http://open.salon.com/blog/kevin0719/2010/03/11/precious_actress_will_never_work_again

I just read an article by Kevin Broccoli (Seriously, does anyone know if I can embed the name of the author and the article I'm quoting here? Is that an HTML trick I need to learn?), '"Precious Actress Will Never Work Again' which seemed, at first, to harbour a certain amount of truth upon first glance. However, now I'm thinking about it, I think that his - and Howard Stern's, who is the spine of the piece - take on the Hollywood machine is simplistic and incorrect.

 The essence of the article is this: Gabourey Sidibe, talented enough to warrant an Oscar nomination (Hmmm, more to say on that later, too) is too overweight to ever be considered for future roles. Oh, and she's black.

Then the author lists some movies where black actors were nominated or awarded and then, apparently, never worked again. As if the world in general passes over black actors and they are still at a significant disadvantage when it comes to their careers.

 "Halle Berry hasn't been able to match her Monster's Ball acclaim. Jennifer Hudson settled for small roles in "Sex and the City" and "The Secret Life of Bees." Forrest Whitaker turned in a revelatory performance in "The Last King of Scotland" and then did a guest spot on "E.R.""

 Halle Berry did take on a trilogy of steadily deteriorating performances with the X-Men (I love the movies, but her role - "Storm" -  especially, sucked). Then there was the James Bond outingand several other plum action roles. Fine, the woman can act, but if she's wanting to show off those skills, she's really not reaching out for the roles to help her along there, eh? On top of that, she loathes junkets is reputedly difficult to work with and, let's be honest here, 9/10 times will turn in a performance that lacks shine.

Jennifer Hudson is a singer who - though she may have won a HUGE televised talent show - is still establishing her career which is primarily as a recording artist. And for a large black woman, her modelling career seems to have taken right off, too. She's a fledgling gathering awards from everywhere. Given her stonking voice, it's entirely possibly she only wanted small roles so that she could focus on her primary vocation... just a guess.

 Forest Whitaker is really not a hard-done-by newbie, however. His list of credit - acting, directing, producing both on TV and in the movies is impressive and distinguished. It's not as if he needs to worry about future work. 

 This may sound dismissive of the struggles that black performers still face. But the point is there are but a handful of actors in Hollywood who don't need to struggle for roles; the rest of them strive and compete no matter what their circumstances may be; for years there have been complaints that there are no "solid" roles for women of a certain age, for gay men (who don't want to be straight in their careers) and can anyone name for me a mainstream disabled actor? No.

 So along comes Howard Stern and, in typical style, makes a comment that everyone tries super-PC-hard not to agree with: an Oscar-winning fat black actress will never work again, and all Hollywood producers are wankers.

Firstly, I take serious issue with the notion that, somehow an Oscar is the highest accolade an actor can garner. The Oscars are the only awards given by people in the industry. Movies campaign for them; it's absolutely the least impartial form of recognition imaginable, frankly. Very rarely do movies get anything save the "lesser" awards (tell that to a friend of mine who is obsessed with sound production) on merit alone.

So it's entirely (and sadly) likely that  our apparently-downtrodden Sidibe got her Oscar -because- she's an overweight black actress. Especially after Poitier, Berry and Washington were all so effusive in their acceptance speeches about how Hollywood is finally recognising the talent of black performers, "black" seems to be very much a word of the modern movie zeitgeist.

Colour aside, however, there are more people to blame than the big, bad Hollywood producers if it's true that, actually, imperfect black people can't get decent roles. Producers only make the movies that become available, after all. They don't, for example, write them. Nor to they represent the performers, nor do they cast them.

Today's industry is no longer exclusively Hollywood-based; the entire US has become a movie-making machine, with New York asserting its importance in production and promotion; festivals like Sundance bigging up the indy movies which - 10 years ago - would never have seen the screen in a theatre and performers being taken from all over the map, not just Hollywood. It's arguable that, from the States alone, we're seeing more diversity in our movies than ever before.

And that's without counting Britian, Europe (okay, the French scene is kinda crappyright now) and then further afield - Eastern Block movies are being given startling recognition; Korea and Japan have long-since headed up the horror stakes, and let's not forget how "eastern animation" is no longer just about cartoon gore classics like "Fist of the North Star" and other anime titles.

For crying outloud, our local graffiti hero Banksy just put out a movie.

So given the huge diversity of movies available, how is it that anyone can claim a black actress of considerable talent will never work again and be taken seriously at all?

Because it's us who buys the tickets, and movies in Hollywood are made based upon what makes money.

 Hollywood is very, very good at making money. Andit uses that money to good effect. There's nothing wrong with a decent huge-budget action thriller, and beloved the world over Pixar would be nothing without some seriously hard-grossing box office takings.

Ultimately, however, the majority of paying audiences will not shell out cash to go see a large woman - whatever her colour - unless she's in a comedy role. Just as they don't like films about gay men or strong women or anything that challenges them to step outside of what they call "entertainment".  And when your business is getting people to pay you money, you aim to give them what they want.

There is a thriving indie scene; there are talented writers who do write these roles and challenge people to go to new places with them in their work. There are agents who represent the non-perfect performers and casting directors who will see ability, passion and talent however it is packaged. 

But you won't see it in Hollywood; not because the producers are all twats, but because we won't pay to watch it.