Diversity in Oscars Still Elusive

For African Americans, 1972 was a watershed year. Black leaders were being elected to office in Los Angeles, Atlanta and Washington, D.C., and a record number were sent to Congress. Even in Hollywood, something amazing occurred: Diana Ross (“Lady Sings the Blues”) and Cicely Tyson (“Sounder”) were nominated for best actress, Paul Winfield (“Sounder”) was nominated for best actor and “Sounder” was nominated for best film.

Never in the history of the Oscars had so many nonwhite actors been nominated in the same year. A major breakthrough was happening for minorities in Hollywood.

Or so it seemed.

Three decades later, it is evident that the promise of 1972 has not been fulfilled. This year, there is an international flair--with best director nominee Ang Lee (“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”) of Taiwan and Spanish actor Javier Bardem (“Before Night Falls”)--but no African Americans nominated. Last year, many in the African American community felt slighted when Denzel Washington did not win an Oscar for his performance in “The Hurricane.”

For films from 1990 through 1999, only 19 nonwhites (including Asians, Native Americans, African Americans and Latinos), or about 8% of the nominees, were included in the top five categories: leading actor, leading actress, supporting actor, supporting actress and director. Only two--Whoopi Goldberg (supporting actress in “Ghost”) and Cuba Gooding Jr. (supporting actor in “Jerry Maguire”)--actually won.

The nomination statistics are made more puzzling by the extent of nonwhite talent in Hollywood. More than 19% of the Screen Actors Guild membership and nearly 8% of the Directors Guild of America is African American, Latino or Asian. According to the Motion Picture Assn. of America, in 1999 nearly 30% of the American moviegoing audience was Latino, African American or Asian.

The reasons 1972 has never been repeated are mainly driven by economics and race. Hollywood increasingly looks to foreign investors for financing of film production. Those investors, mainly from Europe and Japan, prefer casts with European Americans as leading characters.

The financiers are going by experience. International box office sales--which account for more than 46% of Hollywood studios’ revenues, up from 32% a decade ago--have shown that dramatic stories with ethnic leads do not sell as well as movies starring white talent.

It is a particularly vexing problem for African Americans. Sales agents, who put together movie financing packages, have even begun referring to this as “the black factor.”

“There is a historical shading in favor of the European American actor for the international marketplace,” said Peter Graves, an independent marketing consultant, who was president of marketing for Polygram Films in 1999. “Unfortunately, no one recently has tried that hard to market African American story lines or actors to the international marketplace. Hopefully this will change.”

To forge financial deals with international investors, Hollywood producers have to understand each country’s cultural and racial sensibilities. It is not just a casting issue, but also a thematic one. Whether it’s nationalism, lack of cultural understanding or simply racism, stories about African Americans or any other “ethnic” group are not likely to sell abroad.

“The fear is that the audiences won’t be able to identify with the roles African Americans [in particular] play,” said James Ulmer, author of a book that tracks actors’ global marketability. “The [financiers] are going by audience numbers. They may not be personally racist, but the marketplace is racist.”

Films With White Men Draw Crowds Abroad

So films with white male stars, such as Tom Cruise, Mel Gibson, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis, tend to be the biggest sellers abroad.

For example, Schwarzenegger’s “The 6th Day,” which made only $34 million here, garnered $67 million overseas. Similarly, Leonardo DiCaprio’s “The Beach,” which made $39 million at home, raked in $110 million abroad, according to the Motion Picture Assn. of America’s worldwide market research.

Meanwhile, “Remember the Titans,” starring Denzel Washington, made $115 million domestically and only $45 million abroad. “Shaft,” starring Samuel L. Jackson, made $70.3 million at home compared with $14 million abroad. The only nonwhite exception seems to be Will Smith, whose “Men in Black”--which, granted, co-starred white actor Tommy Lee Jones--made $337 million in international sales alone and whose “Enemy of the State” brought in nearly $139 million abroad.

With foreign money accounting for as much as 70% of a movie or television show’s financing, American producers are forced to negotiate content and casting to ensure that the film will make money back in the international marketplace.

