For the last 5 years I've been working hard to fill this hunger I have to see more deeply into our changing planetary reality. It's been a fantastic trip. I've read, traveled, meditated, met with the giants of planetary thinking, traded long emails with friends... and written.
Man, have I written. I've taken numerous runs at these ideas on the page. I've tried on several different approaches to writing a book. I've dictated manuscripts. I've half-written a hundred blog posts. I've filled seven journals. All of that writing, I now know, was part of the work of getting to the stories I now feel ready to tell.
Now that I'm finally ready to tell these stories in public, though, I have to launch into an entirely different task, which is convincing my community of readers to support me in telling them. Having built a new worldview, I now need to figure out how to sell it.
One of the tasks here, I've realized, is explaining to people why I think the idea of heroic futurism is important in the first place—and I do think it's important; critical, even, to humanity's long-term survival.
This new essay is an attempt to answer that question of Why?
I hope you'll take a few minutes to read it this weekend, and I hope that you'll support out work on The Heroic Future.
We can't build what we can't imagine. We can't build what we can't imagine. I&'ve said it again and again, but please, let it really sink in. It's the most important fact on our planet right now:We can't build what we can't imagine. "The Heroic Future — this ambitious documentary project we've launched — aims to ignite the imagination we need to survive our planetary crisis. Even if you don't choose to back us, you need to know why this work matters.
Read more: LINK
It's Oscars Telecast Day in Hollywood, and Leonardo DiCaprio was at it again.
SEE THE TRANSCRIPT OF LEO's OSCAR ACCEPTANCE SPEECH:
http://www.bustle.com/articles/144803-transcript-of-leonardo-dicaprios-oscars-acceptance-speech-gets-political-about-climate-changeIt's Oscar season, and Leonardo DiCaprio was at it again in his acceptance speech. The 41-year-old actor took a moment to speak about a cause that's very close to his heart: environmentalism and climate change.Yes, "The Revenant" won for best actor, but that's not what we're talking about."Alaska is warming 2x fast from #climatechange as the rest of the US. Hello #drought & fire," read the actor's retweet from the U.S. Geological Survey last week.If you landed there accidentally, you might mistake the actor's Twitter account for the Sierra Club homesite.There's a GIF of a glacier shedding a mammoth load of ice, courtesy of NASA; a post on Africa's ivory trade; and a petition to repeal Nevada's anti-solar legislation -- not exactly Hollywood gossip column fodder.The actor and environmentalist has long been outspoken about the need for climate action, even appearing last year at the international climate summit in Paris. Now he may be part of a small but growing movement to bring climate change fiction, or "cli-fi," to the big screen.DiCaprio recently bought movie rights for a climate-relevant, post-apocalyptic YA cli-fi novel, "The Sandcastle Empire." The book, written by Kayla Olson, attracted DiCaprio because of its environmental themes.While cli-fi films may be a new undertaking for DiCaprio and a fairly recent phenomenon in Hollywood, climate change has long been alive in films, says Michael Svoboda, an author in Yale Climate Connections and a professor at George Washington University.
"It's like a virus from a strange subculture that gets into the mainstream and becomes part of pop culture," Svoboda said of the emergence of climate issues in Hollywood.
The influence of 'bad science' in movies
Svoboda, who conducted a recent survey of cli-fi on the big screen, published by WIREs Climate Change, says he is surprised by the number of films he found -- over 60 -- that reflect climate change issues.The issue took center stage in movies like 2004's "The Day After Tomorrow," the most widely viewed by far in the genre. Featuring Dennis Quaid as a climatologist whose research is ignored by U.N. officials, the film shows catastrophic natural disasters brought about by climate change.Global warming also has appeared in a spate of recent films, including "Sharknado," "Happy Feet Two," "Interstellar," "The Rover," "Young Ones" and "The Last Survivors." That group includes another Oscar contender, "Mad Max: Fury Road," a nominee for best picture.While many of those films appeared in theaters in the last decade (experts say 2006, the year former Vice President Al Gore's 2006 documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" came out, marked a turning point), their precursors go back to the environmental movement of the 1960s and '70s, said Svoboda.Films like the 1970 apocalyptic science-fiction film "No Blade of Grass" began to dip their toes in climate issues, though often veering far from science. The 1977 "Day of the Animals," for example, blamed violent encounters between humans and animals on ultraviolet rays passing through a thin patch in the ozone layer.That's a worry to some analysts, like Chip Knappenberger, assistant director of the Center for the Study of Science at the Cato Institute, a conservative Washington, D.C.-based think tank."We live in a democracy where people with the wrong impressions can vote, and there's a possibility you get bad science or exaggerated science in those impressions," he said.While movies on climate change abound, their messaging is far from unified, said Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication at Yale University.Leiserowitz conducted a study of the public before and after "The Day After Tomorrow" came out. He found the film had an enormous influence on public understanding.That, he conceded, has much to do with circulation. The Quaid and Jake Gyllenhaal vehicle came in seventh among the top-grossing films of 2004, according to movie statistics site Box Office Mojo. The film had a far wider reach than documentaries like "An Inconvenient Truth," which reached roughly 10 percent of the public, said Leiserowitz."People became more concerned, more worried, more willing to take initiative," he said.
'The Revenant' -- a brush with climate change?
Scholars disagree about the negative impact of Hollywood's representation of science. But Leiserowitz said the benefits of films like "The Day After Tomorrow" to the understanding of climate change far outweigh their harm because they portray the issue in a forum where people are more open minded and less likely to view it through a political lens.Today, the ranks of climate change deniers are falling. Roughly 70 percent of Americans believe global warming is real, according to a 2015 report by National Surveys on Energy and Environment (NSEE), a nonpartisan survey.And experts say Hollywood has played its part.DiCaprio, who won for best actor for his portrayal of Hugh Glass, a 19th-century American frontiersman who is left for dead after being mauled by a bear during a winter expedition, described filming "The Revenant" as having his first-hand brush with climate change."We shot at high altitudes in Calgary, and weather conditions were unprecedented. We had fluctuation from hot to cold, and the local people told us that it had never happened before -- weather extremes like that -- since they've lived there," DiCaprio said."Our weather is dramatically changing. We had to go to the southern tip of Argentina just to be able to find snow to complete this film," he said.
