Protesters Say Hollywood Favors White Stunt Workers

Minorities are losing jobs in movies and television, in part, because studios hire whites and dress them in makeup and wigs to pose as black, Latino or Asian characters, a group of African American stunt workers said Monday.

In protest, Marvin Walters, co-founder of the Alliance for Stunt Performers of Color and a retired stuntman, called for a boycott of Viacom Inc. productions, as well as the company’s Blockbuster video stores, for the second weekend in October. Walters’ group is angry at Viacom, he said, because the firm hired a white stunt coordinator for its current remake of the 1970s black action film “Shaft.”

“We’re going to use economic pressure because this is racist,” Walters said at a news conference Monday in Hollywood, flanked by more than a dozen black stunt workers.

The protesting stunt workers called on the Screen Actors Guild to step up efforts to stop producers from engaging in what they call a pattern of discriminating against them. They say they want more work as stunt doubles for black stars, as well as stunt extras and stunt coordinators.

Underemployment among minority stunt workers is a “huge issue,” said SAG spokeswoman Katherine Moore. Only about 6% of stunt work last year went to African Americans, SAG found, compared to about 80% for whites. The rest of the stunt work was divided among other minorities.

The use of “paint-downs” to make white stunt doubles appear to be of a different race is a problem that “we’re extremely well aware of,” Moore said. A dozen complaints about the practice were filed by SAG members this summer and are being investigated by the guild.

Moore said, however, that there is little SAG can do to force the hiring of more minority stunt workers. “We don’t control the casting,” she said.

TV networks have drawn much criticism for casting their fall shows with few minority characters. Executives have since responded to public pressure by adding black, Latino and Asian actors to many shows.

Walters on Monday, however, blasted two TV shows with diverse casts--CBS Productions’ “Martial Law” and USA Network’s “Pacific Blue”--for hiring white stunt doubles for minority actors in the past four months.

“Pacific Blue” executive producer Bill Nuss called Walters’ claim inaccurate.

“In the 95 episodes produced to date, ‘Pacific Blue’ has employed an enormous number of minority actors as well as stunt people . . . probably more than any other racially mixed series on cable,” he said through a spokesman. Neither Nuss or the spokesman would discuss the two “Pacific Blue” episodes singled out by Walters.

A spokesman for CBS Productions said a white stuntwoman had replaced an Asian who works regularly for a lead character during a shot this month. The Asian stuntwoman did not want to perform a fall from a cliff, he said.

“The show always attempts to have the stunt double be the same race as the character they are portraying,” said spokesman Chris Ender. “It was a rare and isolated incident they are referring to.”

The white stuntwoman, he said, was not made up to look Asian.

Walters took aim at the ongoing production of “Shaft” for hiring a white stunt coordinator. He said the decision shut out more qualified black applicants.

Through a spokesman, director and producer John Singleton said he hired the man based on his credentials, including his work in “Star Wars, Episode I,” not his race.

“I’ve hired the best people possible and I’ve assembled a great crew,” Singleton said. “Any allegations that anyone is being hired on a racial basis is unfounded, totally erroneous and offensive to me.”

Even as digital technology continues to advance, stunts are the key to many of today’s box office hits, stunt workers say.

It is a world that is difficult for outsiders to penetrate, but once inside, top stunt performers can earn hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

But landing those jobs is a lot more difficult these days if you are an African American, said Wayne King Jr., 34, who doubled for former basketball star Michael Jordan in the movie “Space Jam.”

“I’ve been around it all my life,” said King, who followed his father, Wayne Sr., into the stunt trade. “I was doing high falls at the age of 6. I was riding in my car doing 180s at the age of 15.”

He has increasingly turned to commercials for work, he added, because stunt work for blacks is drying up. “We don’t exist in Hollywood,” King said. “I’ve worked this year maybe six times.”

Walters said such complaints prompted him to come out of retirement to fight what he sees as increasing discrimination against minority stunt workers.

“I’m angry because we dropped the ball somewhere and young people are falling by the wayside,” Walters said.