Hollywood's Ongoing Diversity Problem

In a revelation that literally everyone but Hollywood saw coming, people of colour have been turning up to the cinema more and more as films have become more diverse. According to a new report by the Motion Picture Association of America, the number of African-American people who frequent the cinema nearly doubled to 5.6 million last year, while the number of Asian people who regularly head to the movies jumped from 3.2 million to 3.9 million.
The MPAA defines frequent moviegoers as people who attend the cinema once a month or more. Both groups were over-represented on a population basis. African-Americans made up 15% of frequent moviegoers, while comprising 12% of the US population. Asians account for 8% of the population, but made up 11% of frequent moviegoers. The jump in attendance among these demographics comes as some of the biggest critical and commercial successes of the year have featured actors and directors of colour.
Hidden Figures, the story of pioneering black women whose work in mathematics and engineering was instrumental in Nasa’s progress in the space race, became one of the year’s biggest box-office hits, earning over $208 million worldwide. Moonlight, the winner of the Best Picture Oscar, is a coming-of-age tale about a gay black man that features an almost entirely black cast, and also saw Mahershala Ali walk away with the gong for Best Supporting Actor. Viola Davis picked up the Best Supporting Actress statuette for Fences, which saw her star opposite Denzel Washington, who also directed.
Meanwhile this year, Jordan Peele’s intelligent and terrifying horror film about racism in America, Get Out, has so far earned over $123 million against a budget of just $4 million, making Peele the first black writer-director to cross the $100 million benchmark for their debut.
 The jump in attendance of people of colour comes hot on the heels of last year’s #OscarsSoWhite controversy, and indicates that Hollywood is finally listening to concerns regarding racial diversity in the film industry. However, there’s a way to go yet, particularly when it comes to the representation of Asian and Latino/a characters.
 While there were some minor Asian characters in blockbusters such as Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Suicide Squad and The Magnificent Seven, their roles were notably less instrumental than that of white characters, and featured far less dialogue. This aligns with the findings of a recent USC study that found that out of the top-grossing films of 2015, white actors played 73.7% of speaking or named characters. The researchers discovered that only 12.2% of speaking or named characters were black, while 5.3% were Latino and 3.9% were Asian.
 There were were also several instances of whitewashing and yellowface that sparked widespread outrage. Marvel’s Doctor Strange cast Tilda Swinton in a role originally written for an Asian man, The Great Wall gave its starring role to Matt Damon instead of casting an Asian in the lead, and the upcoming Japanese manga adaptation Ghost In The Shell stars Scarlett Johansson.
 The reaction to these repeated instances of whitewashing has been strong, and thankfully has made an impact on some directors. An upcoming live-action remake of Disney’s Mulan has committed to casting Chinese actors in all the main roles. The film will be directed by Whale Rider’s Niki Caro and executive produced by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon producer Bill Kong.
 That Mulan will not only feature a Chinese actress as an independent, feminist and ass-kicking character, but will also cast a Chinese actor as her romantic interest, is of significant importance. Asian actresses who feature in Hollywood films are often reduced to damaging, racist stereotypes such as the hypersexualised ‘Lotus Flower’ or the aggressive ‘Dragon Lady’. Asian actors, meanwhile, are rarely cast as romantic leads, perpetuating emasculating ideas of Asian masculinity. Having an Asian actor play opposite a white actress is still extremely rare, with John Cho’s role in the ill-fated series Selfie, and Hayden Szeto’s recent role in Edge Of Seventeen acting as notable exceptions.
 That there has not been a significant increase in the amount of Latino/a characters and filmmakers within Hollywood in the past year was also reflected at the box-office. Hispanic movie lovers frequented the cinema 4.6 times a year on average, down from 2015 when they averaged 5.2 visits.
 You’d think that even in a purely cynical, money-grabbing way, Hollywood would see the value of making more of their films diverse, but alas, they are slow, slow learners.