The next step, said Leiserowitz and Svoboda, is creating films that offer solutions to the issues they portray.
"We've gone from 'There's a problem,'" said Svoboda, "to 'We need to do something about this problem.'"
LINK behind a wall: but free trial sub if you register:
Michael Svoboda is an assistant professor of writing and director of the Sustainability Minor at the George Washington University (GWU). He is also a regular contributor to Yale Climate Connections, where he first began to write about climate change in popular culture. “Cli-Fi on the Screens,” his survey of climate change in over 60 fictional films, can be downloaded for free from the January 2016 issue of WIREs Climate Change.
On February 12, 1958, the American public saw the first televised warning about the dangers of carbon dioxide, global warming, and sea level rise. That warning came from The Bell Laboratory Science Series, which aired its fourth TV episode, “Unchained Goddess,” written and produced by three-time Oscar winner Frank Capra.
Capra is famous for classic films like “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and not so famous for having a degree in chemical engineering. In this film, Dr. Research (Dr. Frank Baxter) explains to The Writer (Richard Carlson) that unrestricted carbon dioxide emissions could lead to a world where “Tourists in glass bottom boats would be viewing the drowned towers of Miami”:
“Even now, man may be unwittingly changing the world’s climate through the waste products of his civilization,” warns Dr. Research. “Due to our release through factories and automobiles every year of more than six billion tons of carbon dioxide, which helps air absorb heat from the sun, our atmosphere seems to be getting warmer.” Note: Now we are emitting six times (!) as much CO2 from fossil fuels as in 1958.
Is that “bad,” the Writer asks. Dr. Research explains:
“Well, it’s been calculated a few degrees rise in the Earth’s temperature would melt the polar ice caps. And if this happens, an inland sea would fill a good portion of the Mississippi valley. Tourists in glass bottom boats would be viewing the drowned towers of Miami through 150 feet of tropical water. For in weather, we’re not only dealing with forces of a far greater variety than even the atomic physicist encounters, but with life itself.”
Perhaps the show should have been titled, “Its a wonderful life — not!” Interestingly, despite what you might think from his most famous movie (and others, like “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington) — which appear to be stories of the little guy, the 99 percent vs. the 1 percent — Capra himself was a “conservative Republican” who “railed against” FDR. Also, Capra explained his comments to an early meeting of the show’s scientific advisory board, saying, “If I make a science film, I will have to say that science research is just another expression of the Holy Spirit that works in all men. Furthermore, I will say that science, in essence, is just another facet of man’s quest for God.”
Back in the 1950s, at least, the science of global warming was not politicized or somehow seen as in opposition to religion.
While this appears to be the first televised warning, there was a warning broadcast on the radio show, “General Electric: Excursions in Science,” about the research of physicist Gilbert Plass.
Back in May 1953, Time magazine reported on Plass’s work in an article titled “Invisible Blanket,” which ends, “for centuries to come, if man’s industrial growth continues, the earth’s climate will continue to grow warmer.” So did Popular Mechanics:
As NASA wrote in a 2010 blog post on the Capra film, “Global warming is not a new concept”:
The Victorians knew about it. John Tyndall (born 1820) knew about it. So did Svante August Arrhenius. In April 1896, Arrhenius published a paper in the London, Edinburgh and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science entitled “On the influence of carbonic acid [CO2] in the air upon the temperature of the ground.”
In 1965, the president’s Science Advisory Committee warned President Johnson that “Man is unwittingly conducting a vast geophysical experiment,” and that “Within a few generations, he is burning the fossil fuels that accumulated in the earth over the past 500 million years.”
In 1979, the U.S. National Research Council assembled a panel of experts who wrote a report warning of the prospects for serious warming if we continued on the path of unrestricted carbon dioxide emissions. The panel explained, “A wait-and-see policy may mean waiting until it is too late.”
In 1981, James Hansen and six other NASA atmospheric physicists published a seminal article in Science, “Climate Impact of Increasing Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide.” That paper warned with remarkable prescience — or, I should say, with remarkable science — “Potential effects on climate in the 21st century include the creation of drought-prone regions in North America and central Asia as part of a shifting of climatic zones, erosion of the West Antarctic ice sheet with a consequent worldwide rise in sea level, and opening of the fabled Northwest Passage.” Check, check, and check.
The New York Times even reported on that study with the headline “Study finds warming trend that could raise sea levels.” By 1988, the science was so well understood and documented, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was set up by the U.N. and World Meteorological Organization to provide regular summaries and analysis of the science.
Scientists have been warning us about the dangers of unrestricted CO2 emissions, global warming and climate change for over six decades. So much for the myth that climate scientists used to believe in global cooling a couple of decades ago — a myth that has been utterly debunked in the scientific literature (see here). Heck, thanks to excellent reporting by InsideClimate News, we now know oil giant ExxonMobil had been told by its own scientists in the 1970s and 1980s that climate change was human-caused and would reach catastrophic levels without reductions in carbon emissions.
Perhaps it’s time all U.S. politicians — and the Supreme Court — start listening.
Michael Punke wrote ''The Revennant: A Novel Of Revenge'' in 2and now he cannot even appear for promotional purposes or even to sign copies of the book!
