2016 Academy Awards (Oscars) - Ceremony & Red Carpet

[VGThuy]

Also, our very own Alex Shibutani chimed in in the related topic but a bit distinct from providing casting opportunities and hiring opportunities for more groups that are underrepresented:

https://twitter.com/alexshibutani/status/704475857285414912

 

[ioana]

She said: “I can play any character in Chekhov and Shakespeare and Miller". No she can not portray "ANY Character" in Chekov.... for obvious reasons, let's loosely call them historic and geographic.....

I can only imagine the uproar if "Porgy and Bess" was re-made with white actors, or "Mahogany" with Taylor Swift..... ..... what if Taylor Swift dreamed ALL HER LIFE playing that role singing "do you know where you're going to"?

It has been done before...i.e. David Oyelowo as Henry VI onstage in England. Should that become the norm for an adaption is a different discussion -and a valid point - but doesn't mean she is asking for something that's never been done before.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/sep/19/fiachragibbons

 

[pat c]

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/undertheinfluence

I listened to the above program on Sat while I was driving. It gave me a different idea about what really drives the entertainment industry. Absolutely mind blowing that so many actors etc make most of their money off of the merchandise. Interesting.

 

[Vash01]

The biggest movie in NA history stars a woman and a black man. The mainstream audience is wayyyyyy further ahead of arthouse crowds when it comes to accepting/demanding diversity in their films.

The Force Awakens!

 

[vesperholly]

My best dressed is by far Saoirse Ronan. Loved her entire look, of all the dresses it's the one that I would actually wear (if I had a reason to).

Hers was my favorite until I saw that she had on mismatched earrings (one white, one green). WHYYYYY

Brie Larson, Cate Blanchett and Tina Fey were my other favorites. A lot of weird looks this year.

They don't need to write scripts just to accommodate POC Actors and Actresses. People just need to hire them. Viola Davis says it perfectly.

ITA. I watch the TV show "Elementary" and it's the perfect example of race-blind casting. Nothing in the script says Joan Watson is Asian, nothing is ever written that references her race or culture, no stereotypes like being good at math and having a tiger mother, etc. Nothing, nada, zip. It took a show not indulging in those things for me to realize how bad most shows are.

 

[skatesindreams]

Hers was my favorite until I saw that she had on mismatched earrings (one white, one green). WHYYYYY

She said that it was planned/intentional.

I watch the TV show "Elementary" and it's the perfect example of race-blind casting

I wish there were more of this.

 

[IceAlisa]

I like the mismatched earrings on Saoirse. I recall a character in a book, the ravishing Zuleika Dobson, wore mismatched earrings to great effect.

 

[IceAlisa]

Just realized that I have these shoes that Rachel McAdams wore on the red carpet: https://www.popsugar.com/fashion/Oscars-Red-Carpet-Dresses-2016-40320448#photo-40320448

but certainly not the bling nor the dress.

 

[vesperholly]

She said that it was planned/intentional.

I'm sure it was. Still don't like it.

 

[altai_rose]

ITA. I watch the TV show "Elementary" and it's the perfect example of race-blind casting. Nothing in the script says Joan Watson is Asian, nothing is ever written that references her race or culture, no stereotypes like being good at math and having a tiger mother, etc. Nothing, nada, zip. It took a show not indulging in those things for me to realize how bad most shows are.

So, Joan Watson apparently lives a life that's not affected by her race or her culture? How realistic is that?!

By the way, about the Asian stereotype of being good in math -- yeah, I get that it's an unpopular stereotype and not every Asian person is good in math. But the facts are that the most popular subjects by far in Chinese universities are related to science, math, and engineering, and there's a large presence of Chinese/Korean/Japanese graduate students in US universities in science fields. There's an old, popular Chinese saying: "If you know physics, chemistry, and math, then you have nothing to fear in the world." So, the stereotype is based on truth -- and a very culturally-relevant, important truth for many Asians that stems back thousands of years.

