In 2023, Djimon Hounsou gave a lengthy and sad interview to the Guardian. He was promoting a film at the time, but it was one of the few times where he was really given the space to speak at length about his early modeling career and his acting career in total. Hounsou is a two-time Oscar nominee, for In America and Blood Diamond. He genuinely has an impressive body of work in independent films, blockbusters, studio films and more, usually in supporting roles. In the Guardian interview, Djimon spoke about how he has been constantly underestimated and undervalued by Hollywood, and he hasn’t made anywhere near the kind of money he should. Well, Djimon was recently profiled by CNN, and he spoke about how nothing has changed in the past year and a half.

Djimon Hounsou is opening up about the realities of working in Hollywood as a person of color. The 60-year-old actor, who was born in the West African country Benin and has starred in such movies as Blood Diamond and Gladiator, discussed his experience while appearing on a recent episode of CNN’s African Voices Changemakers. During the conversation, Hounsou revealed that he is still underpaid — despite two decades in the industry.

“I’m still struggling to make a living,” he said. “I’ve been in the filmmaking business for over two decades with two Oscar nominations and many blockbuster films, and yet, I’m still struggling financially. I’m definitely underpaid.”

Hounsou also said he believes he was snubbed by the Academy Awards for his breakout role as Cinqué in Steven Spielberg’s 1997 historical drama Amistad — despite receiving a Golden Globe nomination for the same performance.

“I was nominated for the Golden Globe, but they ignored me for the Oscars because they thought that I had just come off the boat and the streets,” he claimed. “Even though I successfully did that, they just didn’t feel like I was an actor to whom they should pay any respect.”

Hounsou also shared that he believes there is still much progress to be made when it comes to diversity in the entertainment industry.

“This conceptual idea of diversity still has a long way to go. Systemic racism won’t change like that anytime soon,” he said.

[From People]

He’s definitely underpaid and undervalued. He probably should have gotten Oscar-nominated for Amistad, but I do feel like the Academy recognized their mistake and made sure he got nominated for Blood Diamond and In America (and he should have won for In America). Back in the Guardian piece, he spoke about how the activism around “Oscars So White” wasn’t around for him in his nominations, and how he felt like one really believed he should campaign either. It f–king sucks.

Also: while I watched Gladiator II, I was shocked that Ridley Scott didn’t find some way to bring back Djimon’s character, who survived in the first film. There were all of these callbacks to the first film, and there were several moments in GII where I really expected Djimon to make a cameo to explain some plot point. Ridley Scott really missed an opportunity.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.