“kept down by systemic racism,” Djimon Hounsou “struggles to make a living”

[Anonymous]

OP I think your quotes are fake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gmab. He is doing far better than the vast majority of actors. Would love to see where he lives, what kind of car he drives etc.

But he's also heralded as a great actor. Most actors don't have multiple golden globe nominations nor have they had lead roles in films that have made as much money has his movies, or worked with the same caliber of costars or directors.

The point is not that he's struggling as much or more than the average actor. The point is that you would think his success this far would be netting him more roles and opportunities and it's not because the number of roles available for someone with his skin color is very small. Other black actors have talked about this exact issue after getting very high-visibility, prestigious roles in movies and being nominated and getting good reviews. Normally that is a turning point in an actor's career but for black actors it's often not because the opportunities are not there. Women also talk about this after a certain age -- if you are nominated as a 25 year old actress, a Golden Globe can open a lot of doors. For a 40 or 50 year old actress, you will not have the same opportunities.

Whereas for white men in Hollywood, it's a huge door opener. Watch Sebastian Stan, for instance. He's done less that Hounsou but his career is about to skyrocket because now he has one big-budget popcorn movie role under his belt, plus a GG win for a prestigious indy movie role. But there are so many roles out there for middle aged white men. Many multitudes more than there are for middle-age women or black people at any age. Even with the focus on diversity and inclusion the last few years. Minority actors and women have to share a much smaller pie and there is not enough to go around even for just the people at the very top of their field.

Being great or terrible is irrelvant. Actors who producers think will bring in more money at the box office get cast regardless of skill. If you think it's about racism, blame the audience

Hollywood has a ton of leeway to sell audiences on an actor they like for whatever reason. Look at someone like Adam Driver, who is weird looking and has a kind of odd style. He's not some classic leading man but he gets work a lot even in big budget films because he's talented and interesting looking. Audiences didn't know they wanted Adam Driver until they got a lot of him, and even now there are people who are like "he's so weird, why is he in so much stuff."

It is not purely driven by audience demand. Directors and producers have enormous power to guide audiences preferences. Hollywood is a manipulative industry by design.

[Anonymous]

Systemic racism? Come on people. No it isn’t. Have you seen all the minority actors on Netflix shows? There’s plenty of work. It’s just there’s more competition for that work than ever before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Racism is absolutely a problem in Hollywood and he brings up many good points that have been brought up before regarding treatment and pay of those who are not White. However, something about that article just felt off to me. They almost made him come across a mix of whiny, angry, and entitled.

Should people feel some other way about racism?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He is almost certainly underpaid for an actor with his resume and success, especially compared to white actors with similar skills.

Sounds like he needs a better agent to negotiate better fees for him then.

[Anonymous]

I’m going to say the quiet part out loud: he looks too African for a lot of roles and that probably pigeon holds him. He’s not ambiguous enough for sci-fi , not American looking enough for a classic AA film - not even the Tyler Perry style and he gives too foreign for a marvel or Star Wars franchise. So I’m going to indeed blame this on systemic racism. It’s his look - not his acting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He is almost certainly underpaid for an actor with his resume and success, especially compared to white actors with similar skills. It is has been well documented that black actors make less than white actors even playing similar roles in similar movies. I think this is especially true for actors considered "serious" because it eliminates some of the bigger money-making options for a black actor. You can't to Amistad and a Tyler Perry movie. But white actors are allowed to move between low comedy and high drama (see, for example, Johan Hill).

When he says he struggles to make a living, he means he is struggling for roles. He is struggling to make a living in his chosen profession, which is film acting. That is valid even if of course he could leave acting and find other ways to make money. But actually, as a black man from West Africa, he would also face discrimination in almost any job he chose to pursue in the US or UK.

He does not say he lives in poverty. But he is very likely underpaid and based on the experiences of other highly successful black actors, it IS a systemic issue that is almost certainly attributable to racism.

Thank you for this TLDR summary for someone like me who saw the headlines about this but didn't read the article.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hmmm, lots of actors struggle. The stereotype of the "rich actor" really applies to a very, very select few. I think it's more the norm than the exception

And, more importantly, almost all of the "rich" actors are grossly overpaid given how mucn money movies are losing these days.

Honestly, he is overpaid too. They all.are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the wording is wrong - he struggles to get work probably, and to get paid an appropriate amount for the work he does get. Also, keep in mind that black actors often have additional expenses white actors don't have. I watched a roundtable panel of black actors talking about how there's no-one on crew who knows how to style black hair or can't do it without damaging it, and they often had to go to a nearby barber or salon that has stylists that can cater to black hair. That's an expense white people don't have.

But if you have $4M and can't figure out how to invest in a way to live off that interest, you're doing something wrong. Again, I don't think that's what he means.

You really don't think they can't submit those expenses? Give me a break.

DP and it's not just about the expense. Imagine having to leave a set and find a barber who can style your hair for a role, explain to them what is needed for the role, etc. Versus a white actor who can just pop over to the hair and makeup trailer and have someone who is an expert at doing this kind of thing for film do their hair without having to oversee the whole process. The white actor can run lines, focus on internal character work, get into the proper headspace for the scene. The black actor meanwhile is in an uber coming back from the barber worrying about being late and then criticized for not taking their job seriously even though they are going above and beyond to ensure they look right on film.