The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge is a 2002 novel by Michael Punke, based on the story of the American frontiersman Hugh Glass.[1] It was adapted as a screenplay for a film released in December 2015, directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy.[1]
The novel was republished in January 2015 in anticipation of the upcoming film release, but Punke's role as an ambassador to the World Trade Organization prevented him from participating in pre-release publicity.[1]
Many of the outdoor adventures depicted in the novel are based on Punke's outdoor interests and hobbies, such as fishing and exploring the backcountry, which he enjoyed while growing up in Wyoming.[1] Punke had originally intended to write a political novel.[1] He started archival research and writing in 1997, and it took four years for him to complete the novel, with the long hours taking a toll on his health.[1]Maxim reporter Walter Bonner interviewed Punke's brother who described the novel as an attempt by Punke to "write his way out of D.C. and back to the big sky country".[1] The novel is dedicated to his high school English teacher, Roger Clark.
Reception of the novel has been largely positive. Publishers Weekly described the novel as "Told in simple expository language, this is a spellbinding tale of heroism and obsessive retribution."[2] Similarly, Kirkus Reviews called the novel "A good adventure yarn, with plenty of historical atmosphere and local color."[3]
When reviewing the novel for its 2015 re-release to coincide with the film, critic Brian Ted Jones described the novel as not fulfilling the expectation of "the novel's higher bar", describing it as more like Punke's non-fiction, and stylistically not very well executed.[4] Jones also described the novel's subtitle "A Novel of Revenge", as misrepresentative, claiming the novel's real plot device "is actually more prosaic: He wants his stuff back."[4] A review of the same edition by Library Journal, called the novel "A must-read for fans of Westerns and frontier fiction and recommended for anyone interested in stories that test the limit of how much the human body and spirit can endure."[5]
Development of The Revenant began in August 2001, with producer Akiva Goldsman acquiring the rights to Punke's unpublished manuscript for The Revenant.[6]David Rabe wrote the first script.[7] The production was picked up by Park Chan-wook, who had Samuel L. Jackson in mind to star. Park later left the project.[8]
Development stalled until 2010, when Mark L. Smith wrote a new adaptation.[9]Alejandro G. Iñárritu signed on to direct in August 2011.[10] Weed Road Pictures, New Regency Productions, Anonymous Content, and 20th Century Fox supported development and distribution of the film.[10][11][12]Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy were cast in the lead roles.[13] The film had a limited release in the United States on December 25, 2015, and had its wide release across the United States on January 8, 2016.[14]
After the novel was optioned for adaptation, publishers chose to republish it in hardback in January 2015. However, because Punke had become a Deputy United States Trade Representative and US Ambassador to the World Trade Organization, the State Department prohibited him from doing any publicity for his book in preparation for the film release (one representative noted that "He can't even sign copies").[1]
We get mail.Yes. And all of it is interesting. Today, this email wandered in:
Dear Mr. Bloom, I have been reading your Cli-Fi blog, and I’d greatly appreciate a moment of your time.
I have just completed a contemporary literary cli-fi novel. It is a thought-provoking and emotionally intense character-driven story that will appeal to anyone who is struggling with the question of how to live in a world that seems to be on the brink of collapse.
As a first time novelist, I am new to the publishing side of the industry, and in search of agents or publishers who are interested in climate fiction. If you know of anyone that I could contact, I would be very appreciative.
I have provided a brief synopsis of my novel below, just an fyi.
Sincerely,
[Guest Writer]
Mini Synopsis: [and YES THIS IS A CLi Fi Literary Fiction Novel a la ''FLIGHT BEHAVIOR'' by Barbara Kingsolver!]
Through a letter, a middle aged woman reaches out to two friends from long ago. They alll dread the thought of waking the sleeping dragons of their collective history, but old loyalties, and old fears, propel them forward.
In a desert house, the three friends come together for the first time in 19 years. KEY: Over a period of days, they reconnect, open old wounds and reveal deep secrets that shaped their pasts and transform their futures in ways that none of them could have imagined.
DAN BLOOM notes:
When I read this letter and the synopsis, [changed here to keep the story more or less private,] but you get a sense of what this writer is doing. I see THE BIG CHILL kind of novel with a movie to follow. A literary novel about climate change but very character-driven and reality based. Similar to what Barbara Kingsolver did with FLIGHT BEHAVIOR, a literary novel of the first order
I wrote back to the writer:
''Thanks for writing. This novel sounds very interesting and I love the synopsis. If I ran a publishing house, I would send you a contract right now. Alas, I am just a PR guy....
But I love the story. And it's not dystopian end of the world survivalist science fiction YA FANTASY. Literary fiction is best way to go. Cli fi is serious!
We face major issues and storytelling can help us see the way via emotion and story.
Sadly, the publishing business is rigged. To get in the door, you need an agent. To get an agent you must have a major bestseller already published to wide acclaim. The doors are closed, more or less, although a few exceptions happen too. But rarely. Sigh.
The self publishing route is one way to go. Keep looking for an agent too.
Tell me , where are you located? Is there a local literary press there? Starting local is good. I know some publishers but almost all of them want to go through an agent. And agents are part of this catch-22 rigged game.
Still, there's hope. I live on hope.Some publishers DO open their doors to newbies . So tell more about who you are and yr earlier background, college and what major etc .
Many conversations, panels and yarns at #BlakBright16 (link is external) have returned to the same point: as writers we are continuing an oral tradition of handing down stories.
In the keynote session on Big Stories Big Genres, ‘genre’ itself was rejected as a western concept constructed around Aboriginal writing. The origin of classic genres is not ours and it is sometimes an uncomfortable concept to be applying to our art forms. I imagine if I were round a campfire pre-colonisation asking people what genre their story or song was, they would probably think I was tripping on too much pitchiri.
At the metaphorical campfire of Blak and Bright "everything is story." In western art everything is segmented. Rather than submitting to these segmented genres, Bruce Pascoe (link is external) talks of the "stories story" and movement across forms rather than restricting yourself to one genre. This is because #wearethefirststorytellers (link is external).
