Surprisingly Young and Pretty
-
alirioaguero2 — 14 years ago(February 03, 2012 02:32 AM)
I agree. Octavia is actually pretty and very talented actress. I'd like to see her in lead roles too.
It's partially truth what other poster said that Black women do get main roles a lot less ofter. Zoe Saldana and Halle Berry are exception. Rashida Jones has Black background, but visually she's white, so. But, she's a great actress too.
Octavia's co-star, Viola Davis seams to get bigger roles now.
But, I think the main issue why Octavia doesn't get more 'attractive' roles is not skin color, but weight. I mean, there are lesser known Black actresses, like KD Aubert and Esctasia Sanders, who also don't get any leads, but they do get to play sexy skans, while Octavia is stuck with nurse characters.
Holywood has some serious issue with overweight actors (especially women), but I think that now is the time some things might change, due to actresses like Octavia and Melissa McCarthy. Good luck to them.
Holywood really needs to have more diverse physical apperanace of the main protagonists, both male and female: they need more overweight actors, men who aren't really tall, redheads (especially male), Asians, people with glasses (not just too big nerdy glasses which come off eventually) and skinny men (not buff anyway). Also, bigger roles for females in general and African-Americans. -
hamburger45 — 14 years ago(February 06, 2012 06:15 PM)
The amount of kool aid drinking on this thread is making kool-aid scarce. Octavia though she is probably good person at heart, is not attractive, let alone attractive for leading lady status - give me a break.
What do you guys smoke before you post to this board, this will be the last we hear from octavia spencer - she will get her offers after the nomination, will do a few movies, and then be gone, unless she's part of a major hit, and is a player in that hit.
Hollywood is a business, beauty sells and makes money - people decide that -
more overweight actors are not going to sell movies period! this is orwellian in groupthink to think that way - what a fantasy land you live in..
If African Americans want more roles - they should start a film industry in Africa - more Africans will go see people like themselves on the movie screen, and thus will be more viable for African film studios.
The US (before the 1965 immigration act/disaster) was 90% white, of course most roles will go to white actors when you live in a majority white nation (blacks make up less than 13% of the population, but we see them way out of proportion in media (commercials, tv shows, etc.) yet they continue to want more and more- American culture is white culture if we're being politically honest/incorrect. A majority of people in this country don't want to see a majority minority cast - i mean for what, to be told that they are racist, or winners of white privilege - give me a break. I am amazed when people bring up that more roles need to go minorities (no, they don't). Minorities here in this country are majorities in the rest of the world - go to those film markets and get your roles.
-
vanityfair01 — 14 years ago(February 07, 2012 05:27 PM)
I honestly feel sorry for you. You are entitled to your opinion but it clearly isn't an opinion based on anything beyond your own personal, and may I add, very narrow experiences. Not to be too self-righteous but you might want to educate yourself before commenting. I've always believed that you can have any opinion you want so long as you can make an educated argument to back yourself up. It is quite evident that you do not fall into that category. I've read some of your other comments and you are making arguments based on your own extraordinarily skewered personal view of the history of blacks in America. If you keep an open mind and practise some empathy you may at least start to understand what people other than white middle Americans go through. Slavery did not do any favours to Africans, if it did then African Americans would not be plagued with social problems almost two hundred years after slavery has ended. Europeans brought a lot of diseases with them as they attempted to colonize most of the world. There are also some very advanced cultures out there and they were that way well before Europeans came along. With all due respect, if you are part of the majority culture and race you cannot comprehend or comment on what a minority lives with daily. Your comments do little more than display your ignorance to the world and for that I can only feel sorry for you.
As for Octavia Spencer I do find her to be an attractive women. Not every movie that comes out of Hollywood has to appeal to the entire population of America or even to the majority population of America. You simply speak for yourself when you say the majority of people don't want to watch a minority cast. There are plenty of white Americans who have no issue with seeing a movie that has a predominantly minority cast; Hollywood is only starting to understand this concept. The reality is that minorities exist and you may occasionally see them on your television or movie scree, get over it. -
hamburger45 — 14 years ago(February 08, 2012 09:17 AM)
You would be surprised to find that those minorities are not minorities at all - they compromise races that are quite the majority in the global scale. So give me a break about what minorities go through - if it's so bad in America, leave, if it's so racist in this country - why does everyone want to immigrate here legally and illegally. If africans americans don't think they get good roles here because they're the minority, then go back to africa and start making movies there. No one is holding them here. Go back and become successful, and make black movies with black casts for black audiences.