 

[IceAlisa]

Fight racial stereotypes!

 

[VGThuy]

Oh good gravy.

 

[vesperholly]

So, Joan Watson apparently lives a life that's not affected by her race or her culture? How realistic is that?!

It's a TV show. We don't see her whole life or assume that she's never been affected by her race and culture. My point was that the show doesn't view her as an Asian first, person second. She's not an Asian character, she's just a character. For the opposite, see Gloria from Modern Family.

 

[Anita18]

By the way, about the Asian stereotype of being good in math -- yeah, I get that it's an unpopular stereotype and not every Asian person is good in math. But the facts are that the most popular subjects by far in Chinese universities are related to science, math, and engineering, and there's a large presence of Chinese/Korean/Japanese graduate students in US universities in science fields. There's an old, popular Chinese saying: "If you know physics, chemistry, and math, then you have nothing to fear in the world." So, the stereotype is based on truth -- and a very culturally-relevant, important truth for many Asians that stems back thousands of years.

What rankled me about the joke wasn't about its accuracy or inaccuracy. Like you said, East Asian cultures focus on STEM education. I will fully admit to that as a fellow Chinese person myself, who majored in biology.

What bothered me about him making the joke is that it's implying that Asians can only function as human calculators, doing other people's bidding. Look, we're trained from birth to be human calculators! (And dang, aren't we cute doing it?) It isn't enough to have Ang Lee getting Oscar nominations for directing (and doing creative things and being in charge), subtle stuff like this is pervasive, and is a reason why Asians still aren't in the C-suite even in industries where we predominate. Ang Lee can't fight the stereotype by himself.

 

[snoopy]

...and is a reason why Asians still aren't in the C-suite even in industries where we predominate. Ang Lee can't fight the stereotype by himself.

Interesting that you say this. One of things my bf has long noted is that people of Indian descent DO make it to the c suite (and executive government offices - see Nikki Haley and Bobby Jindal). Yet East Asians don't despite both groups pursuing STEM careers and being known for hard work.

 

[altai_rose]

It's a TV show. We don't see her whole life or assume that she's never been affected by her race and culture. My point was that the show doesn't view her as an Asian first, person second. She's not an Asian character, she's just a character. For the opposite, see Gloria from Modern Family.

I think this is where our preferences differ. I'd prefer to see a show celebrate a character as "an Asian-American character" or "a Russian character" -- and celebrate diversity, rather than try to eliminate it. Sorry, I'm not familiar with Modern family.

Interesting that you say this. One of things my bf has long noted is that people of Indian descent DO make it to the c suite (and executive government offices - see Nikki Haley and Bobby Jindal). Yet East Asians don't despite both groups pursuing STEM careers and being known for hard work.

Because the 'other side' of the East Asian STEM focus is a relative lack of emphasis on communication and social skills that are needed to make it to the C-suite. And (well, if you believe my parents and their Chinese friends...) people of Indian descent place more emphasis on the communication/business side of STEM fields. Just another stereotype, I suppose.

 

[VGThuy]

It is.

 

[Anita18]

Because the 'other side' of the East Asian STEM focus is a relative lack of emphasis on communication and social skills that are needed to make it to the C-suite. And (well, if you believe my parents and their Chinese friends...) people of Indian descent place more emphasis on the communication/business side of STEM fields. Just another stereotype, I suppose.

It's definitely a stereotype, BUT considering that many East Asian cultures are high-context, meaning that you have to be aware of unsaid social moors to be socially accepted, I find it highly doubtful that East Asians simply "lack social skills." The US (aside from the South) is fairly low-context, actually. I'm a direct, low-context "Westernized" communicator, and would definitely be shunned at traditional Asian shindigs. I'm very lucky that my family is very non-traditional and don't hold ourselves so strictly to cultural traditions.

