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Matt Damon's company taking steps to address Hollywood diversity crisis

9 Comments
By LINDSEY BAHR

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9 Comments
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You know what's diverse? A Chinese movie, about ancient China and "The Great Wall", where a white guy (Matt Damon) plays the leader character, and everyone spoke English. Hollywood, take notes! /sarcasm

7 ( +8 / -1 )

Hollywood is more diverse than it was. Remember all those "Red Indians"?? and the roles that African americans took? agree having Keanu or Matt play Asians is a bit weird. But all this focus on diversity ofr diversity's sake can also lead to odd outcomes.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Meh.

Hollywood is perhaps the purest free market on the planet. You're only as good as your last film.

This will settle itself out.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

You know what's diverse? A Chinese movie, about ancient China and "The Great Wall", where a white guy (Matt Damon) plays the leader character, and everyone spoke English. Hollywood, take notes! /sarcasm

@ThePBot

I compare this to the "Last Samurai" or any other movie where some non-western culture needs a white man to save them from themselves. The funny thing is most of the people complaining are not Chinese. White people are a status symbol in China. I know people who get paid by Chinese people and businesses to be friends or associates for special events. They work for a talent agency as an actor. They have been hired to pretend to be doctors, lawyers, and business professionals with fake credentials and all. Apparently, they give credibility to the sponsor by giving speeches and attending the events. Simply because he is white. I foresee very little backlash within China, but we will see a lot coming from outside. Having a major white actor will be seen as giving credibility to the Chinese movie industry.

Motto: "Fake it until you make it!"

0 ( +2 / -2 )

It would be sad, but if everyone were blind there might be more diversity.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

try freedom, merit, content of character and the diversity problem goesvaway

Obviously that hasnt worked in the entire history of Hollywood, unless you want to believe that only white people are the most talented and creative people to act/make make movies.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

would I be edgy if I said there should be more lead Asian American actors in Hollywood?

I mean i feel like #oscarsowhite is more focused getting more african american actors in lead roles rather than helping get other ethnic and racial groups into lead roles. The majority of ppl I hear calling for more "color" is usually just referring to one particular race.

I don't know, those are just my opinions I guess. I do wish there's more Asian American actors who can portray characters more accurately to their cultural background than just hiring someone to pretend to be another race's character.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

by diversity they mean anti-white....this is why "diversity" is such a hot button issue. No one, well hardly anyone, is against the idea of having a diverse set of actors. The problem arises when we celebrate some and demonize others...so we celebrate the otherness of actors who are black or women playing parts that were written for characters who are not of the actors gender or color while we demonize white men, specifically, for taking rolls that do not match their perceived race. The debate boils down to the person either taking a classic view of racism, that is the judging of someone based on their race or perceived race, either positively or negatively or by taking a Marxist view of race, which centers on power within a system and not so much about the actual race of the person. The latter only promises conflict where the former allows for a post-racial outcome. This is why talking about race is moot...if the outcome is post-racial then it must be post-racial for everyone. We can't celebrate race on Tues only to demonize it on Friday. So elites like Mat Damon can afford to play the game but working actors know very well that there is a downside in being limited by race or expecting movies to have racial quotas when it comes actors.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

How could Hollywood the bastion of Marxist progressive ideology and modern segregation, oops , I mean diversity, have a problem with diversity. Get rid of your socialist culture, try freedom, merit, content of character and the diversity problem goesvaway.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

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