts about a lot of his recent movies.
ita, i think he’s a good actor, i dont dislike him, but i dont seek him out. there’s a remoteness that sometimes works like in philadelphia, but doesnt leave me wanting more.
I find him really really dull. I’ve tried to watch movies where he’s the lead, or one of the co-leads, but he’s just always dull to me. It’s not a black thing–I could watch Samuel L Jackson all day, but maybe it’s because he picks interesting and crazy roles. Or maybe my taste in movies is too low brow and Washington used to go for really serious and worthy roles, which translates to me as zzzzz. I’d probably like Washington’s bad action movies!
“In general pictures with an African American lead don’t play well overseas.”
…and they would know because big studios are constantly putting black males in big budget lead roles all the time. So they have the math backing them up. Yah. (Jlaw yeah right gif inserted here)
These old white men trying to stick Asia with the blame for their racism. They like Will Smith’s blockbusters just fine. Smh
All this does is confirm what we already know… Hollywood is run by a bunch of racist idiots. It’s not a big shock to read this, but at the same time, it’s pretty sad.
“The poll found three in 10 Americans believe the New York grand jury would have indicted the police officer who applied a chokehold if Garner was white. Half said the victim’s race would not have altered the outcome”. The article says that 58% of blacks disagree. I disagree vehemently. I wonder if these cops are racist because they don’t know black folk; or they like to groom themselves by another’s taking other’s down a peg. If it had been a white boy, perhaps they could have related to him, Black folk are in this situation, not because they are inferior – but because they have been denied access to monies, and opportunities. IMO
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2880184/Poll-finds-57-percent-majority-Americans-believe-race-relations-bad-negative-assessment-issue-nearly-20-years.html#ixzz3MMnmUOyC
Whoopie and Rosie had a fight on “The View”, with Whoopie saying that Rosie had no idea, of what racism is. *Where is the link between us?*
Racism is almost unbelieveable to me, except that I have been the victim of evil, and know that people can be very dangerous. With racism, evil is allowed to exist as a systemic perplexity, with white folks who insist that they are only polite. I can’t imagine how desperate I would feel as a black mother. Can we boycott film studio’s? Where is location of the solution? In other words, what can I do besides being kind?
Ugh. Am I the only one who doesn’t find this BS entertaining at all? Quite the contrary, I find it utterly depressing.
Honestly in spite of involved millions,they’re ( all Rudin,Pascal….)as mediocre as everyone in my work ( myself inside)
Yeah, I’m getting spent on it.
I find it entertaining because it’s confirming what I’ve suspected all along. Gimme more tbh.
Some of it is entertaining. Other parts shameful.
It’s embarrassing how these people talk and do business. Now when I watch award shows and they go on and on about the “magic of movie making” I’ll just picture Rudin throwing himself on the floor and having a swaggy tantrum.
I know–next time I hear any of that BS from a studio exec, I’m gonna hurl.
What’s the next big reveal going to be? Everyone’s An A-Hole! (Coming soon to a theatre near you)
I wonder what they’d think if we boycotted all Sony films?
I like that it’s shedding a light on things like this. There is an inherent bias that many people carry around and, yet, don’t consider themselves racist. I think the more we see things like this, the more people acknowledge that there is a “race” issue, whether we want to believe it or not.
Mimi I just want you to know I put an ‘f’ at the end of my name so no one would get you confused with my unsanctioned buffoonery. 😉
I’m with you mimif. They are all so gross. I actually watched that awful version of “Black Dahlia” w/ Scarlett Johansson that came out several years ago. It seems like Hollywood is really as disgusting as it was portrayed in that film. Bleak.
Mimif – I cannot sanction your buffoonery. 🙂 Actually, I don’t think I’m the original Mimi, either. I should probably add a letter to MY name so the real Mimi doesn’t have to sanction MY buffoonery.