If anything, I think it's expected of us to be the best in an already-existing system, not to break out and think BIG. Entrepreneurs who started young, like Jerry Yang and Tony Hsieh, are definitely the exceptions. No relatives I have were encouraged to think outside the box. The ones who did had to fight for it themselves.

 

[PeterG]

Do you want to force producers...

What if white and asian and latino top film-makers in the upcoming year have picked out subjects for their next films which are not related to Black Communities or history and have no roles for Black Actors? Should they be forced to make them?

...compelled and rail-road to think about "race" vs. "story"?

Should there be quotas in creativity?

You want to legislate "imagination" or guilt-trip people into forcefully expanding this "imagination" for a specific race?

Is this a form of overly dramatic satire that is going over my head?

 

[altai_rose]

It is.

Yet, stereotypes are often based on truth.

It's definitely a stereotype, BUT considering that many East Asian cultures are high-context, meaning that you have to be aware of unsaid social moors to be socially accepted, I find it highly doubtful that East Asians simply "lack social skills." The US (aside from the South) is fairly low-context, actually. I'm a direct, low-context "Westernized" communicator, and would definitely be shunned at traditional Asian shindigs. I'm very lucky that my family is very non-traditional and don't hold ourselves so strictly to cultural traditions.

If anything, I think it's expected of us to be the best in an already-existing system, not to break out and think BIG. Entrepreneurs who started young, like Jerry Yang and Tony Hsieh, are definitely the exceptions. No relatives I have were encouraged to think outside the box. The ones who did had to fight for it themselves.

That's interesting -- I hadn't heard about high and low-context cultures. Though I think VIETgrlTerifa would consider all that to be blatant stereotypes.

I guess what I meant is that people from East Asian cultures tend to emphasize modesty, or that your achievement is due to hard work or luck, rather than your talent. For example, whenever I compliment someone in Chinese, I usually get the response "Oh, that's nothing" or "No, no, no" or something similar. Personally, I had to learn in my teens and twenties that a genuine "thank you" was a right (preferred?) response in America. So I think that we tend to be self-effacing and 'sell ourselves short.' These are not attractive traits in business or in politics. (By the way, these are also the same traits attributed to women, in order to explain why women don't, on average, negotiate as high of a wage as men do for the same job... )

 

[VGThuy]

Stereotypes, even those that are rooted in truth, have shown to be harmful because the way those false narratives are continually perpetuated and misapplied in individual contexts lead to things like the bamboo ceiling. Studies have also shown that those who try to fight off those images may suffer than those who adhere to the role already assigned to them by those who fall for those stereotypes and hire people based on that or decide whether a worker is good for a "team" based on that. So it becomes a big self-perpetuating cycle. It's also crazy that it's 2016 and those stereotypical images are the ones that are disproportionately portrayed in the media and dominate the image of what a segment of the population is. It's not that those images need to go away because obviously there are Asians who are good at math and science (though of course there are people of all races and genders that good at those subjects as well), but that image of being nothing but diligent calculators who don't make a fuss is part of a big problem the "invisible" minority faces because it takes away our humanity, though I'm sure those you think people who didn't like the joke need to lighten up don't see it that way. Listen, I get the culture thing. I'm someone who still has to really fight to be more "outspoken" in my field, though many people of all races do too, but my introvertedness and being told I need to be more extroverted and hustle is much more attributed to my culture than my non-Asian counterparts who have the same issues by outsiders...and those who sort of matter. We can talk about the huge issue of why certain attributes and characteristics are valued and if it's actually limiting to a company's success, but my point is that sometimes even stereotypes rooted in truth go beyond the truth and become a false narrative.