We share these stories to reveal the wrong ones told by colonisation. So it is contradictory to share them defined by colonial genres. Bruce Pascoe talked about this act of revealing, as an act of resistance. When white people arrived they papered the land with a new history that saw the land (and us) as savage and alien. As blak writers we are "using the putty knife to scrape away that [maroon fleur de lis] wallpaper and reveal the Australian rock."
As the conversations on genre where happening around me over the past few days, I remembered that I never used to define my own writing. I did not refer to a genre until someone else categorised me as spec fic. At Blak and Bright I learnt genre doesn’t matter, it is all story. Introduced invasive genres will only degrade our story landscapes and ecologies like feral rabbits.
Story is bigger than all of it. Perhaps as Jane Harrison (link is external) said at the launch, we can "make blak books a genre."
About Hannah Donnelly
Hannah Donnelly is a Wiradjuri woman from New South Wales who grew up on Gamilaroi country. Creator of Sovereign Trax Indigenous music website and co-editor of the Sovereign Apocalypse zine, Hannah’s personal work experiments with cli-fi and future imaginings of Indigenous responses to climate change.
PermalinkSubmitted by Daan Spijer on Wed, 2016-02-24 14:59
Insisting on applying a genre to any pice of writng or to a writer is as limiting as insisting on a label for a person: black/white; male/female/trans ...; gay/straight... None of is is any ome of these -- we are all much more complex. Be who you are and resist being labelled by anyone -- they label you so that -they- may feel more comfortable. There is no benefit in it for you.
The statistics are unequivocal: Women and minorities are vastly underrepresented in front of and behind the camera. Here, 27 industry players reveal the stories behind the numbers — their personal experiences of not feeling seen, heard or accepted, and how they pushed forward. In Hollywood, exclusion goes far beyond #OscarsSoWhite. (Interviews have been edited and condensed.)
Join us for candid conversations about race and the Race/Related newsletter. Sign up here.
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When you are a minority, and it’s the first time you’ve done something, you’re like, this could all be taken away from me.Mindy KalingActress Credit Brinson+Banks for The New York Times
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[A fan said] “I just wanted to let you know that the story line of Jamal really made it easier for me to talk to my son about his sexuality.” I needed him at that moment.Jussie SmollettActor Credit Taylor Glascock for The New York Times
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I remember my first meeting with the producers on “Erin Brockovich,” before Steven Soderbergh came onto it, and saying, “This scene where she’s shimmying down a well in a micromini? I can’t do that.” I didn’t feel I was being fully understood.Julia RobertsActress Credit Brinson+Banks for The New York Times
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The head of casting said: “I couldn’t put you in a Shakespeare movie, because they didn’t have black people then.”Wendell PierceActor Credit Brinson+Banks for The New York Times
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As a director, I definitely feel the boys’ club. There’s still that, “She can’t possibly know what she’s talking about.”Eva LongoriaActress, director, producer Credit Brinson+Banks for The New York Times
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I’ve been told that I wasn’t Latino enough, which was code for street enough.Jimmy SmitsActor Credit Ryan Pfluger for The New York Times
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I felt I represented a woman out there who should get to see somebody who weighs about as much as she does.Queen LatifahActress, musician, producer Credit Richard Perry/The New York Times
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I remember feeling powerless. What do you do when someone says, “Your color skin is not what we’re looking for”?America FerreraActress, producer Credit Brinson+Banks for The New York Times
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I had a role in “The Office.” That was one of my proudest moments as an actor, because it wasn’t based on ethnicity. It gave me confidence that I have a chance of not just playing the Asian guy.Ken JeongWriter, actor Credit Brinson+Banks for The New York Times
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Finding out that a man who had less experience and critical acclaim got paid twice as much, that was a smack in the face.Effie BrownProducer Credit Brinson+Banks for The New York Times
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I do feel that I’m more likely to offend just by being female and having a strong opinion on something.Katie Dippold Screenwriter Credit Brinson+Banks for The New York Times
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With “Girlfight,” there were questions from financiers about, what is she so angry about? That movie took so long to get made because people didn’t trust she would be interesting to watch if she was less likable.Karyn KusamaDirector Credit Brinson+Banks for The New York Times
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In speech class, the teacher, a white man, would say don’t talk ghetto. I’m not only offended, but I’m confused because that’s actually not my experience. That’s when I started to realize, O.K., you’re going to have to fight to be seen.Teyonah ParrisActress Credit Ryan Pfluger for The New York Times
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At an event, I remember this girl hugged me and started crying. She said, “Thank you for making us relevant.” It gives me goose bumps every time I think about it.Priyanka ChopraActress Credit Alexi Hobbs for The New York Times
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I remember the executive saying, “Why does she have to be black?” That was the most painful, that casual disregard for my experience.John RidleyScreenwriter Credit Brinson+Banks for The New York Times
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I was meeting with potential investors, and right away everybody’s like, “It’s an Asian-American cast. It’ll never sell.”Justin LinDirector Credit Brinson+Banks for The New York Times
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Laverne Cox was keeping me alive and motivated. I saw her on “Orange Is the New Black,” and something clicked. I don’t have to run from this and declare myself too other to be an actor.Hari NefActress Credit Ryan Pfluger for The New York Times
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I’m usually comfortable being the only black guy in the room. More often than not, I am.Mike ColterActor Credit Ryan Pfluger for The New York Times
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It’s always a weird conversation when you’re trying to explain how a film about kids from Inglewood can be mainstream, but you don’t have the same conversation about kids in suburban Chicago or South Boston.Rick FamuyiwaWriter, director Credit Julian Berman for The New York Times
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With love scenes, the camera angle is from the man’s point of view. All of that absolutely infuriates me.Jurnee Smollett-BellActress Credit Taylor Glascock for The New York Times
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I thought the gayness was what was going to freak people out, and in a lot of ways, it’s the femaleness that causes more problems in a straight, male world.Kimberly PeirceDirector Credit Brinson+Banks for The New York Times
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It was very difficult [to get representation in the 1980s]. [The agent] probably thought I was telling fairy tales when I told him I won best actress in China.Joan Chen Actress Credit Matt Edge for The New York Times
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I’m frustrated; we have a responsibility, and it would be great if we had more freedom to represent on the screen who our audiences are.Lori McCrearyProducer Credit Ryan Pfluger for The New York Times
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Growing up, I [thought] white male was the norm, the default character in every story. I never thought other possibilities could exist.Sam EsmailWriter, director Credit Maarten de Boer/Getty Images Portraits
School Years
Sam EsmailCreator, “Mr. Robot”Growing up, I [thought] white male was the norm, the default character in every story. I never thought other possibilities could exist. And I remember thinking, when I would watch Woody Allen films or films that felt personal, I wonder what I’m going to do when I write my personal films, because I can’t cast an Egyptian-American; that would be weird. In film school, there was this need to talk about your ethnicity and to make essentially social-message films. But I resisted, because I felt that it changed the conversation of what the movie was about. Wendell PierceActor, “The Wire,” “Grease: Live”, “Confirmation” (coming on HBO)Juilliard was a great place to train and prepare for the politics of the business. You were given roles [based on] how you fit into the company. I didn’t get any roles that weren’t 20, 30 years my elder. We had a running joke, the black actors, “If you come here you better get your funny walks, because you’re going to be playing all the old guys.” JIMMY SMITSActor, “The Get Down” (coming on Netflix), co-founder, National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts[After] Brooklyn College, somebody said, “You can probably go to L.A. now and be the crook of the week on ‘Hill Street Blues,’ but you should think about graduate school.” [At] Cornell — I got a scholarship — I got to do everything. I could handle verse, I could speak Shaw, I could do Pinter.
