Dear Hollywood:
On January 8, 2016, Meryl Streep preached the tenants of diversity and empathy in the midst of Trump's America on your behalf. First, I would like to commend you for taking a stand on Trump: the more we raise our voices, the more hopeful I am that the next four years won't bring about the apocalypse. I'd also like to applaud the frankness of Ms. Streep's words - hearing such stirring remarks and seeing the positive response is incredibly reassuring as January 21 inches closer and closer. But for all the hope Ms. Streep conveyed in her speech, one utterance gave me pause:
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"An actor's only job is to enter the lives of people who are different from us and let you feel what that feels like."
As a female cinephile who dreams of breaking the celluloid ceiling to make my own movies, I have a few issues with that statement, Hollywood.
For a majority of cinema’s short history, minority groups have been characterized by stock tropes and archetypes which affirm oft-disparaging stereotypes. They're fartoonumerous to discuss in detail here, but suffice it to say what your disciples project onscreen is a reflection of collective societal attitudes, and what you create informs our individual attitudes. It's a vicious cycle of politics and pop culture which leads to endless prejudice and destruction.
Yet for all the damage you've done, a select few of your disciples and fringe followers have accomplished wonders in advancing minority rights, by virtue of showing the moviegoing public that being "different" doesn't make you inherently different from the majority. Empathetic, nuanced potrayals like Ms. Streep describes are the product of letting minority filmmakers tell their stories, either as translated by white male hegemonic filmmakers or in their own words.
But that's the thing, Hollywood – marginalized groups are the most invested in telling these kinds of revolutionary stories, and the most likely to make them, but for whatever reason you're reluctant to let them do so. In 2012 the percentage of minority Writer's Guild of America members tapped to write screenplays was an abysmal 7%. Less than 20% of films released in 2013 and 2014 had women or people of color in the director’s chair.
Is it any surprise, then, that with so few opportunities to make their mark only 17 of the 250 highest-grossing films were directed by women in 2014? Or that a paltry eight films in that same timeframe had "truly diverse casts"? Or that zero people of color were nominated for an acting Oscar in 2015 and 2016?
Or that this past November, we elected a president who embraces a complete lack of diversity? After all, what we see onscreen is a reflection of societal attitudes, which are themselves informed by the cinematic apparatus.
What I'm getting at here, Hollywood, is that regardless of whether the characters we see onscreen are "diverse", their journey is more likely than not to have been concocted by a white, straight, upper class, neurotypical screenwriter, producer, or director, and all the more likely to be misinformed. Internal biases and stereotypes creep into every artist's work – not just that of the majority – but when there's so little diversity in the writer's room, micro-aggressions via celluloid can creep into the most well-intentioned of screenplays (just see the furor over Passengers for a recent example).
You truly want to combat Trump? Take direct action by letting the people he's targeting get a chance to produce the screenplay you've been sitting on for years.
You want to inspire hope? Greenlight blockbuster films with minority leads and empower our youngest generation with heroes and heroines who look like them, come from the same background as them, and act like them.
You want to preserve the voices that the incoming administration threatens to silence? Let more women, POC, and LGBT+ individuals control the camera - and our attention.
You want to support immigrants? Hire crew members from diverse international backgrounds, get them work visas, allow them to work their way up the corporate ladder.
You want to shift the attitudes which led to Trump's election? Make films which subvert the poisonous rhetoric being spewed by the alt-right and show us that there's no reason to fear those who are different – but don't vilify the blue-collar workers slighted by Washington for decades in the process.
You want to encourage new talent and voices? Rebuild an inherently prejudiced industry starved of diversity so that I, an autistic woman, have a fighting chance of breaking the celluloid ceiling once I graduate from college.
With all due respect, Hollywood, patting yourself on the back for being inclusive will only do so much in the long run. For the sake of all the dreamers out there, practice what you preach.
Sincerely,
A Filmmaker