About your point about Elementary, I agree that I'm not all about washing away culture and race (color-blindness), but at the same time, it must be nice for an actor of color to get a role that isn't written exclusively for his/her race. It sort of opens up the sort of characters one can play. I mentioned this in an earlier thread, Lupe Ontiveros, who played more Latina maids than anything and even received an award for her dignified portrayals, was very happy when she got her award-winning role in Mike White's Chuck and Buck because that role was not written for any particular race and she was able to create and play a character of her creation without having to filter it into some sort of Hollywood idea of a Latina woman. Of course she was proud of her heritage and proud of her roles where she played an unabashed Latina character, but it must be tiring to ONLY be offered those sorts of roles or to only be cast when they need a certain racial type, therefore closing opportunities for characters whose race is just "default". "Default" roles do not often go to actors of color, though it's improved...more so in television.

 

[PeterG]

^ ^ ^ ^ ^

My Hero!!!!

 

[Anita18]

I guess what I meant is that people from East Asian cultures tend to emphasize modesty, or that your achievement is due to hard work or luck, rather than your talent. For example, whenever I compliment someone in Chinese, I usually get the response "Oh, that's nothing" or "No, no, no" or something similar. Personally, I had to learn in my teens and twenties that a genuine "thank you" was a right (preferred?) response in America. So I think that we tend to be self-effacing and 'sell ourselves short.' These are not attractive traits in business or in politics. (By the way, these are also the same traits attributed to women, in order to explain why women don't, on average, negotiate as high of a wage as men do for the same job... )

I still don't understand why that necessarily explains the bamboo/glass ceiling. Nobody I know who's super-accomplished got there by sheer talent alone - they put in the energy and the work and the hustle. That's not just talent, that's blood and sweat. It's definitely a very Asian way of thinking. The traditional folks just channel it differently than the entrepreneurial folks.

I mean, I sincerely believe the biggest reason why I learn things so quickly isn't because I'm talented, it's because I'm patient, focused, fearless, and I always learn from my mistakes. I'm not the best nor the most experienced, but I help as I can. And I'm finding in more and more situations, even my paltry experience can help. I put myself out there more, in the quest to help. My coworkers and my managers know I'm not a shrinking violet, not when there's work to be done and I can help. I don't believe being modest and knowing how you can help is mutually exclusive.

 

[snoopy]

@altai_rose,

Say I am hiring and I interviewed two candidates. One named altai_rose and one named Eugene Kaminski. They are very similarly qualified but I say to myself, hmm, altai_rose is Asian and therefore wouldn't be a real go getter. I need a go getter who will show lots of imitative. I better hire Eugene.

What say you?

 

[aftershocks]

If I were listing my top movies ever for sound editing and mixing, then Mad Max Fury Road would easily be number one for me. The landscape of sound was amazing. It was what I raved about after seeing it.

Yes, from the clips and previews it looks visually stunning. It is one of the movies I haven't seen yet in its entirety and I'm looking forward to watching it soon. Still, I'm not sure about it winning for best costume design. Although maybe the costumes were worthy of the genre. Looks to be a lot of leather, and in the dystopian environment, expensive leather seems kind of incongruous.

Reminds me of Insurgent (Divergent series), when the main character picks up a pair of scissors and starts hacking at her hair in the beginning. and then in the next scene she appears with this absolutely gorgeous, expensive-looking high class salon cut, complete with highlights and fab makeup. Stretches believability to the nth degree. But then I suppose the film's premise and storyline do too. But if all the characters didn't look like they stepped out of a fashion magazine, the crazy world and plot might go down a bit easier.

 

[altai_rose]

Stereotypes, even those that are rooted in truth, have shown to be harmful because the way those false narratives are continually perpetuated and misapplied in individual contexts lead to things like the bamboo ceiling. Studies have also shown that those who try to fight off those images may suffer than those who adhere to the role already assigned to them by those who fall for those stereotypes and hire people based on that or decide whether a worker is good for a "team" based on that. So it becomes a big self-perpetuating cycle. It's also crazy that it's 2016 and those stereotypical images are the ones that are disproportionately portrayed in the media and dominate the image of what a segment of the population is. It's not that those images need to go away because obviously there are Asians who are good at math and science (though of course there are people of all races and genders that good at those subjects as well), but that image of being nothing but diligent calculators who don't make a fuss is part of a big problem the "invisible" minority faces because it takes away our humanity, though I'm sure those you think people who didn't like the joke need to lighten up don't see it that way. Listen, I get the culture thing. I'm someone who still has to really fight to be more "outspoken" in my field, though many people of all races do too, but my introvertedness and being told I need to be more extroverted and hustle is much more attributed to my culture than my non-Asian counterparts who have the same issues by outsiders...and those who sort of matter. We can talk about the huge issue of why certain attributes and characteristics are valued and if it's actually limiting to a company's success, but my point is that sometimes even stereotypes rooted in truth go beyond the truth and become a false narrative.