Many different people went through slavery, not just blacks - many whites as well, as well asians, east indians, etc. - it's not unique to blacks. In fact they still have slavery in Africa by both Africans and Arabs. So cry me a river, 200 years - if they weren't brought here - they would have been killed or sold off into slavery elsewhere, and doomed as well.
Here - we have to kowtow to them as if they are the most pious/infallible people on this planet, and because they underwent slavery - they get a free pass (as if other races haven't undergone slavery).
People are fed up with it esp. paying taxes for both blacks and hispanics to exist (not all blacks and hispanics are on welfare, i know, but the proportion of blacks on welfare compared to their proportion in the population is laughable, Plus they put hispanics into the white category for welfare, and so skew the actual number of whites on welfare comparetively).
If we didn't have to subsidize their existence with ebt, welfare, schooling,housing plus subsidizing to let them have kids, and feed, clothe, and house them as well , there would be no growing majority for hispanics (who compromise a majority of the legal and illegal immigrants), and blacks (at least the irresponsible ones) would not exist.
Movies that are made in hollywood 9 out 10 times are being made for profit - Octavia will never be a leading lady, unless you want to finance the movie yourself and see the results. Case in point, Red Tails (which is one of the most inaccurate films ever made) - has made only 40 million against a budget of 100 million of George Lucas' own money, plus that fi238gure includes people (specifically blacks, and school children (forced to watch it as a field trip) bused into the movie theaters). Not an audience that is wanting to go actually go see the film, unless you want to watch black propaganda.
Here's the kicker for you: i'm not even white, i'm a "minority" even more than blacks/hispanics (my people also underwent slavery, and subjugation too but i'm not crying about it, and how life's unfair, and everyone white is racist and against me). I see what black and hispanics do to use the race card, and5b4 the slavery meme to get what they want, and dictate the conversation. F - that, I pay so much in taxes to support these people, and still they're ungrateful, complain about discrimination - you know what, I have dark skin, and dark hair, dark eyes, and I earned what i got - yes there is racism, but every race is guilty for it, but if that's the card you play all the time - people get tired of it.
Again, if the US is so racist, why do people ("minorities" but majorities in the rest of the world i.e. Asians, blacks, hispanics) come here?
I feel for you actually, bc you r so brainwashed, and pc about things - wish orwell was still alive to witness his real life 1984. -
vanityfair01 — 14 years ago(February 08, 2012 10:51 AM)
Well thank you for pointing out the obvious that minorities are majorities in other parts of the world. That really doesn't come as a shock to me at all. I'm not Amerb68ican myself but I am am minority (where I live) and I am also a Human Rights lawyer who specializes in Indigenous rights. The people who are minorities in America are minorities full stop, it doesn't matter that there are places in other parts of the world where they are not minorities. I'm not sure where you are going with that argument. Of course other cultures have experienced slavery I don't recall saying that there weren't. I don't know personally if America is a racist country myself as I have only been there as a visitor. Saying that if you think that someone who has African ancestry from 200 years ago can simply pick up and go back to Africa (you do realize Africa is a continent and not a country) and make movies or make a living just like that then you have a very simplified notion of how immigration and international treaties work. Most African Americans have no place to go back to because they are Americans in their own right.
Do you know for a fact that if most Africans who were sold into slavery would have faced a worse existence in Africa? There were many advanced cultures in Africa at that time and we will never know how well they would have fared without slavery because we can't change that slavery happened. Nobody get a free pass in this world regardless of how it looks to you. I know slavery was abolished almost 200 years ago but there is a legacy that exists to this day that affects African American in a very negative way. I don't need to look further than your own attitude to see what some of these people have to face in America.
Yes most movies in Hollywood are made for profit but that doesn't mean that every movie that comes out of Hollywood has to be made for the majority of people. I thought americans had free will and if you do then why don't people have the choice to watch any movie they want to and not just movies with an all white cast. Traditionally there haven't been great roles for African Americans or (for that matter) for women and women make up the majority population. I'm sure there are people who dislike movies with an all female cast as much as they dislike movies with a minority cast.