TEYONAH PARRISActress, “Chi-Raq,” “Survivor’s Remorse”[At Juilliard], we got together with other black people in different classes, and we said, “Hey, we want to do an August Wilson play. There are enough black people to make this happen.” So we rehearsed on our free time and put on this showcase, and the faculty came, other students came, and I guess that was inspiring to them. [Later, they did an official school production.] That was the first time they put an August Wilson play on the main stage, in 2007. KEN JEONGCreator and star, “Dr. Ken”A U.C.L.A. acting professor gave me good marks in my performance and [said]: “You’re a good actor, which is why I’m telling you, stay the hell out of L.A. There’s not much of a future for you. Go to Asia.” I got an A. He was saying that out of respect. JUSTIN LINDirector, forthcoming “Star Trek Beyond”It was just as hard being working class. I had a roommate — parents write a $20,000 check, and boom, he [makes] his movie. There were people [whose] relatives were [in] Hollywood, and they get all the free equipment. You see, very quickly, that’s the world you’re about to enter.
Getting a Foot in the Door
AMERICA FERRERAStar, producer “Superstore”I was 18 and putting myself on tape for a movie I really wanted. I got that phone call: They cast a Latino male in another role in the film; they’re not looking to cast [a Latina]. So I defiantly bleached my hair blond, painted my face white and made the audition tape. I never heard back. I just remember feeling so powerless. What do you do when someone says, “Your color skin is not what we’re looking for”? Let me tell you: Blond does not suit me. I try not to prove my point on audition tapes anymore. WENDELL PIERCEIn 1985, I’m sitting in the casting office of a major studio. The head of casting said, “I couldn’t put you in a Shakespeare movie, because they didn’t have black people then.” He literally said that. I told that casting director: “You ever heard of Othello? Shakespeare couldn’t just make up black people. He saw them.” I started carrying around a postcard of Rubens’s “Studies of the Head of a Negro.” The casting director actually was very kind to me. He referred me to my first agent. JOAN CHENActress, “Twin Peaks,” “Marco Polo”I never saw people like me on television in the States [after working in Shanghai]. It was very difficult [to get representation in the 1980s]. Someone told me the Bessie Loo Agency represented all the Asians — James Hong was there, Beulah Quo. There were a couple of people playing butlers, maids. [The agent] probably thought I was telling fairy tales when I told him I won best actress in China. EVA LONGORIAStar, director, producer, “Telenovela”I didn’t speak Spanish [growing up]. I’m ninth generation. I mean, I’m as American as apple pie. I’m very proud of my heritage. But I remember moving to L.A. and auditioning and not being Latin enough for certain roles. Some white male casting director was dictating what it meant to be Latin. He decided I needed an accent. He decided I should [have] darker-colored skin. The gatekeepers are not usually people of color, so they don’t understand you should be looking for way more colors of the rainbow within that one ethnicity.
AMERICA FERRERAI had just won [a top award at Sundance], and [my manager] wanted me to audition for the Latina chubby girl in a pilot. She wasn’t even the lead; she was just the sidekick, with the same joke in every scene. I said, “I’m not going in for that.” When I ultimately left him, he [told] another of my reps, “Somebody should tell that girl that she has an unrealistic idea of what she can accomplish in this industry.” That was someone I was paying to represent me. MINDY KALINGCreator, star, “The Mindy Project”When I got hired on “The Office,” at the same time I wrote a pilot with my best friend, called “Mindy and Brenda,” based on our experiences. They were trying to audition my part, which I wanted to play, and at first they [looked for] Indian-American actresses, and when they couldn’t find any, they opened up to more generically Middle Eastern actresses. Still couldn’t find any, until at the end, they’re like, “We’ll look for a white woman.” That was heartbreaking for so many reasons. I auditioned. I think they were looking for someone more traditionally beautiful, because I’d like to think I gave a good audition, to play the part I created. Now, they would work harder to find an Indian-American girl. There’s just too much scrutiny, which is good. EFFIE BROWNProducer, “Dear White People”; co-star, “Project Greenlight”When I was graduating [film school], I didn’t look like everybody else, and I didn’t have any connections. I actually called the Black Business Bureau — a random call. And I got this wonderful operator on the phone, who said that her cousin was working on “The Five Heartbeats,” with Robert Townsend, and that’s how I got my first internship. KIMBERLY PEIRCEDirector, “Carrie”[Coming to Hollywood as an out person], it scared me. I thought if they don’t like this, I’m going to push their buttons and not mean to. I thought the gayness was what was going to freak people out, and in a lot of ways, it’s the femaleness that causes more problems in a straight, male world. That, I didn’t expect.
