Denzel Washington has one thing in common with Liam Neeson: they’ve become late-in-life action stars. I actually don’t understand what Denzel has been doing with his career over the past few years, as he puts out movies like 2 Guns, The Equalizer and Unstoppable. I didn’t see any of them, but that’s because they didn’t look very good at all. Perhaps Denzel has just been offered really awful scripts, or maybe he just wants to make some money for his retirement, but whatever is happening, I think we can all agree that his career has taken a weird turn, right? Well, some of those (bad) films were released by Sony, and as you can imagine, the Sony Hack has revealed some interesting stuff about the way executives dealt with Denzel’s films.
Shockingly, the email in question does not involve Amy Pascal or Scott Rudin making racist “jokes” about how Pres. Obama probably loves Denzel because they’re both black. The email is from executive Michael Lynton, who suggests that in the future, Sony shouldn’t hire black actors like Denzel for leads in films. The argument Lynton makes is that the rest of the world is “racist” and they don’t want to see black actors in lead roles, so every time they cast someone like Denzel in The Equalizer, their foreign box office is going to sink. Thus, they shouldn’t hire black actors for lead roles, obviously. About Denzel specifically, Lynton wrote:
“He’s reliable at the domestic [box office], safe, but has not had a huge success in years. I believe whenever possible the non event pictures, extra ‘bets’ should have a large inherent upside and be made for the right price. Here there isn’t a large inherent upside…I believe that the international motion picture audience is racist — in general pictures with an African American lead don’t play well overseas.”
The Daily Mail notes that The Equalizer actually did great overseas, and the film grossed $191 million worldwide. I mean, that’s not Marvel money, but I’m sure Sony picked up a tidy profit on what was probably a pretty crappy movie.
What bugs me about this is two-fold. One, it feels like executives are just itching for a reason to avoid diversity casting/hiring at all costs, and they will use any excuse. Like, “Denzel doesn’t do well overseas because they’re the racist ones so let’s never hire him as a lead ever again.” And they say that in earnest, without a hint of irony. Two, it’s like it would never occur to them that people everywhere might avoid a movie because it’s crappy. Like, of course it has to be about race, right? It’s not that studio made a really bad movie, right?
Oh, and the rest of the world is racist and they don’t care for African-Americans? I guess that’s why some of our biggest American exports are Oprah, Beyonce, Pharrell Williams, Will Smith, Samuel L. Jackson, Eddie Murphy, etc.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pLHLnpmirJOdxm%2BvzqZmbWhjZYV5e9KopbKXmJawrKvDnqWznZyUxKK%2Fx6KloKyfo6yqv82tlqmqn5u2ta3BpZyYp6aav7SxwKyWm52TlsK0sb6hnKyXkqGupLeO