About your point about Elementary, I agree that I'm not all about washing away culture and race (color-blindness), but at the same time, it must be nice for an actor of color to get a role that isn't written exclusively for his/her race. It sort of opens up the sort of characters one can play. I mentioned this in an earlier thread, Lupe Ontiveros, who played more Latina maids than anything and even received an award for her dignified portrayals, was very happy when she got her award-winning role in Mike White's Chuck and Buck because that role was not written for any particular race and she was able to create and play a character of her creation without having to filter it into some sort of Hollywood idea of a Latina woman. Of course she was proud of her heritage and proud of her roles where she played an unabashed Latina character, but it must be tiring to ONLY be offered those sorts of roles or to only be cast when they need a certain racial type, therefore closing opportunities for characters whose race is just "default". "Default" roles do not often go to actors of color, though it's improved...more so in television.

Great post! I agree with you, that stereotypes are harmful when they are (often) misapplied. But it doesn't mean that the stereotype isn't half-based on a grain of truth -- the truth being a piece of our culture that shapes our lives... There are lots of straight facts that are also misapplied and get twisted around. Some small scientific discovery gets blown up in the media as supporting something else entirely. Then, was the original scientific fact 'harmful'? No...

I'm also someone who is told to "be more extroverted," but I attribute that more to being a woman in a field that's still dominated by men. And, well, it's true -- I do need to be more outgoing, and I appreciate the comment because the people who tell me that are people who are trying to help me.

I've never seen a major "Asian-American character" played on any mainstream TV show. Rather, there are Asian actors in generic character roles, and maybe for once, I'd like to see a role with an unabashed Asian or Asian-American character that shows some element of culture?

@altai_rose,

Say I am hiring and I interviewed two candidates. One named altai_rose and one named Eugene Kaminski. They are very similarly qualified but I say to myself, hmm, altai_rose is Asian and therefore wouldn't be a real go getter. I need a go getter who will show lots of imitative. I better hire Eugene.

What say you?

I keep writing in my posts that these are generalizations, but I guess you ignored that. In this case, you can better make your judgement on the go getter by rec letters . Also, in my world, you can't be similarly qualified and not be a go getter by default.

But I also agree with you -- I get that stereotypes often mean that we need to be twice as good to be hired for the same job. Or need much higher SAT scores to get into the same colleges ('the asian penalty'; 3rd link). It's just life.

 

[MarieM]

Now that DiCaprio has won it, can we please forget him, like forever? I dislike this guy. He's false.

 

[Jay42]

Now that DiCaprio has won it, can we please forget him, like forever? I dislike this guy. He's false.

I have a sneaking suspicion he won't make any movies for a while now that he's won. You may get your wish at least temporarily. Unfortunately Titanic means we'll probably never be able to forget him entirely.

 

[VGThuy]

I have a sneaking suspicion he won't make any movies for a while now that he's won. You may get your wish at least temporarily. Unfortunately Titanic means we'll probably never be able to forget him entirely.

And we still have Han Yan and Radionova's LPs to get through.

 

[MarieM]

I have a sneaking suspicion he won't make any movies for a while now that he's won. You may get your wish at least temporarily. Unfortunately Titanic means we'll probably never be able to forget him entirely.

He'll be way too busy to party and find a new piece of "meat" ...