It's also a well known fact that black actors are often poorly lit in films and tv because a lot of lighting directors have insufficient understanding of how to light them. I remember Issa Rae talking about this and how they hired a lighting director with a lot of experience in this area an that's why all the black actors on Insecure looked so good. Imagine putting tons of effort into your acting and performance and then you see the movie and your facial expressions aren't as visible as those of the white actors because you are poorly lit? Or think about how that can impact your viability for a role that has neutral race casting in theory -- to what degree does the preference for lighting lighter skinned actors impact a director who just doesn't want to deal with the trouble of lighting someone with darker skin? Think about how stupid it is in 2025 that there would still be people claiming it's too hard to light an actor with dark skin on a movie. This is pure racism but it's also accepted in the industry like "oh yeah everyone knows it's really hard to light a black actor, should we hire Viola Davis for this?" It's idiocy.

Why don't the actors put a proper barber into the contract?

Hollywood is definitely racist, but that one complaint seems like a very easy fix.

If they can write in specific requests down to a certain type of bottle water, surely rhey can write in a proper barber.

[Anonymous]

It's called aging out. He is a Gen X actor who had a prime in the 2000s.

He's also made a ton of really, reallllllllly bad movies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gmab. He is doing far better than the vast majority of actors. Would love to see where he lives, what kind of car he drives etc.

He is a filthy-rich 1-percenter.

This, in a country where the median income is $45k or less, per year. He needs to shut up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's called aging out. He is a Gen X actor who had a prime in the 2000s.

He's also made a ton of really, reallllllllly bad movies.

That's the whole point -- he's made a bunch of terrible movies because he wants to work and those are the only jobs he gets offered. And it's not about aging out -- he's been having this problem for 20 years even when he was fresh off of Amistad or Blood Diamond, high profile prestige movies where his work was extremely well reviewed.

The PP who said he gets typecast is correct and let's be even more clear -- he gets typecast as a slave because of his appearance. He's played a slave in multiple movies. How many white actors have played a slave multiple times? How is that NOT systemic racism. It is so weird to me people are even arguing this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's called aging out. He is a Gen X actor who had a prime in the 2000s.

He's also made a ton of really, reallllllllly bad movies.

That's the whole point -- he's made a bunch of terrible movies because he wants to work and those are the only jobs he gets offered. And it's not about aging out -- he's been having this problem for 20 years even when he was fresh off of Amistad or Blood Diamond, high profile prestige movies where his work was extremely well reviewed.

The PP who said he gets typecast is correct and let's be even more clear -- he gets typecast as a slave because of his appearance. He's played a slave in multiple movies. How many white actors have played a slave multiple times? How is that NOT systemic racism. It is so weird to me people are even arguing this.

Italian actors get typecast too. But, acting is a choice. it pays well if you're good at it but nobody said it would be easy. There's a reason a lot of them are "struggling actors".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the wording is wrong - he struggles to get work probably, and to get paid an appropriate amount for the work he does get. Also, keep in mind that black actors often have additional expenses white actors don't have. I watched a roundtable panel of black actors talking about how there's no-one on crew who knows how to style black hair or can't do it without damaging it, and they often had to go to a nearby barber or salon that has stylists that can cater to black hair. That's an expense white people don't have.

But if you have $4M and can't figure out how to invest in a way to live off that interest, you're doing something wrong. Again, I don't think that's what he means.

You really don't think they can't submit those expenses? Give me a break.

DP and it's not just about the expense. Imagine having to leave a set and find a barber who can style your hair for a role, explain to them what is needed for the role, etc. Versus a white actor who can just pop over to the hair and makeup trailer and have someone who is an expert at doing this kind of thing for film do their hair without having to oversee the whole process. The white actor can run lines, focus on internal character work, get into the proper headspace for the scene. The black actor meanwhile is in an uber coming back from the barber worrying about being late and then criticized for not taking their job seriously even though they are going above and beyond to ensure they look right on film.

It's also a well known fact that black actors are often poorly lit in films and tv because a lot of lighting directors have insufficient understanding of how to light them. I remember Issa Rae talking about this and how they hired a lighting director with a lot of experience in this area an that's why all the black actors on Insecure looked so good. Imagine putting tons of effort into your acting and performance and then you see the movie and your facial expressions aren't as visible as those of the white actors because you are poorly lit? Or think about how that can impact your viability for a role that has neutral race casting in theory -- to what degree does the preference for lighting lighter skinned actors impact a director who just doesn't want to deal with the trouble of lighting someone with darker skin? Think about how stupid it is in 2025 that there would still be people claiming it's too hard to light an actor with dark skin on a movie. This is pure racism but it's also accepted in the industry like "oh yeah everyone knows it's really hard to light a black actor, should we hire Viola Davis for this?" It's idiocy.

Why don't the actors put a proper barber into the contract?

Hollywood is definitely racist, but that one complaint seems like a very easy fix.

If they can write in specific requests down to a certain type of bottle water, surely rhey can write in a proper barber.

Because when white people make less-typical requests, they're being unique and are serious about their craft. When black/brown people do it, they're being unreasonable divas.

[Anonymous]

I really like Djimon Hounsou as an actor! But his roles do seem to be similar - usually always using his foreign accent as a component of the role, as opposed to other black actors that play more diverse roles. Is that because he's been pigeon-holed into these parts? I'm guessing yes, but he should try for something else, even if it's really small, to establish that he could play an everyman type of role with an American accent... Yes, I realize I know nothing about the industry and its probably easier said than done.