Hush, hush now Charlotte, Bill Maher has some whitesplaining to do. Hollywood’s diversity problem, said the host on last night’s Real Time With Bill Maher, is the Asians’ fault. “The dirty little secret,” Maher said on his HBO show, “is most movies are made now with an eye to the foreign market, and Asians really are racist.”
When his guests, including Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane and Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FLA), reacted with surprise, Maher doubled down. “I’m just honest. They don’t want to see black people generally in their movies. The Hollywood executives are, like, ‘We’re not racist, we just have to pretend to be racists because we’re capitalists. We want to sell our movies in China (and) they don’t like Kevin Hart.’ ”
Grayson wasn’t having it, saying through a smile, “You just said they’re racist, that makes you racist.”
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Maher said that Hollywood is full of “the biggest liberals in the world, people who said they did not see 12 Years a Slave but they still voted for it because they knew it was the best picture.”
MacFarlane, not seeming quite sure whether Maher’s comments were a put-on, summed up the diversity problem with a weak “It’s tricky” before moving on to plug his new album.
Maher’s comments came just hours after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced its own new rules to encourage diversity. The controversy had erupted when Jada Pinkett Smith and husband Will Smith announced they would boycott this year’s Oscar ceremony to protest the lack of non-Caucasian nominees. In his monologue last night, Maher brought up another city in the news: lead-poisoned Flint, Michigan. “Jada Pinkett says it’s almost as bad as her husband not getting a third Oscar nomination.”



He’s right. Everything he said. I’m dying to see what comments follow.
Yes, because the top Holywood movie in China last year, Furious 7, had a lily-white cast.
That’s just one exception.
Of the top 20 nominated actors/actresses, 3 came from blockbuster films with large international box office. So It’s not exactly cause and effect.
He may be right that there are fewer high-profile acting jobs for actors of color, but as noted, Oscar nominees don’t exactly all come from high profile films.
Exactly. I don’t totally disagree with him. The business is international and white is the standard face that I guess people of different races relate to more easily than they do to other races… but Oscar movies aren’t all major blockbusters. I really don’t think Hollywood makes Carol, Room in order to make a ton of money or to please the Chinese audience.
Technically, they are all ‘just one exception’ when viewed individually.
China tells studios what their BOs will be before the films even open
I just think it’s funny that Bill Maher now has something in common with Donald Trump – he blames China!
Donald Trump, the candidate of choice for white supremacists, blames China for racism in Hollywood?
You should tune into the debates sometime. Bill Maher blames them for why the studios don’t cast people of color, Donald Trump blames them for hollowing out America’s manufacturing base.
Both are partially right and partially wrong.
So America’s racism is being blamed on China? Can you get any entitled male whiter? Know what dude, we’ve been doing fine all by ourselves.
He has a bit of a point. The Sony email scandal a tually revealed this….
link?
Noooo….I think what he is saying is that Americans (who may or may not be racist, but who are capitalists) are tailoring their product to appeal to Chinese TASTES–and some of those ‘tastes’ may be a preference for pale people in heroic, comedic and romantic roles. In Action parts, they’ll accept more diversity. It’s a business decision that involves supporting racist casting for economic reasons. The Chinese shouldn’t be “blamed.” The thing to do, though, is integrate those casts and force them to deal with it. Familiarity breeds….well, familiarity.
But they are not really doing that. You can find plenty of movies with black actors that are going to china. Think ride along, or ride along 2. Kevin Hart has been in how many movies in past few years for example.
Except that’s not true. Ride Along and Ride Along 2 did not open in China. In fact, Kevin Hart has never had a movie open in China.
If you need further proof, look at Disney’s poster for Star Wars VII.
“Diversity” is the ‘new normal’ term for lowering standards so those who couldn’t qualify otherwise can feel good about themselves. Most reasonable people would equate THAT with selling your soul to the devil.
It’s time for the Academy president to step down. She’s made the Academy a politically motivated organization. More black members mean more black nominees?? Hmmmmm, THAT sounds as if blacks are motivated by their skin color. Blacks will only vote for blacks? I think that’s called The BET Awards?
So what goes around comes around…since whites only think and operate with their skin color, thus the term white supremacy, is the code phrase of you people.
