The 2020 Screen Actors Guild nominees were announced on Wednesday morning and after the backlash earlier this week following the Golden Globe nominations, the SAG list is a little more diverse.
Both Cynthia Erivo (Harriet) and Lupita Nyong’o (US) were nominated for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role.
Jamie Foxx picked up a nomination in the Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role category for his highly anticipated film Just Mercy.
Emmy Award winner Jharrell Jerome is nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries for his role in Ava Duvernay’s critically acclaimed miniseries When They See Us. Marhershala Ali is also nominated in the same category for the HBO drama True Detective.
Rounding out this years’ nominees is Emmy Award winner Sterling K Brown who is nominated for his role in the hit NBC drama This Is Us.
The SAG awards ceremony airs January 19 on TNT and TBS. Check out the full list of nominees below.
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A CAST IN A MOTION PICTURE
Bombshell The Irishman Jojo Rabbit Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Parasite
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Cynthia Erivo, Harriet Scarlett Johansson, Marriage Story Lupita Nyong’o, Us Charlize Theron, Bombshell Renee Zellweger, Judy
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A MALE ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Christian Bale, Ford v Ferrari Leonardo DiCaprio, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Adam Driver, Marriage Story Taron Egerton, Rocketman Joaquin Phoenix, Joker
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Laura Dern, Marriage Story Scarlett Johansson, Jojo Rabbit Nicole Kidman, Bombshell Jennifer Lopez, Hustlers Margot Robbie, Bombshell
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A MALE ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Jamie Foxx, Just Mercy Tom Hanks, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood Al Pacino, The Irishman Joe Pesci, The Irishman Brad Pitt, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY AN ENSEMBLE IN A DRAMA SERIES
Big Little Lies The Crown Game of Thrones The Handmaid’s Tale Stranger Things
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Jennifer Aniston, The Morning Show Helena Bonham Carter, The Crown Olivia Colman, The Crown Jodie Comer, Killing Eve Elisabeth Moss, The Handmaid’s Tale
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A MALE ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Sterling K. Brown, This Is Us Steve Carell, The Morning Show Billy Crudup, The Morning Show Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones David Harbour, Stranger Things
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY AN ENSEMBLE IN A COMEDY SERIES
Barry Fleabag The Kominsky Method The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Schitt’s Creek
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Christina Applegate, Dead to Me Alex Borstein, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Rachel Brosnahan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Catherine O’Hara, Schitt’s Creek Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Fleabag
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A MALE ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Alan Arkin, The Kominsky Method Michael Douglas, The Kominsky Method Bill Hader, Barry Andrew Scott, Fleabag Tony Shalhoub, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE ACTOR IN A TV MOVIE OR LIMITED SERIES
Patricia Arquette, The Act Toni Collette, Unbelievable Joey King, The Act Emily Watson, Chernobyl Michelle Williams, Fosse/Verdon
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A MALE ACTOR IN A TV MOVIE OR LIMITED SERIES
Mahershala Ali, True Detective Russell Crowe, The Loudest Voice Jared Harris, Chernobyl Jharrel Jerome, When They See Us Sam Rockwell, Fosse/Verdon
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A STUNT ENSEMBLE IN A MOTION PICTURE
Avengers: Endgame Ford v Ferrari The Irishman Joker Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A STUNT ENSEMBLE IN A TELEVISION SERIES
Game of Thrones Glow Stranger Things The Walking Dead Watchmen
The squad is back! Starz dropped the new trailer for ‘Run The World’ season 2, and it looks like our favorite NYC girls are in for more fun and drama. Bresha Webb, Amber Stevens West, and Corbin Reid are reprising their roles as Renee, Whitney, and Sondi, respectively. Andrea Bordeaux (who played Ella in Season 1) departed the show over the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
The new season will follow the “euphoric highs and heartbreaking lows that Whitney, Renee, and Sondi must endure in their pursuit of world domination,” says the official synopsis. “Whitney must follow the road of self-discovery to thrive in her life with or without Ola, while Renee and Sondi must decide what they truly want out of life — both in love and their careers. Whether they reunite with a past love, taste the life of a millionaire, or see their career take off in a radical new direction, these powerful Black women, fortified by their impenetrable friendship, won’t let anything get in their way.”
The new episodes of ‘Run the World’ will premiere on Friday, May 26.
This year, Disney is gearing up to release live-action remakes of ‘The Little Mermaid’ and ‘Peter Pan.’ Each will feature a Black actor playing a fictional character originally portrayed by a white actor. Halle Bailey, a Black actress and singer, is set to portray the beloved red-haired, fish-tailed under-the-sea princess Ariel. Yara Shahidi, a daughter of an Iranian father and an African-American mother, will star as Peter Pan’s most trusted fairy friend Tinkerbell. Both movies are scheduled to be released in the next two months.