I think the original Mimi might be a buffonery sanctioner, so watch yourself. And there is a mimz too! Maybe we should co-join and become WonderTwinMimis: form of a sloppy & minimally talented CB poster. 😜
Yep. La La Land seems to be run by a bunch of mean jerks :(.
Denzel is super popular in France!!! i know France is not the world but…
France is just a very awesome part of the world IMO 😉
Denzel is also very popular in Finland and in Scandinavia in general, so ” we all “overseas are NOT racists!
Scandinavians are not racists Americans n British are
.
Same for The Netherlands, and Germany- they LOVE him there!
Same for Portugal … A fantastic actor… 🙂
Same for Brazil. Everyone loves him here.
Yeah, same in Spain. and unfortunately there is racism here… but i don’t think it works this way in these cases. Racism in Europe is sometimes more about people being scared and prejudiced when an immigrant is around, even if this person is a white immigrant (it doesn’t apply rich people and tourists). Not about male lead in a movie for sure…
Everybody I know loves Denzel… and Will Smith, and of course Morgan Freeman, etc… The european bigots are more focused at blaming people without money (and yes, it’s a shame…)…
A very narrow minded statement – who would buy into that bull? I think you got it right by pointing out it’s just a self serving excuse. Reads like the person who wrote that statement is racist, not the world audience.
i might be living in a parallel universe then. because where i am, Denzel movies are always well-attended. even without all the press and all the marketing hullaballo.
only, sometimes i see that he doesn’t get a good script to back him up. but even with watery flimsy script he acts the crap out of the film.
him and Keanu. they read the phonebook and the audience will still attend. okay maybe not the phonebook, but a random action scene?
Right, Denzel and Keanu. The most handsome brothers in the history of Shakespeare movies!
thank you for adding Keanu to your statement, i’m one of his biggest fans!
as for black don’t sell, i can tell you that they are big in the arab world, and in Africa…maybe we are not very rich to matter but the argument about racism doesn’t stand in my opinion. a good movie is a good movie, even jewish comedy does well if well written.
I really like him as an actor, but he has been in some horrible movies and I’m not paying to see horrible movies. Give the man some better parts!
Ditto. I forced myself to see the Equalizer, only because I wanted to support a “brotha,” but brotha-man needs to pick better stuff, because that was straight redundant and regurgitated garbage.
He seems like the kind of actor (along with Viola Davis) who would really benefit from more colorblind casting.
I agree, Wilma! I love both of these actors. Totally.
How ridiculous even here in Europe in the middle of nowhere, everyone knows and loves Denzel. They are the racist, they’re just making excuses for themselves.
It’s really astonishing that the race issue is used when the quality of his latest films are totally debatable. Denzel (IMO) has sort of being playing himself where he is the hero all the time. I find that annoying and won’t pay for it. Are these people in Sony living in a bubble?….
Denzel has been in some stinkers, but for me he’s just one of those actors/actresses that I will watch in anything.
And ahem…50% or more of Wil Smith’s box office take is overseas. If it’s something people want to see it doesn’t matter who or what race the lead is.
^Spot on with all your points. I’ll watch Denzel in anything.
Men in Black 3 and After Earth tanked in the US but was saved by its overseas takings; plus films like 12 Years a Slave and Django Unchained made loads of money outside the US
PLLEAASSEE classic uh uh.. uh .. but… no cause.. Black That’s why we have to keep hiring that inflatable pillow with Muscles or ..Uh Mark Walhberg cuz.. Murica
Preach it, Princess QQ Buns.
+2
Hollywood is full of a bunch of racists so this isn’t shocking but still makes me sad. Team Denzel. Also his movies always make money, so I think this is a bunch of bull.
This just proves my point. I am glad that they are exposed for the racist, sexist, bigoted a**holes they are.
LOL! Not true at all. These “executives” are the one who are racists and then they think World thinks like them.
Equalizer wasn’t a bad movie but quite brutal after doing good character development in the first third.
