Best Actor racism
Hollywood Wiretap‘s Pete Hammond dropped this idea in my lap the other day, but I’ve thought about it and he’s dead right: this year’s Best Actor Oscar race is starting to look like it might have some racial flavoring.
Things could change, obviously, but right now it’s looking like two of the stronger Best Actor contenders are African American — The Last King of Scotland‘s Forrest Whitaker and Catch a Fire‘s Derek Luke — and the current betting is that The Pursuit of Happyness star Will Smith will soon join them to make it three. And that’s not counting the distinct possibility of Djimon Honsou getting nominated for his performance in Ed Zwick‘s Blood Diamond. (I read somewhere that he registers more strongly than costar Leonardo DiCaprio.)
I haven’t heard anything trustworthy about Honsou’s performance (has anyone?) and it’s conceivable that Luke might not make the final cut (I would strongly disgaree with that but it’s early in the game and who knows?), but Whitaker and Smith are probable lock-downs. But if all four are nominated it could be a bit of a tinderbox. By which I mean it’s going to look a little bit gnarly for the Academy if a white actor — Peter O’Toole, say — wins the Best Actor Oscar with four African Americans vying for the same prize. Think about it. It’ll certainly look that way to some.
It’s a little early to get into this without anyone having seen Blood Diamond or The Pursuit of Happyness (I’m hearing that Columbia may be thinking about showing the Smith film sooner rather than later), but it’s something to keep in mind as things evolve.
4 black actors nominated in the same category, in the same year? I won’t hold my breath but that said O’Toole is the only white actor who could win under this circumstance without the win appearing motivated by race (at least to most).
Derek Luke gives the ultimate bland performance in Catch a Fire. Why would he get an Oscar nomination for that?
I think this has been kind of obvious for a while, no? Not only is the Best Actor line-up full of African-American possibilities, but we’ve also got contenders in Eddie Murphy, Jennifer Hudson, Djimon Hounsou, an all black musical as a Best Picture contender, etc., etc.
I honestly can’t see Will Smith being a front-runner in any way/shape/form. His “Ali” nod was clearly a standard bio-coattail mention, but I don’t think anybody left that movie thinking that a grand thespian emerged (more simply, it was a great pairing of actor to role, but more a one-shot deal), and it’s going to take a lot (slam-dunk performance in well-liked movie) to justify him emerging from such formidable competition.
I hope we are near a point when we no longer have to play, “let’s count the black people nominated”. Extremely boring. If it’s good it’s good, leave it at that. It always reminds me of that bit in “Lenny” when Dustin Hoffman counts the minorities in the room like an auctioneer.
I also hope this bit does not start a “Hollywood shows its racism” countdown to when O’toole wins. That would really suck the air out of what could be a cool moment.
Surprised nobody is mentioning Ryan Gosling.
Wells to Jay: I agree with you. Good work is good work. That’s the kind of world I want to be part of. But you and I know what the cultural dialogue will become if and when it comes down to three or four African-American Best Actor nominees among the five.
Not only is O’Toole white, he’s not even black Irish.
“But you and I know what the cultural dialogue will become if and when it comes down to three or four African-American Best Actor nominees among the five.”
Yes, we do know what that dialogue will be, and of course, it will be ridiculous and screechy.
African-Americans make up 13% of the population of this country; that’s less than the 14% Hispanics occupy. Considering that each of the four major acting categories has 5 nominations, that’s 20 acting nominations total.
If more than 3 of these are given to black actors, they’re OVER-represented in nominations (3 out of 20 is 15%). Considering there were 6 a year ago, shouldn’t white actors claim under-representation, if those are the standards?
Am I to believe that if O’Toole wins, Hollywood is a racist town, but when Denzel and Halle won a few years ago, it wasn’t? Does it decide to be racist some years, and some not?