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When Nia Long showed up as a trending topic on Twitter, I thought I was having a flashback to 1997. How her recent comments about black actresses in Hollywood brought me back to reality.
When I saw that Nia Long was a trending topic on Twitter, I thought either A) she died or B) she and Larenz Tate were going to do a sequel to Love Jones.
Neither was true. But what was happening was even more compelling. Beyoncé was getting called out for her “acting” skills. In an interview with a British magazine, Long summed up the sorry state of affairs for black actresses in Hollywood in a couple of succinct and unflinching sentences. “I didn’t see ‘Obsessed,’ so I can’t comment, but it’s just not about how talented you are anymore,” Long, who was last seen on the big screen back in 2007 on Are We Done Yet? with Ice Cube, told Pride, a black online magazine based in the United Kingdom. “It’s about, ‘How much box-office revenue will this person generate?’ When you see certain people—we won’t name names—they just don’t have the skill, and no one in their team has said, ‘You need acting classes.’ If you’re a singer not an actress, you should sing. If you’re a rapper, you should rap.”
What a mouthful. Twitterers had to add their two cents, saying: “this is the most press Nia Long has had since Boyz in the Hood.” True. I’m a fan of old-school Nia Long, Mom jeans and short ‘do on Fresh Prince, “blues in your left thigh, trying to become the funk in your right” Nia Long. Yeah, that was way back in the ‘90s.
And this Tweet rang true, too: “damn, black folks be so quick to defend beyonce.” (Beyoncé fans, stand down!) But as great of an entertainer as she is, Ms. Knowles seems to be hands-off when it comes to constructive criticism, whether or not she is being called out. Above all else, like much of today’s television, it’s hard to find black women with any range in leading film roles; there are neither new faces with talent nor familiar faces with experience—because industry heads are worried about how many butts they can get in a theater’s seats.
For “Nina Mosley” to show up on Twitter as a trend, it seemed like we had stepped back into 1997. Long was hot in the ‘90s, while she was starring in every other film with a black ensemble cast. From cult classics Boyz n the Hood and Friday to romantic comedies Love Jones and The Best Man, she was the girl next door turned ooh-sooky-sooky-now on-screen beauty. But at the turn of the century, the film roles for Long, and other young black actresses who were not Halle Berry (Gabrielle Union, Sanaa Lathan, Monica Calhoun, among others), were often playing the same tired character.
Eventually, being able to act wasn’t a requisite to star in a film. Singers-turned-actresses-playing-singers—Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson in Dreamgirls; Whitney Houston in The Bodyguard (1992), cashing in at $410 million worldwide; Diana Ross in Lady Sings the Blues (1972), heralding five Oscar nods, including best actress in a leading role—served well for Hollywood’s bottom line. But this is what they do; they sing. And that’s why we love them.
And Beyoncé is a prime example. Earlier this year, she co-starred in Obsessed and brought a mainstream name to a film that otherwise could’ve went straight to DVD. Instead, Americans spent more than $28 million in its opening weekend, pushing it to No. 1 at the box office. Who wouldn’t want to see Ms. Knowles drop-kick a homewrecker? Folks didn’t flock to the movie theaters for the plotline or her acting abilities—we know how the story goes, and we know she can’t act. (See Carmen: A Hip Hopera, The Fighting Temptations, shoot, Dreamgirls, too.) But the name Beyoncé was enough—yeah, we all know who she is, now let’s see what she can do, without the seemingly painted-on, sequined bodysuit and the mic in her hand.
But these are all my words and thoughts—Nia Long didn’t explicitly call Beyoncé out. But I have to give it to her for being honest about the state of black Hollywood. A dose of reality and constructive criticism is pitch perfect for an industry based on keeping up appearances and selling out theaters. We need more Nia Longs to step up and be real. Because the best performances should be saved for the big screen.
Erin Evans is a copy editor and writer for The Root.
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I understand the point that most polished actors are trying to make about entertainers doing films, but the fact of the matter is; Films and Television were created as vehicles to make money. The myth that the film business is set up to make a person a star is only that, just a myth. Movies are made so that producers and studios can make money. If Nia Long had as big a following as Beyonce, she would have been in Dream Girls. And while she's a very talented and polished actor the truth is she doesn't have the following to sell the tickets that it would take to make back the investment it took to make the film. That goes for any actor. It's been that way since the creation of film. From as far back as "The Birth of a Race" (1918), people have been creating films with the intent to sell tickets to the masses. Beyonce, Will Smith and Jamie Foxx are just recent names added to a long list of singers and musicians who have crossed over from the microphone to the big screen. Folks like; Ethel Waters, Lena Horne, Bill (Bojangles) Robinson, Cab Calloway and Dorothy Dandridge were carrying films back in the days before big budgets for Black films existed, so why would it be any different now? With the advent of the corporate take over in Hollywood it's clear that whatever rules at the box office, becomes the rule. As long as singers and rappers can keep selling a million or more CD's then they'll keep appearing in films and on television. That's not a mock against actors and having talent, it's just the way it is
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Beyonce is not the only one, Queen Latifah looks and sounds like herself in every movie I've seen her in and so does Will Smith, so does Ice Cube, so does LL Cool J. Redman maybe not so much. But the point is these folks are people we go to the movies with the expectation of them playing themselves.
However when we want to see good thespian skill we too often have very little to choose from in the way of Hollywood movies. Perhaps the route is for the talented/passionate black thespians to busy themselves in a greater variety of movies. Go indy, go foreign, create a website/newsletter where those of us with interest can stay informed on what pieces they are performing and where to view them.
We purchase the movies we love. We bootleg the trash we can not respect.
When the revenue stream for these box office insults decline, Hollywood will change direction.
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I am so glad to read about Nia Long and her courageous appeal to let "real" actresses do their jobs; however her plea may be falling on deaf ears. In a capitalistic society the only thing that motivates change is MONEY. Therefore consumers need to wake up and recognize their true power. If all of the citizens in the world stopped settling for sub-par performances by singers and rappers, and demand a quality of excellence that can only be demonstrated by true students of the trade--in this case actors and actresses, then perhaps we would see a change in the various forms of media. Until that happens, true fans of theater and performance will be relegated to the mediocrity that is so often put out in mainstream media.
I am so glad to read about Nia Long and her courageous appeal to let "real" actresses do their jobs; however her plea may be falling on deaf ears. In a capitalistic society the only thing that motivates change is MONEY. Therefore consumers need to wake up and recognize their true power. If all of the citizens in the world stopped settling for sub-par performances by singers and rappers, and demand a quality of excellence that can only be demonstrated by true students of the trade--in this case actors and actresses, then perhaps we would see a change in the various forms of media. Until that happens, true fans of theater and performance will be relegated to the mediocrity that is so often put out in mainstream media.