There are some black stars that transcend race and Denzel Washington is one of them.
That’s interesting logic. They want to appeal more to foreign audiences, so they’re going to make the movies even whiter? Because the rest of the world is white?
Bridget’s, they’re idiots. Let just leave it at that
I agree with you, except PS: No one cares about Oprah outside of the US.
True. But that’s probably because she mainly did her talk show that would have to dubbed. And who watches dubbed talk shows? I’ve also never seen any of the US late night talk shows here on national TV.
What! No one watches Oprah’s life class? I’m kidding. I don’t blame the rest of the world.
Oprah practically raised me though. She is pretty important around here (Netherlands)
Lol. What? Where exactly do you live? Oprah is very well known in both in my current country of residence and in my home country (different continents fyi).
In fact, in most parts of the world, the common way to indicate that a talk show host is very popular is to say “shes the ….(insert nationality here)… Oprah”.
No they play tons of her stuff in Asia. I lived in a few Asian countries growing up. She’s considered super all American entertainment.
What???? Oprah plays on Portuguese television with subtitles… on a monday to friday ..
@Zip,some countries may dubb the talkshows and movies, tv series, etc, but don’t generalize.. In Portugal you’ll never watch a dubbed movie, talkshow or tv series, (unless it’s for kids under 6 because they can’t read…) .. Always with subtitles and the original soundtrack. Always….
Whaaaaat? Australia loves Oprah! Played everyday at 1pm. Good times during my uni days
I feel I must say this because I said it several threads ago…… I told you so!!
You did and you did!
“Oh, and the rest of the world is racist and they don’t care for African-Americans? I guess that’s why some of our biggest American exports are Oprah, Beyonce, Pharrell Williams, Will Smith, Samuel L. Jackson, Eddie Murphy, etc.”
Exactly.
I have a tough time believing that. African American artists sell very well overseas. Hell, Kanye West and Jay Z do massive overseas tours and make great money doing it.
Denzel Washington is an Oscar-winning actor, for crying out loud. How difficult is it to promote him? His roles have been super-varied over time and he gets a lot of critical praise. This sounds far more like the execs are just looking for a reason to not work with him.
It’s also just bad form to hate on Denzel. By every account I’ve ever heard, he’s a pretty nice guy to work with and not a diva. He also does an absolute TON of charity work. Overall, he’s a pretty hard guy to hate on. It’s like talking crap about Lenny Kravitz – you just don’t do it.
One quibble that has nothing to do with his overseas profitability: Denzel isn’t necessarily the nicest guy. For one thing, he’s a serial cheater.
Yeah I’ll give you nice guy to work with and not a diva, but not such a great guy in real life. The man’s status as a star and actor deserves defending, just don’t ask me to like him.
He’s actually a jerk to people and cheats on his wife. Read old threads on him on here, you’ll be shocked. It’s a real eye-opener.
I would agree to the point that some black movies don’t play well overseas. Like Tyler perry, his “comedy” speaks very much to the African American experience. So I can see the humor not translating. But Denzel? Come on.
That box office is just OK, but that’s probably because the Equalizer was kind of crap! Denzel has hits and misses, just like Liam Neeson. It means nothing.
It’s such a wierd example to use Denzel. He makes money! The only possible argument is Hollywood’s questionably named “urban market” movies. Tyler Perry, Ride Along, etc. Yes they do terribly overseas, but no one is spending 100 million to make them either. They have more limited appeal, so what? So do Russian comedies released here, it’s cultural. Action and aliens have universal appeal. Cast Will Smith in Independence Day and voilà, international star.
Actually, when actors are Denzel’s age, their box office clout and roles go down somewhat. It’s the nature of the industry. Look at all the big actors that in their 40s were huge and now around Denzel’s age not. But they still get roles. Harrison Ford, Tom Hanks are two that come to mind. And all it takes is one big box office to make you really hot again and scripts pouring in. Denzel’s movie overperformed what they expected domestically, so I think he’s back on top again.