Talking to the Suits
JULIA ROBERTSActress, the forthcoming “Money Monster”I remember my first meeting with the producers on “Erin Brockovich,” before Steven Soderbergh came onto it, and saying, “This scene where she’s shimmying down a well in a micromini? I can’t do that.” [They said], “But that’s really what happened.” And I go, “I know, but once you make it a movie, you have to re-examine, what’s the function of this scene?” I didn’t feel I was being fully understood. People assumed it was about my sense of modesty. And you just think, “No, you’re not hearing what I’m saying.” Steven and I were very in sync on how we wanted to portray her — the sexiness as well as the soul — and I didn’t have to wear a micromini shimmying down a well. KARYN KUSAMADirector, “Jennifer’s Body,” “Girlfight”The marketing department wanted Megan [Fox, star of “Jennifer’s Body”] to do live chats with amateur porn sites, and I was like, “I’m begging you not to go to her with this idea, she will become so dispirited.” It was fascinating to have the writer be female, the director be female, the stars be female, and my head executive be female, and then we get to the top of the mountain, all those [male] marketing people. It was crushing. RICK FAMUYIWAWriter, director, “Dope”It’s always a weird conversation when you’re trying to explain how a film about kids from Inglewood can be mainstream, but you don’t have the same conversation about a very specific set of kids in suburban Chicago or South Boston. JOHN RIDLEYScreenwriter, “12 Years a Slave”; show runner, “American Crime”[In a mid-1990s] meeting, I was determined the lead [for a film] would be a black woman, and I remember the executive saying, “Why does she have to be black?” And me saying: “She doesn’t have to be; I want her to be black. Why would you not consider it?” It was stunning that they were so comfortable [saying that] to a person of color. That was the most painful, that casual disregard for my experience.
SAM ESMAILWhen I went to the studios [for] writing assignments, it was immediately white, 30s, male. That began the pendulum swinging the other way for me. [The lead character of “Mr. Robot”], Elliot, is not written with any specific race or ethnicity in mind. [In auditions], it was mostly white guys. I opened up the process, and Rami [Malek] was just brilliant. He looks different, whether that’s because he is Egyptian [or] just Rami. The conversation with the network was tough; I don’t think it had to do with race — or I’d like to think it didn’t. The show is already unusual. The barrier to entry for a show — from a network’s point of view — is, can the audience identify with this person, and is race going to be a roadblock? SHAKIM COMPEREManager of Queen Latifah and producing partnerWe once had a meeting with a guy, I won’t say the company. [She and I were] dressed to the nines. We talked about sports, politics, everything, and this man had the nerve to say, “When is your manager going to get here?” because he expected some middle-aged white guy. I [charged] him 10 times more than I was going to. EVA LONGORIAI was developing a medical show, and the lead was a Latina heart surgeon. It didn’t go forward [for various reasons]. Networks say, “We’re on board with diversity,” and they’ll develop it, but they seldom program it. We don’t have enough people in the decision-making process. We have decision influencers, which is a new thing. There’s one brown person in the room that goes, “I like that idea.” LORI McCREARYProducing partner with Morgan Freeman; president, Producers Guild of AmericaIf [a script doesn’t specify, a role is] presumed to be white and male. For “Deep Impact,” Mimi Leder, the director, wanted to cast Morgan as the president, and somebody at the studio said, we’re not making a science-fiction movie; you can’t have Morgan Freeman play the president. But she really fought for it.
MARYSE ALBERTICinematographer, “Creed”[On “Zebrahead”], I remember sitting with the producer, a white guy, and someone asking me, can you handle the big lights? Part of me was intimidated, and part of me was, what? So I composed myself and, I hope with no trace of sarcasm, said: I do not touch the big lights, I have big men who carry the big lights. I tell them where to put them. KEN JEONG[For “Dr. Ken”], just in case there was some chatter — among producers, not with Sony or ABC — that maybe you better get a white wife, Albert [Tsai, who plays his son] was the first guy I cast. There’s no way I can have a white wife if I get Albert. So I got to get an Asian daughter, an Asian wife. I was not doing it for the cause; I was doing it to reflect my family. It had to be real. KARYN KUSAMAWith “Girlfight,” there were questions from financiers about, what is she so angry about? I was like, have you been to the projects lately? That movie took so long to get made because people didn’t trust she would be interesting to watch if she was less likable and kind of inarticulate. Meanwhile, we look at “Raging Bull,” “Taxi Driver” [as] American classics.
The Money Issue
JUSTIN LINWith my first film [“Better Luck Tomorrow”], I was working three jobs [to help pay for it]. I was meeting with potential investors, and right away everybody’s like, “It’s an Asian-American cast. It’ll never sell.” And a lot of them were Asian-American investors. A guy offered $1 million for the budget, and he said, “We’ll get Macaulay Culkin to be the lead.” If I would have said yes, I would have gotten $1 million and I would have gotten to make the movie with a white cast, but it didn’t interest me. KIMBERLY PEIRCE[On “Carrie”], I got half my salary. It’s happened twice. I have a quote, and they said: “We’ll give you half. Take it or leave it.” They know, if you like something, you are willing to take less money. And that’s not great for you, or other women, but it’s still better — every movie I make, it still matters. At the end of the year, they’re like, how many [of the top 100] movies were made by women in the system, and that year it was two. Me and “Frozen.” EFFIE BROWNFinding out that a man who had less experience and critical acclaim got paid twice as much, that was a smack in the face. You think that studio loves you, and it’s, “No honey, they can get you for a deal, and you in turn get other people for a deal.” I sometimes feel like a sellout, because I know I can get so-and-so in the door if they hit a certain price point. I had to learn how to break that chain.