It really doesn't surprise me that you're a minority. I have found that there are plenty of minorities that have strong opinions against other minorities. I get that. If you find movies ilke The Help so offensive then why did you watch it and why are you spending so much of your time commenting on it. If you really feel there is no place in America for visible minorities then why is Obama the President, why is Oprah one of the most famous women on the planet, why was the Cosby show such a hit twenty years ago. There is clearly a place for African Americans in America and prominent places for them as well.
While I may be PC I am far from being brainwashed, if you equate PC with being brainwash2000ed then you watch too much Fox news. I would rather come from a place of empathy, compassion and education than come from a place of anger. You are an angry person and for that I feel sorry for you. Your anger clouds your ability to see anything beyond your own frame of reference. If you are a minority and you honestly feel minorities have no place in America then that is truly a sad thing. -
activista — 13 years ago(June 01, 2012 08:32 PM)
@hamburger45
Honestly, you are one ignorant, insulting beep racist idiot. Your ridiculous,uninformed opinion is insulting to ME as a black womanhell, you sound like you got ALL your damn history education from the FOX news channel. Black people have made success off of white guilt? Give ma a beep breakblack people have ALWAYS worked like hell to make it and HAVE made it spite of the major roadblocks in their waylike slavery,segregation,racial profiling and all other kinds of bull**** we're had thrown at us. Also, don't come with the "other people/my people were slaves too,so quit whining about black slavery" bull***. The United States was supposed to be the land of the FREE, but that because a damn lie as soon as they brought the first slave over hereit STILL didn't and STILL dosen't justify the horrible 300 years of slavery MY ancestors were subjected toso please shut the hell up with that tired-a$$ line already.
I'm tired of racist fools like you always coming on here talking this bulls*** about black people as if we don't already take care of our own problems and try to find solutions to them. As far as I'm concerned, a$$holes like you who don't live in a black community and helping us with solutions to our problems can just shut the beep up, because you don't really give a damn about us, so who gives a beep about your racist a** or anything you say. We ARE represented in just about all aspects of American life, and we complain about racism because it is STILL going the hell on. It's the institutional and systematic RACISM that has been embedded in our country's attitudes toward black people since day onesuch as racial profiling, which is part of the reason young black men end up in jail much more than white men. Anyway, I don't feel like giving another lecture, but you need to read up on American history and not just the whitewashed version of it that makes white people look goodI mean REAL American history that tells how America built this country off of the 300 hundred years of slave labor of black people and STILL kept them in semi-bondage a hundred years AFTER slavery was banned. Keep in mind, it was only barely 50 years ago that segregation was legally ended. There are black folks I know still alive today over a certain age who remember when all that s*** was still going down, they didn't forget all that just because we have a black President.
And, yeah, Obama has beep up and made a lot of mistakes, but, hell, so did Bush and the previous presidents. The only reason he's supposedly so divisive is that there are STILL a hell of a lot of white folks who simply can NOT stand the fact that we have a black president,even 4 years after his election, and that is the main and ONLY reason some of these Republicans want him the hell out of officeespecially these older white male politicians, who still can NOT stand the thought that they have to take orders from a black man,of ALL people! That's STILL beep them up to this day! Black folks fought to get affirmative action back in the day BECAUSE, in the '60's, a black person would not get hired for a job, no matter HOW qualified or educated they weresaid job would always go to a white person, no mater what. AA no longer exists in some states, so stop whining about it.
OH, BTW, white people have ALWAYS had affirmative action in the form of legacies (white folks have ALWAYS gotten in some colleges because their daddy or grandaddy was on the board of trusties, was an alumnus, or had always been one of the school's main benefactors). Let's be realwhite people have ALWAYS had an edge/a leg up over EVERYBODY in this country simply because y'all are the majority, not because you're so much damn better or smarter than anybody else (that's the damn lie you've shoved down everybody's throat for hundreds of years, while using and enslaving other people to do your work for you, if y'all were so damn superior, why the hell did you need slaves to do your work for you? Why couldn't you do it your damn selves?)so don't give me that bull**** about white people having it hard-you don'tand so what if you're not whiteyou're still a racist a$$hole and you're repeating the same stupid bull**** these racist white Republicans have been saying since Obama got into office, and Bill Cosby does NOT represent all black people, so stop acting like his words on black people are the gospel truth-he was calling out SOME black folks for what they do, not ALL black people. YOU need to wake the hell up and stop kissing Republican a$$ and quit believing the FOX news hype! -
lostmyhairbrush — 14 years ago(February 08, 2012 08:09 PM)
I'm brainwashed for calling Octavia beautiful? Sorry for having an opinion. Au contraire, I'm pretty sure those of us calling her attractive are in the minority of people who haven't bought into Hollywood's/the media's ideals of what beauty is supposed to be.
