One of the things that caught my attention when I was interviewing producers in Hollywood was when one said to me that only three black actors can open a film overseas — Will Smith, Denzel Washington and one other person. Otherwise, overseas markets are not interested in watching blacks as leads. I come from Australia and I just can’t imagine many Aussies watching TV shows or movies about blacks.
On September 19, 2002, I interviewed producer Jay Stern (Rush Hour, Horrible Bosses).
Luke: “Did white people go to see movies like Love & Basketball [about middle class blacks]?”
Jay: “I think it did some crossover. There are [urban] movies that do $35 million box office and almost no crossover [into a white or Asian audience]. I’m guessing that Barbershop had an 80-90% urban audience.
“I think we could’ve gotten more blacks into Love & Basketball too. I think black males shied away from it because of the love side of it and black females shied away from it because of the basketball side. In the trailer and the commercials, there was a scene where he said, ‘What are we playing for?’ And she said, ‘Your heart.’ And I think that young black males stayed away from the movie because of it. I tried to get involved in the marketing. I wasn’t able to convince the filmmakers that that was going to have a cooling effect. It was still a good movie, New Line still made money on the movie, but I was a little frustrated it didn’t find a bigger audience. Money Talks did about $40 million box office to an audience that was probably 75% urban. Chris Tucker was not that known a quantity yet in the white world. People weren’t rushing to see Charlie Sheen at the time.
“When there’s a big urban turnout to a movie, it scares whites away. Ten years ago, when there were some fatalities in theaters, there were black people who hesitated to go to a theater house packed with an urban audience. They think there’s going to be trouble. For the same reason they’re not going to a street fair with an overwhelmingly urban crowd. They fear there’s going to be trouble. And plenty of white people are terrified to go to a movie theater where the audience will be largely black.
“Theater owners love Eddie Murphy and Will Smith but if they don’t know the black person in the movie, they’re hesitant to pick up the movie. Booking the theater can be the biggest problem for black movies, particularly in white suburbs.”
Luke: “Have you had any conversations about switching the race of a protagonist?”
Jay: “Many. Brett was interested in doing a movie called Paycheck. Denzel Washington and Nick Cage were interested in playing the same character. Denzel and Will [Smith] are the names that come up as [blacks] who could come in and replace a white lead. You then ask the question if his love interest can be white or do you have to go black all the way. To be safe, you may want to go black all the way, or at least a person of color. It’s easier to go black and latino than black and white because there is a bias in the black community against black men and white women. I don’t think you’re going to have a black man and a white wife that works [in a sitcom or movie] any time in the next few years.
“We may be making strides in overcoming racism but we’re not color blind.”
Luke: “How do black leads play overseas?”
Jay: “That’s a huge consideration. That’s the biggest reason why there aren’t more black leads. The traditional conventional wisdom is that they don’t sell overseas. The economics dictate this. These days, 60% of a studio movie is paid for by overseas. The exceptions are Will Smith, Denzel Washington, Eddie Murphy and Chris Tucker.
“You can make a movie for up to $20 million and turn a profit from just your domestic market but you’re not going to make a $40 million movie starring black people unless one of them is Will or Denzel…”
Luke: “Is there a type of movie you make best?”
Jay: “Certainly multi-racial action comedy is what I’ve done best till now but I swear there’s A Room With A View in me with South American pygmies. People do tend to send me action comedies.”
Luke: “Have you been recognized by the black community for your contributions to black cinema?”
Jay: “I don’t know that I have been but I should be. A friend of mine used to joke that I’m the hottest black executive in town. Occasionally I’ll run into a black writer or black producer…”
Luke: “But not civilians?”
Jay: “Again, it’s all about Brett [Ratner] and Chris [Tucker] and Jackie [Chan]. They don’t know I exist.
“As a producer, you have to put your ego aside. The actors and director will always command more attention.”
Hollywood Reporter: Driven by the ratings success of shows with mainly nonwhite casts — Empire, Black-ish and Fresh Off the Boat — along with political pressure to make shows better reflect their diverse audience, American TV outlets increasingly are greenlighting series that feature black, Asian and Latino leads. Fox’s 24: Legacy, a reboot of the Kiefer Sutherland series, stars Corey Hawkins, famous as Dr. Dre from Straight Outta Compton. CBS has Rush Hour, based on the action movie franchise, starring Jon Foo and Justin Hires, and has cast Sarah Shahi, a former NFL cheerleader of Persian and Spanish ancestry, as Nancy Drew in its reboot of the lily-white mystery franchise.
“It’s color-blind casting,” says Sony Pictures TV casting director Dawn Steinberg. “There used to be a time when it had to be written that way to look for an actor with a specific ethnicity. Now it’s just who is the best actor for the role.”
But when trying to sell overseas, American shows are finding the color barrier is still there. Why? Insiders say it’s because international audiences have yet to truly embrace diversity on the small screen. “These shows are a reflection of our society, but [they are] not a reflection of all societies,” says Marion Edwards, president of international TV at Fox.
Take Empire. Fox’s hip-hop drama appeared to be a slam dunk for the international market: a splashy mainstream hit that felt both of the moment and a throwback to primetime soaps, and global hits, like Dallas and Dynasty. But the show has been a global flop. In the U.K., the first season drew a middling 717,000 viewers on Channel 4’s youth-oriented E4 network, a mere 3 percent share, and season 2 has been worse, averaging a 2.2 percent share with 595,000 viewers. The show first season averaged 181,000 viewers on Australia’s Channel Ten, prompting a shift to the smaller Eleven network, where season two has averaged just 77,000 viewers an episode. In Canada, broadcaster Rogers Media moved Empire off its free-TV network City after season two ratings dipped to 208,000 viewers, shifting the second half of the season to its online streaming service Shomi. While in Germany, Empire, which aired in primetime on Pro7, one of the country’s leading free-TV networks, attracted less than 1 million viewers per show and fewer than 4 percent of the national audience, a fraction of the channel’s regular draw.
“I love the show and we took a big risk on it. But our courage was not rewarded,” says Rudiger Boss, head of acquisitions at ProSiebenSat.1, which bought Empire for German TV.
Adds Edwards: “Having a diverse cast creates another hurdle for U.S. series trying to break through; it would be foolish not to recognize that. We are telling our units that they need to be aware that by creating too much diversity in the leads in their show means … problems having their shows translating to the international market.”
