Today, The Best Man
Holiday premieres in theatres nation-wide. I was invited to go with a
friend to the NAACP Image Awards screening of the film last night and was more
than excited to attend. I still remember seeing The Best Man though I’m sure that I didn’t see it the year it was
released. I was only in the 6th grade in 1999 and my mother was a
stickler for the rules when it came to a PG-13 rating. However, I still recall
seeing the film and gasping when I was pretty sure that Harper (Taye Diggs) was
about to lose his life thanks to the colossal beat down Lance (Morris Chestnut)
was giving him. And I remember laughing even harder when Quentin (Terrence
Howard) did nothing about it.
There was a question and answer session after the screening,
which was attended by Harold Perrineau, Melissa De Sousa and Morris Chestnut.
As they answered the moderator’s questions about their specific characters, my
mind couldn’t help but slightly wander after Chestnut mentioned the lack of
roles for minorities as an aside to one of his responses.
Last week the LA Times
published an article describing a research project done by USC Annenberg’s
Media, Diversity & Social Change Initiative which found that minorities are
still under-represented in popular films despite high-profile films like “42”
and “12 Years a Slave.”
According to the research study headed by Dr. Stacy L.
Smith, in 2012, 76.3% of all speaking characters in films were White even
though according to U.S. census data only 63% of the country is White. The USC
researchers also found that 10.8% of speaking characters were Black, which also
doesn’t coincide with the 13.1% of the U.S. population that is Black.
In addition, not only are there few roles, but there are
even fewer well-rounded roles for minorities. De Sousa mentioned telling
director Malcolm D. Lee that she wanted her character Shelby to be more
developed in the sequel and being thankful that he too saw the importance of
allowing that to happen. Unfortunately, the same scenario doesn’t work out for
all actors of color and as a doctoral student at USC Annenberg who focuses on
stereotypes of black women in film I am constantly reminded of that fact.
Once the audience was allowed to pose questions, I raised my
hand and was soon called on. I magically developed a stutter I’ve never had
before due to nervousness, but eventually articulated my questions.
“Me-Me-Melissa you mentioned talking to the director about making your
character more dynamic and well-rounded. Do you all find yourselves having to
do the same? Also, what can we as audience members do to ensure that movies
where there are only one or two black characters include well-rounded ones? All
of us in this room are people who recognize that people of color are dynamic
and should be portrayed as such, but how do we make sure that happens in films
where we are not the majority and the general public is making up the audience?”
That’s when Morris Chestnut spoke to me and the world
stopped for a couple of seconds.
He said that sometimes actors need to explain to directors
how making their character well-rounded is good for the movie as a whole. Both
he and Perrineau agreed that Hollywood doesn’t see black and it doesn’t see
white, but it sure does see green. If an actor can explain how it’s better for
the movie and not just a need of his or her ego, it is more likely to happen.
De Sousa addressed my question about what we can do as
audience members. “Support films like these,” she said. She mentioned that
there are so many talented directors and writers of color whose stories are not
getting told because of a lack of funds and distribution. But, and Perrineau
joined her on this point, if we support these kinds of films and show that they
can make money, then more of them will be made and dynamic black characters in
predominantly white films might also be seen as profitable.
I thought that they were making some good points, but I
couldn’t help but think about the USC Annenberg study some more after I sat
back down. According to the Motion Picture Association of America, only 56% of
movie ticket buyers are White while 11% are Black and 26% are Hispanic. That
means that Blacks have shown their movie ticket buying power and been denied
representation anyway. It also means that Hispanics, who make up 17% of the U.S.
population, have more than shown their movie ticket buying power and only
receive 4.2% of the speaking roles. People of color are being ignored and
presented one-dimensionally and we must figure out how to facilitate change.
The first step is bringing attention to the problem, which
studies like USC Annenberg’s do. However, a lot of that power is in the hands
of the people purchasing movie tickets and that happens to be you and me.
Everyone should go out to see The Best Man Holiday this weekend because it’s a great film that
will elicit both laughter and tears. It contains a plot that is for anyone of
any color to enjoy as the holidays come closer. However, it is nice to know
that by purchasing a ticket to the film, you are also a part of a push for
change. A change that I hope we see before The
Best Man 3 is released.
Citations:
Census Data: http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html
Motion Picture Organization of America: http://www.mpaa.org/resources/3037b7a4-58a2-4109-8012-58fca3abdf1b.pdf
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