Tag Archives: race matters

Preach white man, preach… Joaquin Phoenix Talks Racism In Hollywood With Interview Magazines Via Interview Magazine Joaquin Phoenix has been known to be a bit of a fawking weirdo, but in his latest chat with Interview Magazine he takes on an issue that he feels strongly about, racism against African-Americans in Hollyweird. After briefly describing his childhood troubles, Joaquin asks the writer about his concern over racism in the film industry. PHOENIX: Yeah. So I don’t experience any of that. I mean, dude, how can you work in film and still see the overt racism that exists in film and not just be furious all the time? MITCHELL: You know what? As a black person, you see so much racism. Films are no different than the government, politics—it’s everywhere. It’s not exclusively film. It’s infuriating to see it in film. But my being in film changes things. PHOENIX: Yeah, but there’s all of this horrible racism that white people don’t even recognize. Did you see Jumping the Broom? MITCHELL: I’m a black person. Of course I saw it. PHOENIX: I feel like all white people have to see the film just because I’ve never seen a movie in which most of the white characters in the movie were just working. It was fucking great. It was almost comical. There was a scene during the wedding reception, and there are, like, eight white people just carrying stuff. The main white character with some dialogue was the ditzy, stupid assistant. I enjoyed it so much because you never see that. But that’s something that I think white people don’t notice. They don’t notice that the fourth character is black and that’s what it always is. It’s always happening. It’s just the assumption that, “Well, that’s just a representation of life.” Joaquin also talks about a run-in he had with some movie producers who were totally oblivious to the racist undertones of their films. PHOENIX: You know, I got this script a while ago for this thing. It was kind of like an action movie, and it definitely dealt with race in a big way. But then it didn’t. Without getting into specifics . . . MITCHELL: Did the film get made? PHOENIX: Oh, it got made. But you could not believe that this thing actually got made, because it seemed like it was from the 1940s or something. It’s got this black character in it who was literally always being saved by the white dude because he was, like, cowering in the corner. So I went in and met the director and producer and I said, “You guys realize that your only black character is this guy, and it’s like the most clichéd thing we’ve seen in movies forever.” And they were like, “What do you mean?” And I was like, “You mean you’re not even aware of it?” They didn’t even realize what they were doing. So I said, “Look, I’ll give them a read if the black character doesn’t get killed and is going to make it into the sequel. They have to put him in their sequel, the black character.” So I spoke to the writer and was like, “Dude, be a hero. When this movie comes out in the summertime, give black kids a character they can see themselves in.” But it just didn’t occur to them, and I realized what a battle it is when people aren’t even aware of what they’re doing. I know what that battle is. I’ve done battles like that before, and you lose. So I didn’t do the movie . . . They did keep the black character alive, though. He’s in the sequel-at least, that’s what I’ve heard. MITCHELL: Was it a successful movie? PHOENIX: I don’t think it’s come out yet. It’s one of those big action movies. Interesting, you don’t often hear white actors/actresses stand up and speak out against the foul industry practices that they KNOW are going on. This interview doesn’t make Joaquin Malcolm or Martin, but it is kind of refreshing to hear. How do you feel about Mr. Phoenix’s comments? Image via

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In White Folks News: Joaquin Phoenix Talks Racism Against Blacks In Hollyweird With Interview Magazine