On the Set
WENDELL PIERCEI was working on “The Gregory Hines Show” that depicted three generations of black men. It was on CBS in 1997. [After] the read-through, the studio and network give notes. Gregory kissed everybody, and so in the show he would kiss his son, Matty. This particular day someone from CBS said: “I notice every time you come in, you kiss Matty. So I wanted to ask, do black people kiss their kids?” That was the most offensive thing I think I’ve ever [heard]. Gregory stood up and said [to the executive]: “Everybody get out. You, come with me.” JUSTIN LINI remember when I first started working on the Universal lot, I was getting harassed every day at the gate. We did this test [with] the editor, a much older white male. I said, “I’m going to lunch with you today, and you’re going to drive.” We went right through. EVA LONGORIAAs a director, I definitely feel the boys’ club. There’s still that, “She can’t possibly know what she’s talking about.” It’s always been meant as a compliment, but [crew members] go: “You know what you’re doing. Wow. You know lenses. Oh, my God, you know shots?” Yes, I know where to put the camera. You just go, “Do you say to the dude directors, ‘I’m pleasantly surprised you knew what you were doing’?” DEDE GARDNERProducer, “Selma,” “The Big Short”I remember a few years ago being in pretty significant trouble on a film, and being called by the studio, and basically just shredded in such a personal way [by a male executive]. “You are just the worst producer I’ve ever worked with in my entire life,” [he said], citing only other female producers. The analysis immediately shrunk, when in trouble, to only women. QUEEN LATIFAHActress, musician, producer, “Bessie”The discussion came up when we were doing [the TV series] “Living Single” that [the cast needs] to lose weight. [My manager] Shakim would get the call, and it would be laughter by the time it got to me, because there’s no way. I felt I represented a woman out there who should get to see somebody who weighs about as much as she does.
EFFIE BROWN[Initially], I had a real issue with Teamsters, who [were] predominantly male, predominantly white, and having that moment of “Oh, you really aren’t listening.” And that’s when I started spouting my résumé. It’s a little demoralizing that you have to explain yourself. But you know what I did? Sandra Ninham is now my Teamster captain. I was able to get [her] into the union, so I don’t have that issue anymore. JURNEE SMOLLETT-BELLActress, “Underground” (coming on WGN America)I can’t tell you how many arguments I have on sets where the filmmakers will want my wardrobe to be different, and I’ll say, “Wait, why don’t you have [the male co-star] take his shirt off?” With love scenes, the camera angle is from the man’s point of view. All of that absolutely infuriates me. QUEEN LATIFAHWe’ve seen actors of color with this weird-looking makeup on film, this gray, ashy stuff. In person, they look completely different. MIKE COLTERActor, “The Good Wife,” “Luke Cage” (coming on Netflix)I’m usually comfortable being the only black guy in the room. More often than not, I am. I don’t look at it as a negative, because if I do that, I’m already defeated before it starts. I’ve always had to look at it like, [that] makes me unique. [But] I’m a very dark-skinned person. In the wrong lighting, I don’t show up. I have to joke about it: Need a little more love on the light! If it’s not done, you don’t see the complete person they are.
Sounding the Part
TEYONAH PARRISI went to this arts high school in Greenville, S.C. In speech class, the teacher, a white man, would say you’re talking ghetto, don’t talk ghetto. I’m not only offended, but I’m confused because while there’s nothing wrong with people who come from the projects or the ghetto, that’s actually not my experience. It was extremely frustrating because I didn’t feel he saw me. That’s when I started to realize, O.K., you’re going to have to fight to be seen. AMERICA FERRERAMy very first audition ever, I was about 16, and the casting director [for a commercial] said, “Can you do it again but sound more Latino?” I had no idea what she was talking about. “You mean you want me to speak in Spanish?” She’s like: “No. Do it in English but just sound more Latino.” I genuinely didn’t realize until later that she was asking me to speak English with a broken accent. It confused me, because I thought, I am Latino, so isn’t this what a Latino sounds like? From the get-go of my career I thought, There’s a certain box or a certain way that you’re seen, which I didn’t feel growing up.
JIMMY SMITSI have been in rooms with people arguing over a character that’s not really fleshed out, that just because the surname is Latino, that automatically means you have an accent. I’ve been told that I wasn’t Latino enough, which was code for street enough. KEN JEONGI was a guest star on a TV show maybe two years ago. Everyone wanted me to use an accent, and I was like, “No, I don’t want to.” Then [at] the table read, I didn’t use an accent, and the director took me aside and [said], “I’m not telling you not to do the accent, I’m not telling you to do the accent, just think about it.” And I [said]: “I’ll tell you right now, I’m not going to do the accent. I’m happy to walk away.” At this point in my career, there’s no amount of money that would make me want to do this. I don’t mind doing accents. It just doesn’t make sense to the story. And that was very liberating to finally be in that spot.
Internal Struggles
MINDY KALINGMy personality and [that of other women] I know is to want to please. It can sometimes feel alien to just say, “I need this to happen, because it’s my show,” and not feel afterward that you’ve been unprofessional simply by stating the thing that you want. I struggle with it all the time. When you are a minority, and it’s the first time you’ve done something, you’re like, this could all be taken away from me. I think the presumption with women is that they will be team players, and that is not the presumption of men. Especially show runners. When women push back, they [are perceived as] bitches or divas. I just made a slight demand that wasn’t even that bad. And at the end of it, I’ll send bagels [to the staff]. Please forgive me for asserting myself in a small way. KATIE DIPPOLDScreenwriter,“The Heat,” forthcoming “Ghostbusters” I definitely think about what I’m going to say before I say it, because I do feel that I’m more likely to offend just by being female and having a strong opinion on something. RICK FAMUYIWA[Pitching “Dope,” the reaction was], “Wow, this is really great, but do you have to deal with the violence, the drugs? We want it to be more like ‘Superbad.’” What’s interesting is how that changes how you approach your art. You’re writing something, and you say, “How’s that gonna look?” There’s the little question that you ask yourself that I don’t know if my white counterparts do.
