Truth in Media

There is a scarcity of roles for women of color in Hollywood; as far as I have studied, this is fact.

Much of our class discussion surrounding this scarcity focuses on the why; whether this lack of women of color in Hollywood comes from advertisers, producers, the moviegoing public, or a mix of all three. I, instead, want to explore to what end this underrepresentation leads within the lives of minority women and to our society.

Let's return to my initial point - there are not, and never have been, enough roles for women of color in Hollywood. The natural corollary to having fewer roles than white women is having less variety of roles than white women. This lack of variety was discussed both in the reading and in Dr. Palmer's presentation. Dr. Palmer herself, a classically trained and versatile actor, was only able to pursue a narrow grouping of roles during her career, specifically those where she would portray a professional black women - doctor, lawyer, etc. I've witnessed this pigeonholing of minorities, euphemized as "typecasting", in both my own (male) experience in theater and film and my sister's. 

While it is not wholly my story to tell, my older sister's experience in acting is the closest point of comparison I have to the experience of women of color in Hollywood. Despite being admitted to the NYU Tisch School of Drama, one of the most selective acting programs in the country, my Kate was never given the chance to play a leading role during her time at the Governor's Academy. Through her time in a theater summer camp called Stagedoor Manor, she found herself mostly in supporting roles, an "academic" high-schooler in the teen-drama Bare or a Vietnamese stripper in the musical Ms. Saigon.

Again, I do not wish to postulate on why she was placed in these roles. There may have been many good reasons for her to be cast as she was. In other words, I am not accusing the Governor's Academy or Stagedoor of racism.

But, I will argue that being placed into a narrow box can have an impact on a person, and I believe that impact is negative.

The best acting class that I've ever taken was led by Matthew James Thomas, who at the time was just coming off of his Broadway role as Pippin in the 2013 revival of Pippin. Toward the end of the class, one student asked him why he had chosen to take up acting. In response, Thomas said he could never imagine working any other job. He argued that actors are "truth-tellers"and it is in all of our human nature to search for our "truth".

This is what makes media representation so important. The movies we watch are more than simple entertainment, but attempts to express the core truth of a situation or an experience. When women of color aren't allowed a place on stage or screen, their truths remain unheard. If we understand the acting process as a search for truth, the prevalence of partial, or, in some cases, utterly fabricated "truths" in our current media is an affront to both the craft of acting and to the humanity of women and minorities in our society. It is lazy storytelling and and half-assed character building. It is a shameful waste of talent, stunting the passion of countless young women eager to search for the truth. It screws the consumer, who is denied the opportunity to enjoy the talents of countless highly-trained actors on screen. Most importantly, it teaches that women of color are somehow less complex, less nuanced, less fundamentally human.

In conversations to my classmates and fellow actors, I found many of us disagreed on the reason why women of color are so scarce in Hollywood. Some believe it is economics, that movies with white leading roles are safer economic ventures. Some argue from an artistic perspective, that minorities just don't "fit the vision" of casting directors and artistic producers. Personally, I think it is the result of sexism and racism built into the foundations of America, which I would argue has been historically shown to govern many faucets of our culture, including the media. 

But, regardless any disagreements we may have on the why, regardless who or what we think is to blame, we need to recognize that the current trends in media representation are actively hurting people, that they are feeding an unjust and unhealthy culture, and that they need to change now.

The actor, at her best, is a truth-teller, expressing what is core to the human experience.

True representation, during this divided time in our county, may bring us ever-closer to America's truth, to the stories and characters that ring true for all throughout our diverse nation.