The Shadow to a White Actor
Who doesn’t enjoy a good movie? Everyone does. Now make a list of most successful films you’ve watched or surely at some point heard about. Have it, great! Now let me give you three of the most successful movies ever made: Avatar, Titanic and Jurassic World. Were any of my movie selections on your list? I ask because I would like to point out that even though those films were all great they all had one thing in common, or better put one thing missing: a lead character played by an African American (note: Avatar did cast Zoe Saldana with an important role but she was blue the whole film and her true skin color was not seen).
Most films today have white people playing the lead roles with the occasional African American actor with a minor role. When you do see African Americans playing an important role alongside white actors they tend to be supporting actors, tempters, skeptics and of course sidekicks. Take for example, Anthony Mackie he plays Falcon and is Captain America’s (white man) sidekick, or Don Cheadle he plays War Machine and is Iron Man’s (white man) sidekick. Like I said, they tend to have the shadow role.
In no way am I saying that African Americans can’t have a leading role or that those who play lead roles can’t make a highly successful film. Take the film Furious 7, it came in as the 6th most successful film and it has lead roles played by Dwayne Johnson, Tyrese Gibson, and Ludacris — all of which are great actors. What I am saying is that when African Americans do snag a leading role, unlike white leading actors, they usually play the antagonist. When they do happen to play the protagonist they tend to be surrounded by bad circumstances, they don’t live normal lives and are usually living on the “down low.” Even when they have leading roles they will still be surrounded by white actors with other important roles or will be working for them. A perfect example of this would be the film Equalizer.
The protagonist is played by the ever successful Denzel Washington. In this film he lives alone and a quiet life, and when a young white girl gets into trouble he makes it his mission to save her from the bad white guy. In more cases than not the African American protagonists end up having to do a great sacrifice leading them to either lose something important or lose their lives altogether. Mr. Denzel Washington is famous for doing this in his films. Take the sad movie Man of Fire. Washington had the lead role yet he was a hired by a white guy to be his daughter’s body guard. In the film itself Washington had a lesser role than the white people, and in the end (teaser alert) he gave his life up in order to save the little white girl.
There are countless films like the ones previously mentioned where when the African American gets a leading role they end up playing the shadow to the white person. The ever present question is: when is an African American protagonist going to play the role of the white protagonist? When is the African American going to get a happy ending without having lost everything in the process?
In general, African American actors having lead roles isn’t very common. People aren’t as willing to spend their money on making films with African American actors, or watching films with African American protagonists, they want to spend their money on white actors because they will for sure bring in money. People are used to seeing the white man as the leading person. Viewers, directors, producers etc need to remember what Salman Rushdie once said,
“there is a world beyond the community to which we belong.”
We all need to look past our communities and welcome the new and the different, that way there is no separation among people of color, culture, religion etc. If people were more open minded and accepting of change we could have more films with leading African Americans and there wouldn’t be constant bickering on why the Oscars are racist and don’t give awards to African Americans, and there’d be a fair share of diversity in the film industry. And who knows, with any luck the next film that makes it to the top most successful films will be a film with an African American whose role is the same as that of a white protagonist.
Film is art, and as Salman Rushdie said in Imaginary Homelands, art is a passion of one’s mind. Our minds work best when they are free, and in order for them to be free we need to stop thinking so narrowly, and open our minds to welcome more! African American actors (and everyone else that isn’t white for that matter) need to stop being shadows; people need to start treating and seeing them as what they are: equals to white actors!