Liam Neeson made like a million dollars for doing what he thought was a straight to video movie and Natasha was against it. He was not, especially at his age, thought of as a huge box office draw for action thrillers. And the rest is history. The guy is 62 and now has scripts pouring in and has been offered action thriller movies that were written for younger guys and changed the part for Liam. People making movies seek him out for movies now because it is now perceived he can pull in the theatre-goers to make a profit for the movie for the most part, even if not massive. Of course, the A Team was where that didn’t happen. He knows he had to strike while the iron was hot, and when the lull comes, he will go back to more indie parts or smaller movies.
You are both over estimating Liams box office power. Hes had success with the Taken franchise but thats about it. His last movie grossed 26 million. He has to keep churning out Taken, its pretty much the only thing that he can successfully carry – hence the new sequel. Liam was more a character actor, his name alone couldnt put butts on seats so he chose clever films with good directors.
Denzel on the other hand has always been at the helm of his movies. He is the marqee star, the actor people come to see even though he spent most of his earlier career doing smart empowering films.
Even with age he still always delivers at the box office. Equalizer which we all agree was crap still made $191 million and 47% of that was in International markets. Even Two Guns made 131 Millon.
Bear in mind that he doesnt even do the Tom Cruise/Brad Pitt world tours trying to sell his movies. I rarely see him working the talkshows either. And he certainly doesnt do tabloids. His movies are opening on his name alone.
I feel like comparing him to Liam Neeson is abit like that joke that Chris Rock makes about how he the worlds best paid black comedian lives next door to a dentist, a regular middle class dentist. Because being black means that no matter how outstanding you are you will be gauged against the middle white guy. At the very least in the last few years he has fallen somewhere between Mark Wahlberg and Brad Pitt. And at his peak he was sitting with Hanks and Cruise.
@Mia4S
And we have a winner! Its like a self-fulfilling something or other. They turn out stuff like Beauty Shop and Nail Place and tell the actors that they have to take peanuts because those movies won’t do well overseas. Case in point: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/10/george-lucas-hollywood-di_n_1197227.html
Looking at his recent movies, it’s actually true that Denzel-led movies haven’t been selling super well overseas – they do equal to or a little less than the US gross. But, IMO, that has to do more with the films looking like a bunch of generic and kind of forgettable action films, that aren’t based on a franchise or comic book.
To dismiss the international market as racist because of that is incredibly misguided and rude, I think, especially when other black actors have had films be very successful overseas.
Unstoppable was great. I loved it.
Did the producer stop to think that maybe overseas it wasn’t the percentage they wanted, but that this movie domestically brought in big box office because he was the lead. He can say it didn’t get the percentage they expected compared to domestic,. But what if domestic had never made as much as it did because it had some white actor that you thought would bring in the people and didn’t. I go to most Denzel Washington movies because he is one of my favorite actors. I would never have seen this movie if he wasn’t in it because it didn’ t look like what I liked at first. This producer acts like it was a given it would have opened as well in the US without Denzel.
And it was a huge opener. Hindsight is easy for this producer since he knows how well it performed domestically and the number, but who is to say in a different actor’s hands it would ever have pulled in those kinds of numbers here in the States.
And this should be a wake-up call to people who complain about lack of color in movies from that e-mail. When there is an actor or actress you like and support like Denzel or Samuel Jackson or any other actor or actress, what speaks is dollars. Don’t wait for the DVD. Go out and support the movie, thus always making the actor have more clout in the industry and get more parts (unless reviews are God-awful).
But that is why this email is so stupid. It was expected to do good but never expected to do as huge as it did here. And no sequel was even planned until they saw the numbers opening weekend. And, by the way, it was an R-rated movie and still did that well.
Here’s part of an article ifrom September about its success.