JIMMY SMITS[“L.A. Law”] was really impactful in a positive way. I’m carrying the role model flag. But at the same time, the actor part of me [wanted] to do as many different things as possible. There were times where I wasn’t very comfortable with it. HARI NEFActress, “Transparent”Being given the female roles had its own challenges. Finally it was here, but am I feminine enough to play this role? I would like to get to a place where I get offered roles that I’m a fit for as an actor that maybe don’t have as much to do with my body and more to do with my personality. TEYONAH PARRISI looked at actresses who were white doing these classics and, like, O.K., this is how it’s supposed to be. We were doing Chekhov; I was playing Yelena. Liesl Tommy, [a black South African woman who was guest directing at Juilliard], called me on everything. At the time, I did not understand what she was saying: Use yourself. Yelena [was] still a white woman in my head. As opposed to [now], Yelena is a black woman who comes with the life experience that I can draw from.
JIMMY SMITSA [high school drama teacher] would take us to see plays. Two people jolted me — James Earl Jones and Raúl Juliá. James Earl Jones [once had] a speech impediment, and that doesn’t stop him from dealing with verse or emotions — I’m getting emotional [tears up]. And Raúl was from the same place my mother was from, he spoke with an accent, and he just had a gusto when he was up there. I was like, those two guys really were doing it. You could do this. It’s like: permission to aspire; permission granted. HARI NEFLaverne Cox was keeping me alive and motivated. I saw her on “Orange Is the New Black,” and something clicked. I don’t have to run from this and declare myself too other to be an actor. MINDY KALINGGreg Daniels created the U.S. version of “The Office,” and he hired a group of the most feminist writers. I was so impressed by how worried they were for my experience and making sure I felt that my voice was heard, while it still being a very stressful, rigorous experience. I came up through the NBC diversity program. So my first season, the show doesn’t have to pay for a diversity writer [the network pays], but the second season they do. [With no other TV experience], I don’t know that other people would have hired me back for a second season, the way Greg did.
EFFIE BROWNThe woman that trained me the most was Laurie Parker, who used to be Gus van Sant’s [producer] — nice little white lady. She said: “They tell us there’s room for only one of us. It’s a lie, Effie. You’re going to get to the top and see that there’s room for all of us.” And she said to me, “As I’m helping you, you have to lean back and help somebody else.” So what I did, with a group of other producers — six women of color, and a couple of my crews — we put together an inclusive crew list, and we share that information. KATIE DIPPOLDMy first real [writing] job was “MadTV.” I think the reason I got this job was [because of a] producer named Lauren Dombrowski. She was just really a strong, no-apologies sort of woman. She spent a whole year pushing to make this happen. I don’t know what would have happened if it wasn’t for that.
Victories to Savor
EVA LONGORIAOn “Telenovela,” it was refreshing for casting to go: “Eva, you’re Latino heavy. We need to cast one white male somewhere in there.” KEN JEONGEarly on, I had a role in “The Office.” No ethnicity was required. The director of that episode was Paul Feig, and I remember him laughing so hard. I had only like two lines in it, but that was one of my proudest moments as an actor, because it wasn’t based on ethnicity. And it really gave me confidence that I have a chance of not just playing the Asian guy. JIMMY SMITSI was asked to speak at a bar association, because there’s an upswing on college applications — in general and for Latinos — because of “L.A. Law.” I went to a couple of functions, and I just felt an energy: It was, you’re doing a good job, but do you realize how important it is?
JUSSIE SMOLLETTActor, “Empire”I had posted something that was very political, and the amount of negative comments was really heart-wrenching. Then, [at a restaurant], this older black dude walked up and said, “I didn’t want to bother you, I didn’t want a selfie, I just wanted to let you know that the story line of Jamal” [his gay character on “Empire”] “really made it easier for me to talk to my son about his sexuality.” I needed him at that moment. But apparently he needed the story line at the moment. PRIYANKA CHOPRAActress, “Quantico”I do feel extremely proud when I have people of the South Asian community coming up to me and saying, thankfully we’re seeing a nonstereotyped Indian. At an event, I remember this girl hugged me and started crying. She said, “Thank you for making us relevant.” It gives me goose bumps every time I think about it.
Facing the Challenge
KIMBERLY PEIRCEI have a huge social responsibility. I have to stay on budget and be on time to make great entertainment and make profit, because that’s my job. But I also know if one of us were to screw up — and we don’t, because that’s the thing, right — it does cause [a response of], “Well, it’s a woman.” MINDY KALINGMy role is not just artist. It’s also activist because of the way I look. On so many shows and movies, race was a gesture, and in mine it’s the premise. I can’t ignore that what a lot of people see is an Indian woman who doesn’t look like a Bollywood star. It piques their interest, and they’re not bad for wanting me to tell stories about it, and I’m not wrong for not wanting to. I want to fill my desire to write vibrant, flawed characters, but then also be a role model to young people. It’s stuff that I think about all the time. Some people don’t have to think about this at all. LORI McCREARYWhen you think about all the talent that hasn’t been given the opportunity to put a camera in their hands, or write — I feel like as a producer, it is business waiting to happen, it is great storytelling waiting to happen. I’m frustrated; we have a responsibility, and it would be great if we had more freedom to represent on the screen who our audiences are. JOHN RIDLEYThis is a culture that has afforded me many wonderful things. I can’t pretend it doesn’t have the capacity to see what is beyond the flesh of my skin or my circumstances. [But] these euphemisms and quiet biases, they’re still there, and they’re happening with people who have the best intentions, so you can only imagine what’s happening with those who don’t.
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