In June, Brie Larson announced that the Sundance and Toronto film fests are both allocating 20 percent of press credentials to underrepresented journalists. In doing so, Larson helped advance the diversity conversation and adjust its focus to a less-talked about area — press lines, junket spaces and reviews pages. But not everyone has noticed.
“No, it’s not something on my mind,” Antoine Fuqua tells THR on the heels of promoting his latest film, the No. 1 opener The Equalizer 2. “I didn’t think about it, honestly, because I’ve always sat in a room with a mixture of people. Maybe it’s something I should notice if it’s really affecting people or affecting me. I just do the work and if a white male or white female, or Hispanic male or female, or Chinese male or female has an opinion, then that’s their opinion. That’s what will live on. I’ll keep it moving. I try not to think about that as much because, you know, I’ve had black people say some pretty ugly things, too. I’ve had white people say some ugly things. The world feels not even in a lot of ways. Sometimes the best comment I can make is to work. That’s it. You know what I mean? My opinion doesn’t matter.”
But he did offer this one: “Actually, I think it’s better sometimes to have a black guy comment on a white movie, and [vice versa], to take yourself out of the place that you’re comfortable in and comment on it from a different perspective. Especially movies, because I’m not making a movie just for black people. I’m not making it just for white people. I’m just making a movie. If a black guy only reviewed my movies, I don’t know if it’s been viewed from other angles that might give me some clarification on how even I saw it.”
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A version of this story first appeared in the Aug. 8 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