Paving that way to true equality, I see… “People acted horribly in the past. Now it’s our turn.” Way to go. We are all in trouble if this is the coming prevalent attitude.
Nonsense. If all these movies need to cater to Asian audiences, then why aren’t there MORE ASIANS in movies?
It’s not just China, there are other countries where films featuring black leads don’t do as well, either.
Eastern Europe springs to mind when you say that.
Maybe I’m missing something, but wasn’t Furious 7 their biggest hit ever? Doesn’t that movie have a black cast?
No. That film has two Black people in it. Or what foreign would consider Black. In minor, comic roles.
Did you see the Chinese trailer and poster for The Force Awakens. Basically, what they did, was make Finn smaller.
Derek, using the same old tactic of explaining away the racial makeup of cast doesn’t work.
Jaden Smith’s Karate Kid did just fine in China BTW. BERY few films with black leads make it to China and those that do suffer from the typical problem white films that go to China do: they don’t translate culturally.
This is why studios want the stuff that Marvel, michael bay and JJ Abrams do, because foreign audiences can understand them without having to know english or american culture. Please learn what the foreign market wants before giving asinine opinions based on your own racial biases.
And just for your information Furious 7 had a cast of 3 black men (Tyrese, Ludacris and Djimo Honsou) and 2 black-biracials (Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel) 3 if you count the girl who played Ramsey.
And while I’ve never seen trailers for Chinese-import movies (and suspect you haven’t either) they don’t change the content of the film, so Finn, the black male lead hasn’t hurt Star Wars box-office in China.
Sorry, but nobody else shares your psychopathic hatred of black people. Get counseling.
“Jaden Smith’s Karate Kid did just fine in China BTW”
Couldn’t just walked by without LOLing, at notion that Karate Kid in China was a Jaden Smith’s movie.
Can I take your personal attacks as lack of arguments?
Karate Kid was a movie set in China, starring Jackie Chan, a chinese mega-star.
You make no sense.
Dude you are pathetic.
Liberal Hollywood was whitewashed (and underpaying women) long before China became a viable film market.
You’re an idiot.
When the academy was founded the country was 90 percent white and continued until 1960’s when welfare was introduced by pres. Johnson.
Most current executives are old enough that they were born and grew up in the all white culture.
China has bee banned “Deadpool”, not many black people in that flick.
China doesnt care much for dialogue either. What they like are explosions and special effects
Well, they did invent fireworks after all. They must be huge Michael Bay fans.
They do. For that, they watch Chinese films. Which they can relate to much better.
Not just China but many major countries are deeply racist. This is a black hating planet. I find the whole thing incredibly bizarre.
Cause the rest of the world is not a nonracist utopia that falls within your PC education’s definition of them.
Identifying a foreign market as racist doesn’t make Maher racist. What’s wrong with Grayson?
Cause pointing out the sins of nonwhites makes the whites the real sinners.
Careful now, PC police behind a corner.
Honesty!? There is no place for that in todays society.
His argument fails when you remember that China’s government controls any outside media allowed in its country. You can’t say “it’s China’s fault!” when Chinese citizens can’t even choose what they want to consume. They only choose between what their government allows them.
It also goes out the window when Furious 7 did huge business there and it had the most diverse cast of the year AND Straight Outta Compton did well in China.
So what’s the next excuse Hollywood can come up with?
What about Korea and Japan? Vietnam and the Philippines? Maher didn’t specify China.
Maher’s a cretin. It’s all the same to him. He conflates second generation Asian Americans with farmers in northern China, and probably thinks Jeremy Lin can’t speak English. I attribute it to his age and weed.
Straight Outta Compton wasn’t even released in China
Straight Outta Compton was given a digital/ppv release in China and Korea.
But it was made, right? It was a huge success right? Who is not going to make that movie because it may not play as well in China? It’s a strawman argument.
The Chinese box office has recently become a huge concern. In listening to The Frame talk about The Force Awakens, they discussed the fact that the original three Star Wars (and maybe the later three?) were never released there, so the marketers had a big job to do to stir up interest.
Because a bit of PR/implied endorsement in China goes a LONG way, that market is both tricky and a cash cow worth the effort.
He’s wrong. AFTER EARTH was #1 in China for two consecutive weeks, but only opened #3 in American because we don’t like a movie that featured black father-and-son leads and directed by an immigrant from India. Nepotism is only for white people. End sarcasm.
