{"id":229,"date":"2017-05-11T01:45:50","date_gmt":"2017-05-11T08:45:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/?p=229"},"modified":"2017-05-01T11:22:20","modified_gmt":"2017-05-01T18:22:20","slug":"american-black-or-british-black-why-the-discussion-by-willie-jones-kids-first-film-critic-age-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/2017\/american-black-or-british-black-why-the-discussion-by-willie-jones-kids-first-film-critic-age-17\/","title":{"rendered":"American Black or British Black: Why the Discussion? By Willie Jones, KIDS FIRST! Film Critic, age 17"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"\"Samuel L. Jackson recently spoke about how British black actors have recently been heavily cast in roles that he feels would have benefited more had they been filled by American black actors. He was referring to actors such as David Oyelowo, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Naomie Harris and Daniel Kaluuya. Jackson stated \"\"that while these actors are doing fine jobs, the roles of Martin Luther King or Chris Washington could have been more judiciously played by American black actor. Let\u2019s evaluate this.<\/p>\n

As of late, yes, black Brits have been coming to the U.S. and taking roles in American films. They give stellar performances as Americans and create memorable cinema. Is that bad? Not necessarily so. After all, they\u2019re still within a minority and represent an underrepresented community. Their country of origin shouldn\u2019t matter. However, there is a reason behind their recent surge in Hollywood.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Denzel Washington and Samuel L. Jackson are noted thespians. They\u2019ve been trained and have experience on the stage and that translates in their screen performances. The problem is that, they\u2019re beginning to be a part of a minority. The likes of Ejiofor and Oyelowo are trained in England, a very theatrical country. Film is still secondary to theater there and so, actors in Britain get classical theatrical training. For the most part, thespians still garner more respect than film actors (excluding Jack Nicholson). Having theater experience is essential to be respected as an actor and Americans increasingly ignoring that. They start in film and never venture into theater until after they\u2019re \"\"established such as Jake Gyllenhaal or Leonardo DiCaprio.<\/p>\n

When these thespians come to the U.S., they\u2019re cheaper than American black film actors, have more respected training and can speak with impeccable American accents. Why wouldn\u2019t they be hired? And why does that create a rift within the entertainment community? It should inspire American black actors to seek more theatrical training. And while Sam Jackson meant no harm with his statement, there\u2019s a rather large debate over whether or not Hollywood \"\"should keep hiring black actors from overseas and not support more American black actors. All I can say is: it\u2019s a business. A very cutthroat business, that\u2019s all about survival of the fittest. If a group of actors comes into Hollywood better trained, does that mean another group of actors should complain about their roles being taken away? No. It means they should \"\"sharpen their skills and advance their training.<\/p>\n

So before this becomes a bigger issue than it should, let\u2019s just acknowledge that, what matters in the end is good cinema. So whether Martin Luther King\u2019s story is told by a Brit or American, as long as it\u2019s told well, it doesn\u2019t matter. Movies are about stories and the imagination. Those don\u2019t see color or nationality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Samuel L. Jackson recently spoke about how British black actors have recently been heavily cast in roles that he feels would have benefited more had they been filled by American black actors. He was referring to actors such as David Oyelowo, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Naomie Harris and Daniel Kaluuya. Jackson stated that while these actors […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film-critics-blog"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":241,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229\/revisions\/241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}