Well said, NN, & D-Town.
kci, I understand where you're coming from, as well as the author. My thing is, for too long we've complained about not being nominated, not winning when we're nominated, and when it happens we knock the winners, and question their roles.
IMHO, winning the Oscar is a career validation, not a color validatioin. The last time I checked, Whites, and Jews want to win the award as well. They take certain roles, knowing before hand, that it has Oscar written all over it.
As far as Morgan Freeman, Wesly Snipes, Cuba Gooding Jr., and you can add Will Smith to your list as well for "Six Degrees Of Separation". The roles in which you mentioned, took their careers to a different level.
They understood what taking a challenging role (well maybe not Cuba), would do for their careers. In Cuba's case, look what the award has done for his career.
What kind of level would Tom Hanks be on, had he not played an AIDS ridden Homosexual, or an all out imbecile? Sure he had a decent career before "Philadelphia", and "Forest Gump", but people don't mention some of that crap he made before those movies. He's looked upon in an entirely different light.
To me not wanting to win the Oscar, and you're serious about your craft, is like being an athlete, and not wanting to be the MVP, or a Boxer, and not wanting to be a champion in your division.
In Hollywood, if you're going to get any kind of acclaim, we as Black people can't pigeon hole ourselves in the same kind of role, movie, after movie. Acting is all about the challenge, and what can be more challenging, than playing something that's totally not you.
Afterall, there had to be slaves in "Roots", how would we feel, if no black actor wanted to play a slave, because it was demeaning, and white actors had to put on Black face, to put on Alex Haley's life work?
NICE
kci, I understand where you're coming from, as well as the author. My thing is, for too long we've complained about not being nominated, not winning when we're nominated, and when it happens we knock the winners, and question their roles.
IMHO, winning the Oscar is a career validation, not a color validatioin. The last time I checked, Whites, and Jews want to win the award as well. They take certain roles, knowing before hand, that it has Oscar written all over it.
As far as Morgan Freeman, Wesly Snipes, Cuba Gooding Jr., and you can add Will Smith to your list as well for "Six Degrees Of Separation". The roles in which you mentioned, took their careers to a different level.
They understood what taking a challenging role (well maybe not Cuba), would do for their careers. In Cuba's case, look what the award has done for his career.
What kind of level would Tom Hanks be on, had he not played an AIDS ridden Homosexual, or an all out imbecile? Sure he had a decent career before "Philadelphia", and "Forest Gump", but people don't mention some of that crap he made before those movies. He's looked upon in an entirely different light.
To me not wanting to win the Oscar, and you're serious about your craft, is like being an athlete, and not wanting to be the MVP, or a Boxer, and not wanting to be a champion in your division.
In Hollywood, if you're going to get any kind of acclaim, we as Black people can't pigeon hole ourselves in the same kind of role, movie, after movie. Acting is all about the challenge, and what can be more challenging, than playing something that's totally not you.
Afterall, there had to be slaves in "Roots", how would we feel, if no black actor wanted to play a slave, because it was demeaning, and white actors had to put on Black face, to put on Alex Haley's life work?
NICE