“That “The Equalizer” was going to dominate the weekend was a given, since the only other wide opener was the animated family film “Boxtrolls,” but not many people anticipated this powerful of a debut. Sony is already prepping a sequel, which would be the first in Washington’s more than 30-year film career.
Also read: Denzel Washington’s ‘Equalizer’ Blows Away Box Office With $35 Million Debut
There were several factors that contributed to the film’s supersized success:
Denzel Delivered: “The Equalizer” proved the latest example of audiences embracing Washington, whether he plays a good or bad guy. “Even when he’s playing nasty or flawed characters, you find yourself rooting for him,” said Rentrak senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “The Equalizer,” in which he rescues a young prostitute from the Russian mob with righteous fury, proved just the right mix of Good Denzel and Nasty Denzel for a lot of moviegoers. African-American and Hispanic moviegoers made up roughly 40 of the crowd.”
Racist, racist, racist. Where are the calls to boycott SONY?
If you boycott Sony you are ironically boycotting a studio that actually puts out a large amount of product starring African Americans. Terrible idea.
Plus if you think this is just a Sony issue, you’re dreaming!
Exactly. That was one producer there that emailed that thought, not some edict from Sony. And it was also Sony who put Denzel in the movie.
I saw The Equalizer this weekend and it was amazing!! He was so great in it.
These emails are pretty terrible but I would not expect less from studio executives.
I totally agree – it was a really fun movie. I was blown out of the water with how entertained I was.
There’s always that one asshole that tries to claim that black actors don’t struggle because they’re black and we’re all just making it up. Let’s see who it will be…
It’s the people at Sony, who make the decisions, that are racist but just because they are doesn’t mean that the rest of the world is.
Denzel is very popular in Germany. He’s been on live TV shows several times, and one of the big channels, ZDF, just started a mini-retrospective in honor of his 60ᵗʰ birthday. Whenever he’s around, e.g. for a film festival, he draws huge crowds, and he was in Hamburg several times while his eldest son John-David was playing for the Hamburg Sea Devils, back when Europe had a football league.
Don´t know about his movies in the cinemas, but alone in the last month i´ve watched some of his movies in german TV. Primetime and heavily promoted as “Denzel Washington blockbusters”. I remember a few months ago they even had a “Denzel Evening” with two movies in a row. One of his action movies and then The bone collector. Angelina Jolie is one of the co-stars and the now the bigger name (and white) but the tv trailers were totally Denzel focussed. Means he must have a huge fanbase and high audience numbers.
It´s the same with Will Smith and Eddie Murphy. The fresh Prince of Bel-Air: endless loop. Even their oldest movies are extreme popular.
Many years ago I worked in the entertainment industry (video games) when they were doing the cross over from lonely geeky guys playing games in their bedroom to make gaming more accessible to everyone. The company I worked for was in the initial stages of making a new title and we wanted to have a mixed race girl as the lead protaganist. We thought it would be cool to have a female lead and because we lived in a racially mixed city, thought it would be great if she was mixed, but were told by the powers that be that ‘it wouldnt sell in Germany’.
A year later Lara Croft franchise hit the big time. Although I guess she made it because she was white. With big boobs. 🙁
There are no good roles for women over 40, there is no space for Denzel in the overseas market. Its simple Sony. Give people great movies and they will go and see them. Regardless of who is in them.
Le sigh. Hollywood revealing what we already knew.
I live overseas and I love Denzel.
These scumbags are only good at talking on someone else’s back. If they were actually brave enough to own their own words I would probably have respect for them but like this.. I only see them as a bunch of jelous losers over somebody’s fame and fortune.
Grow up bitches.
What a bad example. I have never – and I do mean never – met anyone who doesn’t like Denzel Washington in movies. They might not like the movie, some of them are even racist and forthright about their racism but they like Denzel Washington in movies.
