Perhaps, despite my objections, the success of films like: 'The Help,' 'Django,' 'The Butler,' or '12 Years a Slave,' will further persuade Hollywood to widen its view and edit its erroneous perception of what a commercial black film can look like.
I love any movie that has a retarded person working at Starbucks.
I don't want to be defined as the Asian leading man. I want to be the leading man. Henry Golding.
I look for us - people of color in Hollywood, to create more stories as writers, directors and filmmakers, creating more opportunities for ethnic actors. At the end of the day, we have to be the ones giving jobs and telling the stories, not just waiting to be hired.
The thing that disturbs me the most, being in England, is that on the screen we don't see very many of us - there aren't very many black girls. They don't make the roles for us, or they don't see us in those roles.
Audiences are more drawn in to what they can relate to, so it would be stupid not to have great Latino films for the Latino audience.
I can't tell you the number of stories I've told with a female protagonist don't get bought, or they do get bought and get changed drastically. Or, I will literally write into the script different races, and they get cast all-white. I hope that stops and it opens the door for more voices to be heard in movies.
There are many projects I couldn't get off the ground because they didn't have white heroes. It's a problem that everyone who's been working in Hollywood has been facing.
In the case of 'Thor,' it was just casting the best people for the part. Ken Branagh had the idea to cast Idris Elba as Heimdall, and we didn't blink at that chance to do it.
There are so few roles out there. And even if it is a film that could be led by a black actress, how many times is that film going to get funded? Let's just be real. But it's not just black people. It's Asians, it's Hispanic people if you're not Salma Hayek. It's hard. It's hard to get films funded.