The casting decisions came with backlash from a vast number of Twitter and Redditt users, who claim – “blackwashing” childhood characters (i.e., taking an originally white character and making them a person of color) will not solve the lack of inclusivity in Hollywood. But is that really why they so passionately stand against it? The negative attention on Little Mermaid and Tinker Bell has also fueled great support from other fans who view such anger as racist behavior. “Those opposed to diversity on screen are the ones fighting it in real life,” one Twitter user wrote. Rob Marshall, who directs the upcoming Little Mermaid remake, admitted he was caught off guard by some of the negative responses that came with casting Bailey. “I wasn’t anticipating that because, in a way, I felt like we’ve moved so far past that kind of thing.” He also insisted there was no agenda in Disney’s decision to hire the 22-year-old, “We just were looking for the best actor for the role, period. The end,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “We saw everybody and every ethnicity. The goal was to find someone who can be incredibly strong, passionate, beautiful, smart, clever, and with a great deal of fire and joy,” Marshall explained.
For a few years now, Disney, among other media companies, has made an effort to redeem itself from a century-long history of producing controversial movies and animated films (‘Song of the South,’ ‘Dumbo, ‘The Aristocrats”), some of which have been deemed racist or ‘culturally outdated’ as Disney conveniently describes it. Most recently, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the company announced a diversity and inclusion program ‘Reimagine Tomorrow,’ that is committed to “amplifying underrepresented voices and untold stories as well as championing the importance of accurate representation in media and entertainment.” Casting more people of color could count as a way to honor their commitment, but is changing the ethnicity of established characters the best solution? Some argue that it could be. Several previously released remakes that followed this model have done well, despite surrounding controversy.
Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella cast/ Disney
In 1997, Disney released Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, a reimagining of the famed tale. It did not just have a non-white main cast but also received a budget of $12 million, which ranked it among the most expensive television films ever made. The remake featured Brandy, an African-American actor/singer, as Cinderella, the late Whitney Houston as Fairy Godmother, Paulo Montalban, an Asian actor as Prince Christopher, and Victor Garber and Whoopi Goldberg as the king and queen. Although the non-traditional reiteration of the Disney story received mixed reviews from critics, it was met with a lot of praise, specifically from the Black community. “This Cinderella remake is such a beautiful, magical gem of a movie filled with a multiracial cast, and I can’t believe it came out in 1997! Talk about progressive!” a review on IMDb reads. “I think this live-action Cinderella movie is my most favorite. I love the songs and the comedy. Most of the actors are familiar. This movie also teaches us that no matter what we look like, black, white, Asian, we are all the same,” another fan wrote in his five-star review.
Most recently, Disney doubled down on casting non-white actors to star in their remakes. Aside from the aforementioned ‘Little Mermaid’ and ‘Peter Pan’ films, Rachel Zegler, a Latina actress, was cast to play Snow White in a movie scheduled to be released in 2024. Disney’s ‘Wonder Years’ reboot features an all-Black main cast. Zendaya plays MJ in the new Spider-Man movies. And that’s not just with Disney. Amazon Prime Video recently cast Afro-Latino actor Ismael Cruz Córdova to play Arondir, a Silvan elf, in ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.’ The reimagining of ‘The West Side Story’ featured Latino actors in leading roles. Almost every casting announcement caused a social media stir.
Rachel Zegler spotted on the set of ‘Snow White’
But why remake in the first place? According to Dr. Matthew Jones, Film Studies lecturer at De Montfort University in Leicester, “Remake and reboot culture is not new. It’s often framed as something novel and unique to our postmodern times, but there is actually a rich tradition of remakes in Western film culture,” he told Cosmopolitan. So why are they still being made? The answer is fairly simple – remakes are a safe financial bet. Studios capitalize on people’s nostalgia and the connections they already have with their favorite characters. “The most secure option for studios is always going to be something we call a ‘pre-sold property,’ Dr. Jones continued, “meaning films with pre-existing fan audiences. And what types of films have fan audiences before they are even released? Remakes, reboots, and sequels do, precisely because they are already properties familiar to audiences and which some people will feel an emotional attachment to already.”
Those opposed to Disney’s casting decisions to ‘race swap’ insist the company should focus on creating original characters and storylines instead of reimagining the ones they have become so accustomed to. “Another remake! Did Hollywood run out of ideas?” One Reddit user asked. “Disney is only changing the race/ethnicity of characters in live-action remakes to spark controversy and get more people talking about the movie rather than trying to bring minorities to light as protagonists,” another speculated. However, it’s no secret that the United States has a long and dark history of racial discrimination and injustice. So, when minority groups are shown outside of the tired, stereotypical roles or, furthermore, play roles that are considered “traditionally” white – it implies a change that some simply don’t want to accept.
Indeed, Disney had succeeded in the past in introducing original non-white animated characters such as Mulan (the live-action version was released in 2020), Tiana in ‘Princess and the Frog’ (the remake is currently in the works), Moana, and most recently, the family of ‘Encanto.’ But original content inevitably means more resources spent, and with remakes that deliver guaranteed financial gains and casting decisions that bring attention (positive or negative), studios seem to achieve desirable results still. Additionally, the cultural and racial diversification of Disney’s fan base and the pressure to acknowledge and show more of those faces on the screen pushes the company to do just that. So the main question remains – does Hollywood genuinely cares about inclusivity, or is it just adjusting for the sake of profits? No matter the answer, one thing is clear – Disney is not going anywhere any time soon, and neither are the Black, Asian, Latino, and other non-white people across the globe. Those who have a problem will just have to learn to live with it.