*Goes and watches Man on Fire again*
Sony has a rather bad reputation, mostly because of self-inflicted pain such as the rootkit fiasko, and cancelling movies because of threads. In 2013, most big budget Sony movies flopped.
Actors thus should not be working with Sony, but with other production companies.
so this is why Cleopatra needs to be white…
I actually heard they wanted to cast Angelina Jolie for the role. I wonder if that will still happen.
and Exodus….
Cleopatra was white. She came from a dynastic family descendant from one of Alexander The Great’s generals so she was of Macedonian heritage. However she was the only ruler of her dynasty that learnt Egyptian customs and language.
I do however agree with the rest and find it interesting how Egyptians are always portrayed as white. I had a history teacher who flat out said it was impossible for them to have been black given there accomplishments/ being so advanced. I guess that teacher never heard of the Nubian’s or The Kush.
Well, about the accomplishments.. I once had a conversation with a 23 yo Afro-american and I was shocked when he said africans were d*mb and st*pid because they weren’t as evolved as the europeans who invaded Africa during the Discoveries era… I was so surprised and told him not to talk trash about his own ancestors… He was putting black people from Africa so down, really…
This to say that sometimes the racism and trashing down of black people doesn’t come from whites, but also from black people… 🙁 sadly
And in the next breath we will be hearing about how we live in a post-racial America and it just SEEMS like more unarmed black men are killed by police…..
It has been a depressing year being an African American in America
Yeah 2014 seemed more like 1950 didn’t it ?
BS!!!!! I wanna beat these people so much!! They’re so ignorant, racist, sexist and insane, it makes me mad. I love Denzel, and so does the world, what kind of bullshit are they spouting now? God, I don’t even wanna know anything else these sony-hack-idiots says, it’s just useless, they talk smack about everyone. I hope they’re hiding in shame.
I bet the type of emails Sony execs exchange with each other are very similar to the types of emails exchanged by MANY companies. It’s disgusting. I can guarantee you this is not just a “Sony” thing.
I know and it’s disgusting.
Wow it seem like its alot hiding rascist in this board ya blaming denzel for the movies whether you think its suck or not wtf did any of ya read the article he not getting many roles whether the script is good or bad so why ya blaming denzel when he taking the parts that he can it seem like alot ya dont want to admit racism so you blame denzel
Punctuation is your friend. Reading comprehension is also your friend.
@ cr lol…Ok, I’d correct her (English teacher here), but I’m starting my Xmas break tomorrow… I really don’t feel like working more… The scent of “holidays” is wrapping me like a soft, warm blanket…
The emails weren’t sent by Lynton but rather sent TO him but an unnamed producer. Also, The Equalizer was great, mindless fun.
I want to know who the producer was that sent that email to Sony. Why was their name taken out when everyone else had to deal with what they said? This is important to know. Is it someone well liked or what? I would ask Gawker, if they were the ones to take it out.
Time to support other industries other than Hollywood. South America and South Korea are great for mindless fun stuff as well as more serious fare.
Yeah! South Koreans looove black people! It’s such a diverse culture in that country! Ahaha
This sort of thing is also happening with television right here in the U.S.
Namely that studios are reluctant to green-lit a show with a major black character from their POV or a majority cast of racially ethnic characters because in their minds they’re not profitable.
There are a a number of reasons the shows don’t do well (maybe it was crappy and unfunny, maybe the studio forced dumb changes to make it more ‘appealing’) either way once the shows are cancelled studios then use that excuse as to why they can’t do more diverse shows.
So they do less of these shows, cancel them faster if they’re not immediate successes, and use them as an excuse for not green-lighting more. Then they do the opposite with ‘white’ shows.