Uh, the reason that movie was #3 in the US was cause it sucked, not because of the color of the cast or director. Will and Denzel are the two biggest stars in America for over a decade so not sure how you jumped to your conclusion.
similarly, some movies are not welcomed in Asia because they sucked, instead of Asians being racist; but the producers tend to blame the Asians instead of admitting their own failure
I skipped it because I don’t like Will Smith. Simple as that.
Or – and I’m just sayin’ here – we don’t like movies where we understand the language that is being delivered like it would be in a third grade Christmas pageant.
Those monsters and explosions might be pretty good if you didn’t have to endure the ‘acting’ in After Earth.
How much money did After Earth lose?
Who starred in the Karate Kid remake?
“#3 in American because we don’t like a movie that featured black father-and-son leads and directed by an immigrant from India.”
You’re so right. It had nothing to with the fact that the movie sucked!
Is that why The Pursuit Of Happiness did so poorly? I think it did poorly because many people dislike Will Smiths son. He comes off as a spoiled brat in his interviews.
When The Pursuit Of Happiness came out Jaden Smith was 6, so your argument fails. No one even knew who Jaden Smith was when he was 6.
Huh? The Pursuit of Happyness was a hit. Seven Pounds, not so much, but the weather was a lot to blame for that.
Studios don’t care about the color of their actors’s skin. They care about the color green. If black actors brought more to the bottom line than white actors, we’d see more black actors in film. Why is it that people expect the studios to be responsible for changing the world? America is a capitalist country and the studios have shareholders.
Exactly. That is why Will Smith was repeatedly put in the summer blockbusters. He put butts in seats. It wasn’t because of his acting which was poor. The same with all those Tyler Perry movies. He also put butts in seats. If Idris Elba put butts in seats, he would get the roles that Denzel gets but he doesn’t. He’s making movies for streaming services that don’t disclose how many people watch it which says it all.
Remember when John Boyega got shrunk into the background of the Chinese Star Wars poster?
Bingo! And to think people are trying to claim China isn’t racist.
i dont see any moviestars in hollywood that is not a clown like jackie chan or some asian caricature. so my conclusion: americans are anti-asian racists.
maher’s an idiot trying to get minorities to turn on each other. movies are actually getting more diverse because america is getting more diverse, the global market, not just china, only helps add diversity in movies.
Maher conveniently leaves out Hollywood movies have been the world’s steady diet most of last century, with very narrow casting about what heroism, beauty, hierarchy of which culture’s stories and people are the most “diverse”, interesting and *important* to know. All this, even after many screwed-up histories from occupation and colonialism – both of which used racial prejudice as cultural hierarchy to divide and rule.
(There are some H-net, Kinejapan research into American Occupation literature in Japan and Taiwan, with highly racist stereotypes of blacks, right out of 18~19th century and even recently spotted in Dr Zeuss.)
That’s right blame China. Everyone knows overseas audiences want blockbusters and lots of action. Which brings us to the whole point of the diversity argument. Name one blockbuster with a black lead for a film with a $50 million budget? There aren’t any outside of Will Smith and Furious 7. BTW – The Rock and Vin Diesel are both have a black parent. Heck Vin Diesel is the rapper Kwame’s cousin. I can guarantee you Marvel’s Black Panther will make over $400 million worldwide because its an action film based off of an establish literary property that is part of the Marvel Universe.
Hollywood is Beverly progressive. Unless being progressive cuts into the profit margin. I’ve never seen anyone guard their own profits more aggressively than progressives.
What a stupid comment. If Hollywood wants to court the Asian market, why aren’t they casting more Asians and continue to whitewash Asian roles in films.
I work at a studio in distribution and this is absolutely on point. Look at a movie like CREED that was made for 35MM and made 110 domestically and only 30MM international? It was barely released in Asian countries — in the Philippines, where boxing is the biggest sport it made 1/5 of what SPY made, which made 110 domestically as well. STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON made 200MM worldwide and 80 per cent of that was domestic and they other 20 was through AU, UK, German and French B.O – it didn’t even make 1 MM in Singapore, Taiwan and the Philippines combined. Studios are solely interested in big budget franchises now and the mid level movies released per year are declining — it is up to the companies like Weinstein, Searchlight, A24, etc to push quality films with diverse stories and cast because the studios are too dependent on foreign markets.