One producer, who asked to remain anonymous, said he encountered problems with casting while forging a production deal with European financiers. He pitched an animated children’s television show with characters of several ethnicities as the leads. The European partner, who financed 50% of the show, said no to the minority representation. In the end, the producer had to compromise, with the first few shows including some minority characters while the last half had all white characters. He said Japanese financiers will not even look at a show with African American leading characters.

“It’s strange, because people in Tokyo are walking around in Kobe Bryant shoes and Shaquille O’Neill jackets, but it’s a whole other animal to ask them to buy a movie ticket or let someone into their home who is African American,” said the producer. “We are being squeezed by the networks and studios, and we have to create these financing quilts around the world. We have to listen to the concerns of our [financiers.]”

Some in Hollywood don’t buy that.

“Our job is to create demand,” said Tajamika Paxton, vice president of features at Spirit Dance, a production company founded by actor-director Forest Whitaker. “That is the way the movie business has functioned for years. The system decides who they are going to create stars out of. If you understand, as a sales agent, that it is a priority for your chairman to make a success out of an alternative movie starring people of color, you are going to do it. It has to be a priority.”

But perceived marketability, here and abroad, has a major effect on casting decisions and has limited opportunities for ethnic actors in dramatic roles.

Getting cast for dramatic leads in major pictures and even independent films is essential if an actor wants a shot at an Academy nomination. Even though African American genre films have increased in production over the last five years, many tend to be romantic comedies or comedies, which traditionally have not been recognized by the Academy for Oscar consideration.

Actors trying out for dramatic roles have felt the consequences of the new financing structure. There is always a fear that they will be judged on the basis of lingering stereotypes--particularly for African American men.

“You can’t exclude a potential energy that may be considered too ‘animalistic’ or ethnic or threatening because the world abroad will be put off,” said actor Isaiah Washington, who is African American, of his own experiences in casting. “[Some producers and casting directors] have a ‘Disneyesque’ mentality about what they want to promote to the rest of the world.”

Homogeneity in Hollywood

However, the growing importance of international sales and foreign investments tells only part of the story. The lack of diversity apparent in Oscar nominations is also symbolic of Hollywood’s own homogeneity.

The industry is dominated by white men. Eighty percent to 90% of each major guild (Screen Actors, Directors, Writers and Producers) is white, the majority of them male. Twelve of the 15 executives who have the ultimate power to green-light movies at the most important studios are white males, and the other three are white women. Current and past Hollywood insiders make up the membership of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, which selects Oscar nominees and winners.

“This is a closed-door, segregated industry,” said producer Warrington Hudlin (“Boomerang”), founder of the Black Filmmakers Foundation. “It is perhaps the last closed-door, segregated industry in America. And they have shown no interest in changing.”

Still, things have gotten less egregious for nonwhite actors in Hollywood. In the early days of motion pictures, there was overt racism, including the industry’s production code, which banned “miscegenation, or sex relationships between the white and black races.”

White actors were often cast to play the “Indian,” “Oriental” or “Negro” roles. The academy often rewarded those performances with Oscars. The Austrian-born Luise Rainer, for instance, won an Oscar for her portrayal of a Chinese wife in 1937’s “The Good Earth.” Jeanne Crain was nominated for her role as a light-skinned black woman passing for white in the 1949 picture “Pinky,” and Susan Kohner was nominated for her portrayal of a light-skinned black in 1959 for “Imitation of Life.”

Veterans such as producer Reuben Cannon (“Down in the Delta”) remember the promise of 1972. Cannon, who became the first black casting director in Hollywood in 1971 at Universal Studios, says experience has taught him not to expect any changes until diversity becomes a priority within Hollywood.

“Every time a film or television program a la ‘Roots’ or ‘Lady Sings the Blues’ is made, there is an increase in hope,” said Cannon, who adds that African Americans need to generate more films for themselves. “But as a wise old dog who has been here a long time, I know that is not necessarily the case. . . . When the racial makeup of the Academy changes, we will see more diversity in Oscar nominees and winners.”

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Times staff writer Susan King contributed to this story.