Joel & Ethan Coen whitesplained diversity: ‘The question you’re asking is idiotic’
I unapologetically love the Coen Brothers’ films, but after reading this Daily Beast interview with them… I might not love them as people. The Daily Beast asked Joel and Ethan Coen about diversity in Hollywood, #OscarsSoWhite, and about the “pervasive whiteness” that surrounds their own films. They’re promoting Hail Caesar, a film set in Hollywood’s Golden Age, and a film in which every major role except one is filled by white actors. If the Coens came at this conversation with an acknowledgement of the limitations of their white-male perspective, that would be one thing. But they do not. They seem to shrug off the entirity of the #OscarsSoWhite conversation, then manslain/whitesplain why they could never write a script full of racially diverse characters. You can read the full piece here. Some highlights (it’s mostly Joel speaking, but Ethan seems to agree with Joel’s perspective):
Joel Coen on #OscarSoWhite: “It’s assigning way too much importance to the awards. By making such a big deal, you’re assuming that these things really matter. I don’t think they even matter much from an economic point of view. So yes, it’s true—and it’s also true that it’s escalating the whole subject to a level it doesn’t actually deserve. Diversity’s important. The Oscars are not that important.”
Joel on why there isn’t more diversity in their films: “Why would there be? I don’t understand the question. No—I understand that you’re asking the question, I don’t understand where the question comes from. Not why people want more diversity—why they would single out a particular movie and say, ‘Why aren’t there black or Chinese or Martians in this movie? What’s going on?’ That’s the question I don’t understand. The person who asks that question has to come in the room and explain it to me.”
Ethan on why being conscious of diversity is not important: “Not in the least! It’s important to tell the story you’re telling in the right way, which might involve black people or people of whatever heritage or ethnicity—or it might not.”
Joel on how stories are written: “It’s an absolute, absurd misunderstanding of how things get made to single out any particular story and say, ‘Why aren’t there this, that, or the other thing?’ It’s a fundamental misunderstanding of how stories are written. So you have to start there and say, ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about.’ You don’t sit down and write a story and say, ‘I’m going to write a story that involves four black people, three Jews, and a dog,’—right? That’s not how stories get written. If you don’t understand that, you don’t understand anything about how stories get written and you don’t realize that the question you’re asking is idiotic. It’s not an illegitimate thing to say there should be more diversity in an industry. But that’s not what that question is about. That question is about something else.”
This is why the #OscarsSoWhite conversation is important. This is why it’s a great idea to ask popular, mainstream, beloved, white male writer/directors about diversity. Because we get a glimpse of how non-white actors get zero Oscar nominations. We get a glimpse of how The White Man decides what stories are valid and why diversity gets pushed aside. “Why aren’t there black or Chinese or Martians in this movie? What’s going on?” Do you see what he’s saying there? It’s as absurd to him that people would want to see Martians in a movie as the idea that people might want to see black people or Asian people in a movie. He’s equating those three groups.
As for this: “You don’t sit down and write a story and say, ‘I’m going to write a story that involves four black people, three Jews, and a dog,’—right? That’s not how stories get written.” Correction: that’s not how YOU write stories. It’s just like what George Clooney was saying – how could he cast an actor of color to play Edward R. Murrow? That’s not the issue – the issue is “who determines what stories get to be told?” Who writes those stories? Who gets cast in those films? Who greenlights and finances the films with the all-white casts?
Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.