Diverse stories. No audience. It’s diverse.
Isn’t the studio’s cut from foreign BO also far smaller? So domestic BO-heavy mid-budget movies with black leads, can be a separate discussion of whether more blacks should be cast in tentpoles relying on foreign markets?
80% of Trainwreck’s BO is domestic. Would Maher qualify this as foreign countries’ sexism toward Schumer not fitting their (or past Hollywood) standards of beauty? Or even argue LESS women like her need to be cast in adult fare?
As for specialty/major minor distributors, they still need some foreign markets if the domestic scene is becoming a bloodbath driven by promotion.
Because Rocky Balboa performed poorly in most Asian countries?
His overall point is true: the foreign market dictates many of the movies and shows made. A “domestic” hit is now considered “niche” unfortunately.
Let’s “Blacksplain” something and see how much the term is enjoyed. Racism is racism.
You are white and probably male too. Don’t you get it? You’ve had your time in the sun. There is no room for equality. You are now human garbage because your ancestors behaved inexcusably and you are reaping the benefits of their behavior.
Have a day. I’d add “nice” in their but your lily white butt has, no doubt, had enough of those already.
I wonder if people will still be talking about race when its 150 degrees and people dropping like flies? The oceans are rising and were concerned with award shows and racism.
Exactly
Bill Maher is right. The major studios only care about bottom line and the international box office accounts for 65-75% of movies. If it was contained to Luxembourg, the studios wouldn’t care, but it’s not. China, South Korea, and Russia, three critical studio markets, all have well documented issues against minorities and especially POC.
A few emails from the Sony hack touched on this very topic in regard to The Equalizer.
The Chinese and Koreans *are* people of color, nimrod! You’re saying they have issues with *themselves*!
I think I’ve somehow slipped out of the real world and ended up in a Monty Python sketch.
no, the general populace do/may have problems with rushing to see a foreign movie with a black lead. The Chinese and Koreans don’t see themselves as people of color, silly, they are the monority in their countries. And to be honest, they have their own issues with neighbors based on history so arent rushing to see, lets say, a sweet Japanese indie.
So what? Why would someone on the Korean peninsula and ocean’s way give a flying turd about rappers in Compton, anymore than a kid on the Southside of Chicago would give a crap about Psy? Please, check your ignorance and skewed sense of American cultural and racial hegemony.
well, I don’t think that’s true. If you’ve been to China you’ll know how many welfares you can get as a member of the minority. You’ll get 10 extra points for the University entrance exam, in which every point matters. And you can bring knife into subways and other public areas, because it’s part of their tradition. I want to know the documented stuff you said is referred to what.
China did alter the new star was poster to remove or shrink the only black guy on it. In the USA posters he was seen front and center large picture. The explanation was exactly what Bill was talking about.
Oh — that explains why we see so many Chinese people in lead roles in Hollywood.
Here in LA, we do read quite a bit about the significant increase in big time Asian investors in Hollywood in recent years. I feel like these new money billionaires who buy studios here and threaten to make the kind of movies (with American creators but little American profit) that “they” want the Asian public to watch are who Bill Maher may be referring to. And maybe he should have clarified what he meant by ” the foreign market”. These are a specific group of Asian people with a lot of money and influence and are generally aged 60+ who are really racist. They represent the business end of Hollywood which is not mutually exclusive to the viewing public. They are very different from us second generation Asian Americans and Millennial native Asians who very much enjoy watching movies with diverse stories and actors despite what our parents and grandparents think about it. They want to hijack and asianize Hollywood for our own good and major profit, we just want to be entertained and inspired like everyone else in box office seats across the globe.
A little late to the comments on this topic, but, yes, Bill is correct with his statement “Asians are racist”. I worked in Asia for two years as an English teacher. Its very well known the culture caters to the light skin folks.
Love the blanket, whole-continent statement: Asians are racists. Akin to you’re saying “Africans are savages.” And two years on a continent does not an expert make. Don’t make your colonial whiteness any more apparent.
well said. comments like this one from jojo just show how conscienceless the western mainstream is. it is impossible for an white american to have any sort of self-reflection.