Exactly. If you give the excellent scripts and the special effects extravaganzas to the white leads, then these are the films that will do well internationally, appealing across the taste spectrum. It’s not because the cast is white. Hollywood makes money by whitewashing and stereotyping and exploiting people of colour; there’s no motivation to change the status quo. So they refuse POC the best opportunities, and put minimal effort into promoting the few films they do star in, ensuring that they fizzle, which plays into the narrative that black actors can’t carry films. That’s the only reason why Chiwetel Ejiofor, who leaves most actors of his generation in the dust, isn’t getting roles on par with Bradley Cooper. If it were about the best talent, we would see the best talent. Studios are racist, not the international audiences. Which was really racist to say in the first place, as it implies that America is the most enlightened when it comes to race relations (it clearly ain’t).
Blackish is doing great in the gratings.
Mindy Kaling Project is a hit show.
Selfie had good ratings as well.
There is a new show coming out soon called “Fresh Off The Boat” that looks promising.
There is more diversity on tv now than ever before and these shows are becoming hits.
Some executives are making excuses for their own lack of diversity in their movies and TV shows because they don’t want to admit they are racist. They can say what they want, but ratings don’t lie.
At its worst entertainment serves to reinforce society’s worst traditions, and racism is just one of them. These clowns’ excuses are exactly the ones used by the old studio heads to justify the stereotypes THEY peddled, such as steppin fetchit or Charlie chan, when minorities were visible at all. These guy’s love to deflect criticism onto the “audience” as the excuse, but the limitations and ‘isms” are their very own.
They are all full of crap and not to be taken at all seriously. I not a fan of his work, but thank heavens for Tyler Perry. He’s succeeded on his own terms, and I don’t believe he just some outlier. The future for minority and women artists lies in generating their own work and controlling its distribution. Tyler Perry is the model, not some jackass like Sorkin or these Sony troglodytes.
(Btw, his other movie choices lately are not my thing, but I streamed Flight recently and Denzel was great)
Lynton sounds like a typical racist jerk who tries to excuse his racism by claiming everybody else is racist.
Has anyone else watched Netflix’s Marco Polo?i keep waiting for a thread on it because it was not only amazing, it had an incredible cast that was 90% non-white. I really hope it does well, because it will hopefully lead to more diversity in both scripts and casting, and some well deserved acclaim for the actors that were in it.
wow! tru dat!
Don’t say this to the Exodus cast esp. Ridley “i need a white man” Scott.
Denzel Washington has 2 Oscars, a lifetime Achievement Award Oscar and this is what he has to deal with. I mean is 191 million a flop? It’s never enough. Ugh! The pressure is overwhelming. I would love to see the profit his performances has given to movie studios in the last 20+ years he’s been acting.
“I think we can all agree that his career has taken a weird turn, right? ”
And yet his last nomination for an Oscar was just 2013 which is not exactly ancient ages. So maybe he’s still offered good scripts but enjoys the action films he’s doing right now.
Not that I necessary think awards are an accurate indication of an actor’s value but it seems to be regularly brought on the table, so here you are.
I enjoyed Flight, and I know I’m in the minority here,but I found him better than Daniel Day-Lewis. Maybe not better but less “in your face tour de force” performance,more my style.
Makes two of us. I felt his acting in Flight was brilliant. As was the whole film. I personally am not a fan of DDL’s acting in general, it’s too over-the-top acting for MY taste, too much Method a lot of times. I also found his voice irritating for the role of Lincoln. But ok, there’s nothing really to compare here.
This reminds me of Bill O’Reilly’s argument that the U.S. shouldn’t/can’t have a female president (I assume this only applies to Dem women in his mind, of course) because several Middle Eastern countries do not value women and therefore wouldn’t take a female President seriously. Basically, yeah, we should definitely make decisions based on what the lowest common denominator is ok with…
I’m fairly sure they took British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher seriously and bearing in mind the greater influence of the U.S., I can’t see it being any different with a female President.
We love Denzel in Brazil! I asked a friend of mine if the movie was good and he said it was ok. That’s why I didn’t go see it.
