The films that show just how racially-biased Hollywood really is

Into the Woods failed to give a speaking part to a single non-white actor

Daisy Wyatt
Friday 10 July 2015 01:13 BST
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Disney's Into the Woods
Disney's Into the Woods (Disney)

This year’s Oscar nominations were the “whitest” since 1995, with not a single black, Asian or minority ethnic actor nominated in the four major acting categories.

So it comes as little surprise that Into the Woods, the Steven Sondheim musical adaptation released earlier this year featuring Meryl Streep as the (white) witch, only featured white actors in speaking parts.

That’s right, it’s 2015 and not a single black, Asian or minority ethnic spoke one word in the three hour Oscar-nominated film.

But, unsurprisingly, Into the Woods isn’t the only film to have a poor record when it comes to reflecting diversity on screen.

Wes Anderson’s films were mocked long ago on stuffwhitepeoplelike.com, so it comes as no surprise that 2012’s Moonrise Kingdom features just 10 seconds of actors who are non-white speaking.

Actor and editor Dylan Marron has dedicated a Tumblr to highlighting some of the worst culprits in Hollywood for failing to give minority actors speaking parts.

Noah featured just 11 seconds (despite being set in the Middle East), Black Swan 24 seconds and Spike Jonze’s Her 46 seconds.

No doubt these videos by Marron, a New Yorker of Venezuelan heritage, will ignite further fuel to the “whitewashing of Hollywood” debate.

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