And I said I want to see Octavia in a leading role which is different from expressing certainty that she'll get actually get one. You're rightHollywood is a business and it's not welcoming to people of color (I hate the term minori5b4ty because it's obviously inaccurate). Octavia, by virtue of being a heavyset black woman, has far lower chances of becoming a household name in the film industry which is just unfortunate. But telling black actors to 'go back to Africa' to find work, to me, is unreasonable. I know of various Asian Americans who have gone on to be more successful in Asian countries and it just seems absurd to me that they should have to cross the freaking Pacific Ocean to have a career. Here's the thingeven if us people of color are smaller in number, we're still Americans. I'm of Korean heritage and an American citizen. This is the only home I've known and I actually like it here! I work here, pay taxes, celebrate the 4th of July, all that good beep Why should I have to look outside home just to find someone who looks like me on TV? While America may be predominantly white, there are still millions upon millions of non-white people out there who would like to be thought of as more than a mere percent number. -
activista — 13 years ago(June 01, 2012 07:45 PM)
@hamburger45
You're one ignorant racistfirst of all, us minorities here in the U.S. are AMERICANS just like youwhy the hell should we have to go overseasthat's the stupidest/most backwards thing I've heard anyone say on this board. We're AMERICANS,dear, not Africans-and BTW, parts of Africa already have their own film businesses. And, yes, Spencer IS an attractive womansorry,but skinny women don't have a lockdown on beautyI know that for a fact.
America has NEVER been JUST a white culture exclusivelysorry, but if YOUR slave-owning ancestors wanted a white country ONLY, they should've never brought black folks as slaves over here in the first damn place. We BUILT this country too, fought in EVERY war even though we STILL weren't allowed the right to vote,live/work/play where we wanted due to segregation. White supremacist a$$holes like you can keep apouting this bull**** all you want, but life goes on and times change whether your silly racist a** likes it or not. Yes, minorities should have more roles because it's usually been white folks that get ALL the best roles? Why the hell do you have a problem with that? Seriously, I'm tired of little silly a** armchair white supremacists like you always whining like little spoiled-a** bs whether a black person gets something that they earned and worked for. What the beep has your a done that's worth a damn besides thinking you're the s because you're white?!? NOTHINGso just SHUT the hell up and go back to Stromfront, you beep racist idiot! Nobody gives a beep about you or your ignorant stupid-a** beep statements anyway. -
activista — 13 years ago(June 01, 2012 09:01 PM)
@hamburger45
BTW, the movies RED TAILS and THINK LIKE A MAN both made well 30 over million dollars at the box office, and they're both all-black c5b4ast films! So all that nonsense you were talking about white folks only wanting to see themselves all the time is just thatNONSENSE and some bull****! Sorry to bust your bubble, but even white folks get tired of seeing the same old trite,predictable genre movies featuring the same old white people over and over again. And every film with white people isn't a box office hit (For exampleTHE GREEN LANTERN, HUGO and JOHN CARTER, which sank like a stone at the box office). So shut the hell up,go crawl back in your basement and chain yourself up to the wall and bang your head while watching FOX News/listening to that ignorant fat bastard Rush Limbaugh!
YOU don't represent or speak for ALL white people,anywayso no one gives a beep what you got to say outside of your little Stormfront clique! -
omoxus — 13 years ago(June 03, 2012 05:22 PM)
IMO she's not a "looker". However, she's adorable and I would like to see her in a lead role. The best bet is a biopic. Otherwise, I see only supporting roles. Maybe in a romantic comedy. She could play off a lead real well. Steal scenes etc
Im the Alpha and the Omoxus. The Omoxus and the Omega -
Maniac-9 — 13 years ago(January 29, 2013 07:49 AM)
I don't think that her success will be hindered by her being black but the fact that she's already middle aged and not a very attractive person. I know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder but if you honestly think that a lot of people view her as beautiful?