Racists are everywhere, also in Europe. But I can assure any production company that people there do NOT hate black actors. Actually, it’s my impression that Europeans are far more into the subject/message of a movie than anything else. It doesn’t matter that much who’s acting, as long as the film has some meaning, and the acting is solid. So I believe this to be an excuse to not get more diversity into the film business. As for Denzel, I cannot warm up to him. Never could. Even in a movie like Flight, where the acting is brilliant, I somehow can’t feel compassion for his character. I watched Oscar roundtables with him- same here, he comes over arrogant at times, and distanced. But again, it has NOTHING to do with an oversea’s dislike of black actors, or of any other ‘color’ for that matter.
This was weird to read. I’m from Europe and I can honestly say I have never chosen a movie to watch based on the main actors race. I have a few actors and actresses whose films I avoid but that’s because I have not liked the films i have seen from them. Also annoying mannerisms keep me away (that guy from 40 yo virgin). But maybe overseas doesn’t mean Europe.
Not a fan of who Denzel is as a person, but come on Sony! Of course he can sell overseas.
Earlier in this Sony Hack saga, emails involving George Clooney revealed he apologised for The Monument Men. Did that film get bad reviews because the rest of the world hates white men? No. It’s because it just didn’t connect. But Clooney’s ethnicity – nor audiences’ attitudes towards him – were not used as reasons not to cast him or any other white man over 40.
So why should Denzel’s ethnicity be used to an excuse not to cast any other African-American?
Some of the comments here completely miss the point. If you don’t want to see a Denzel-lead movie because of the content or his acting doesn’t appeal to you, that doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t see ANY film led by a black actor.
What the leak reveals is that a Sony exec wants to avoid casting ANY African-American actors from leading a film because of a misguided notion that the rest of the world is racist. I think in light of certain murders in the US, he’s got a nerve stating that.
Plenty of US films that play here in the UK have bombed with white actors leading them. Denzel’s ethnicity is not an excuse for not casting Idris Elba, Chiwetel Ejiofor, David Oyelowo, Will Smith, Samuel L Jackson, Laurence Fishburne, etc. etc. in lead roles.
Hello from “overseas” europe! This is absolute bulls&it!!!! Everybody loves black actors here, especially denzel or will or riri and beyonce!!!!! Thats crazy !!!
People over here dont see an african american on screen they only see denzel the super cool actor. Eddy murphy is also still a name everybody knows and remembers him.
Agreed.
God, and Morgan Freeman. So much love for Morgan Freeman.
They were quite obviously talking about Asia. Go prove how open you are and let a Romani person become a celebrity in your country hahahaha hypocrite
This saddens me that this is the thinking in Hollywood. In what world is Denzel Washington not an international movie star? He was on Graham Norton not too long along and the audience seemed to have a VERY good idea who he was.
Flight was a terrific small movie, one of my faves from last year. I liked the Equalizer, it was ridiculous plot-wise but deeply satisfying for people who like revenge/vigilante films. I liked it better than just about every other action movie i’ve seen in the last 5 years.
*waves from Portugal*
Personally, he’s one of my favorite action actors. And my mom LOVES him.
They always lose me when they use “African American”. That’s not a race. That’s a complete American PC that was created to add just an extra label to distinguish them from the rest of the world’s black people. Are they better or worse because they’re Americans instead of from other nations? My guess is they think they’re better because they were born in a developed country.
And I assure you, the rest of the world doesn’t give a crap about that “homegrown” term to refer to black people.
Bitter much?
Try: fed up with the “special snowflake PC culture” . Until they drop that exclusivity label to set themselves apart, they don’t deserve my respect. They cry “racism” but have no problem with xenophobia as long as they’re on the winning end on it.
He is certainly a good actor and the fact that his latest movie The Equalizer made a killing at the box office internationally should be a good indication of his star power. Denzel movies does atract masses and appeals to a wide audience. I think every thing is in the head of Sony executive who might have an issue with race themselves.