'Hollywood underrepresents Hispanics'

A new study shows that less than 5 percent of actors in top Hollywood films are Hispanic, and Latinas are more likely than women of any other ethnicity to appear partially or totally nude on screen.

The study of the top 100 grossing films in 2013, by the University of Southern California's Annenberg school, found that the make-believe world of movies generally does not reflect what America looks like in real life.

About 74 percent of the actors in the study were white, compared with a US population that's 63 percent non-Hispanic white.

Hispanics, who make up 17 percent of the nation's population but had 4.9 percent of film roles, were the most underrepresented group on screen. That's despite the fact that Hispanics purchased about 25 percent of all movie tickets and are more likely than any other group to go to the movies, according to the Motion Picture Association of America.

Black characters represented about 14 percent of film characters, roughly comparable to America's 13 percent black population. However, 17 percent of the films examined in the study did not have a single black speaking role, and half the films had a smaller percentage of blacks than the population, which indicates that a few movies with predominantly black casts balanced out the larger number of movies with few black actors.

Last year was called a banner year for black actors because of the success of films such as Fruitvale Station", Lee Daniels' The Butler and 12 Years a Slave, which made Steve McQueen the first black winner of the Oscar for best director.

Hispanic stars such as the Dominican Zoe Saldana, the New York-born Puerto Rican Jennifer Lopez and the Spaniard Antonio Banderas appeared on the big screen. Yet there has been no significant change since 2007 in the number of nonwhite actors in top films, said Stacy L. Smith, director of USC Annenberg's Media, Diversity & Social Change Initiative and author of the study being released on Monday.

"The only obstacle here is imagination," Smith said in an interview.

She said the number of black directors remained low - 6 percent of all directors in the study - and they were much more likely to use diverse casts. Hispanic directors were not counted.

"What we're seeing in the aggregate is very few folks not white and male being able to participate behind the camera," Smith said. "So the landscape remains primarily white and male. When you do have diversity behind the camera, things start to shift."

The study examined all 3,932 actors who spoke at least one word in the top 100 films of 2013. USC did similar counts from 2007 to 2010 and in 2012.

Asians filled 4.4 percent of roles in 2013, compared with their 5.3 percent of the US population. One percent of roles were played by "Middle Eastern" actors, less than 1 percent by Native Americans and 1 percent by "other".

Almost 38 percent of Latina actresses appeared partially or fully nude on screen, the study said. That compared with 32 percent of white females, 24 percent of black females and 18 percent of Asian actresses.

"Latinas have this stereotype that we're sex symbols ... that we walk sexy and (have) this flavor," said Roselyn Sanchez, a Puerto Rican actress who has appeared in such films as Act of Valor and Rush Hour 2.

She had no explanation for why Hispanics have so few movie roles. "It's not about talent," she said.

About 17 percent of Hispanic males were shown in "tight, alluring or revealing clothing", the most of any group. Some 14 percent of Asian males, 13 percent of black actors and 8 percent of white actors were shown in similar attire.

Black males were more likely than those from any other group to be shown in a committed relationship, at 68 percent. Asian males were the least likely, at 29 percent.

Blanca Valdez, who runs a Hispanic casting agency in Los Angeles, said it's difficult for Latinos to audition for roles unless the call specifically asks for "diversity" or "multiethnic". That often keeps them in secondary roles such as the neighbor, the lawyer or the bank teller.

She said some actors with Hispanic surnames who look white will only put their first name on their casting photographs, just to get a foot in the door.

But Valdez said things have been changing rapidly in commercials and television, with more calls than ever for Hispanic and "multiethnic" actors. She hopes that studios will "follow the money" since Latinos are such big movie fans.

"I hope this improvement continues," Valdez said, "because there's so much talent out there that doesn't get seen."

(China Daily 08/06/2014 page10)