Do foreign audiences accept black actors?

Asymmetric Review: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix »

Do foreign audiences accept black actors?

07/27/07

I was reading this interview with Don Cheadle, the actor starring in Talk to Me, when I came upon this question and his response:

Q: With international box office becoming an increasing part of the Hollywood financial equation, are you worried that it will negatively affect black actors who, some say, cannot be relied upon to draw people to box offices overseas?

A: I don't necessarily believe that black films and black actors don't travel. There's sometimes a lack of (marketing) on those films. It can be a self-fulfilling prophecy if you don't spend 'Spidey' money on a movie like "Talk to Me" and then say "oh, it doesn't work." When I do international press, people approach me all the time and say "we love you in Europe, in Asia, in South America," and so on. There's definitely an audience there."

It's an interesting issue. I'm wary of the lack of marketing excuse; I assume studios want to market any movie they think will make them money. I couldn't imagine the following statement coming out of Universal president Ron Meyer's mouth, "yeah, we can market this movie and make a ton of cash, but let's not because it has black actors."

If it's true that black actors aren't as marketable overseas, it may have to do, just off the top of my head, with (by region):

Follow up:

1. Europe. If one were to assume that people naturally prefer viewing actors that resemble themselves, then, as most Europeans are white, that intrinsic inclination may explain any discrepancy in box-office performance between movies featuring black actors and those starring white ones. For the most part, however, I think Europeans don't mind viewing non-White actors. From Benetton ads to Jazz singers Josephine Baker and Nina Simone to marriage choices like Heidi Klum's, Europeans have been quite accepting of other races, certainly after World War 2.

That sound you hear is Hitler turning in his grave.

2. Africa. The Africans I've met very much like pan-African (to include the Caribbean and Brazilian) culture in general. Being a poorer region, however, Africa may not be as lucrative a market for movie studios.

Cuban Celia Cruz in Africa

3. Middle East: The Middle Easterners I've met personally don't hate African-Americans, but I could imagine that many, especially back home in their own less diverse countries where stereotypes predominate, have a sort of old-world bias against people of black African decent, where they're generally considered inferiors.

4. Asia: Same as above.

5. Latin America: Same as above. If one were to watch Latin media like novelas, let's say, one would notice a big preference for white actors in the more prestigious roles. In countries like Mexico, blacks are still thought of as less socially desirable, thus the Memin Pinguin stamp controversy (It isn't until Hispanics come to the United States, that many of them begin to lose their prejudices).

Ana Layevska y Rafael Amaya from Mexican telenovela "Las Dos Caras de Ana."

Memin Penguin. Would the American post office accept this stamp?

Another factor, common to all regions, is the difficulty in relating to particularly African or African-American experiences like those dealt with by Cheadle's character, Ralph "Petey" Greene in Talk to Me . This may explain why movies with: universal, grand themes like Spiderman (Good vs. Evil-Inner struggle), equally universal (unfortunately) violence like Die Hard, and dazzling special effects like in the otherwise unimpressive Fantastic 4X2 tend to do better overseas than movies about American inequality.

One thing in black actors' favor is the "coolness" factor. In some places, American black culture is widely imitated. Oddly, the French children of Muslim immigrants who burned all of those cars in Paris last year were said to have been great admirers of American Hip-Hop culture. And remember that episode of The Chappelle Show when Paul Mooney said that the African-American is the most imitated man on Earth? Maybe not everywhere, but maybe some day.

When considering the lists below, notice that Americans are more tolerant of aliens and creatures of color (Green, in Shrek's case).

Top ten non-USA Box Office(all time).

1 Titanic (1997) $1.23B

2 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) $752M

3 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) $651M

4 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007) $639M

5 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) $637M

6 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) $604M

7 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) $602M

8 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) $581M

9 Jurassic Park (1993) $563M

10 Spider-Man 3 (2007) $549M