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'Why do I need an all-Black cast?' Disney criticizes Peltz remarks

Walt Disney Co on Friday said that remarks by activist investor Nelson Peltz criticizing the company for making movies dominated by female and Black actors is evidence that he shouldn’t be on Disney’s board.

Peltz, whose fight to join Disney as a director has become one of the year’s most bitter and closely watched board battles, in an interview with the Financial Times said Disney’s films have become too focused on delivering a message, and not enough on quality storytelling. He specifically took issue with “The Marvels” and “Black Panther.”

“Why do I have to have a Marvel that’s all women? Not that I have anything against women, but why do I have to do that?" Peltz said in the interview, published on Friday. "Why can’t I have Marvels that are both? Why do I need an all-Black cast?”

Asked about Peltz’s remarks, a Disney spokesperson responded: “This is exactly why Nelson Peltz shouldn’t be anywhere near a creatively driven company.”

Crack0n7uesday ,

Yeah well, if you check the recent audience scores and opening weekend profits for their films, other people seem to agree with him.

MirthfulAlembic ,
@MirthfulAlembic@lemmy.world avatar

The two Black Panther movies combined have grossed over 2 billion dollars. I wouldn’t say that agrees with him. It’s also odd to assume that movies which didn’t do as well, like The Marvels, were because of a female dominated cast and not because they were just bad movies.

foggy ,

I don’t care if it’s all women or all black, I just don’t want another Marvel movie. Ever.

friendlymessage ,

Why? It’s not like you are forced to watch them

Doubleohdonut ,

Aren’t I though?

Passerby6497 ,

Are you though? I stopped watching before infinity war and haven’t watched anything marvel since, outside of the one series I actually had interest in.

Doubleohdonut ,

And yet I’m still inundated by advertising for each movie, making me keenly aware of the thing I don’t want constantly rammed down my throat. I’ve come to expect it at fast food restaurants, but I can’t even shop for groceries without Marvel trying to push something at me. I’m not actively watching Marvel movies, but they are still part of my life whether I want them there or not.

friendlymessage ,

Why? It’s not like you are forced to watch them

ours ,

And the movies I like still seem to manage to get financed (Dune, Poor Things…) so I don’t need to care about what Marvel does.

There was a time when it felt like only superhero movies would make it to the cinemas, but it seems they over-did it and people got somewhat tired.

Olhonestjim ,

Nobody said we were forced to. I don’t want another one either. They ran superheros into the ground years ago. If they make another, I won’t watch it. They’re exhausting now.

BigMacHole ,

AGREED! Why should I use BLACK ACTORS just because the movie takes place in a country with MAJORITY Black People? And WHY on God’s Green Earth should I cast WOMEN to play FEMALE Superheroes?

EatATaco ,

Be careful with the “majority” part of it because that opens the doors for lots of racists to whine about how a lot of traditionally white characters are replaced by black characters. What you’re looking for is that the point is they are black. Their blackness is essential to the characters.

For something like, say, the little mermaid, her being white is not even remotely essential to her character. Which is why no one should be even remotely offended by the fact that it has been played by a black actress.

Of course you can also swap in female for black and the point is the same.

nutsack ,

if you like any of these movies you’re a baby

profdc9 ,

Why should I care about this? Do any of these people care about producing better entertainment that is not pandering or exploitative?

ThrowawayPermanente ,

Haha no. One side cares about starting Brave, Important Conversations while the other side cares about money.

FunkPhenomenon ,

blackwashing and sexism isnt creativity, but I wouldnt expect Disney to understand that

synae ,
@synae@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

An investor should not care about anything but box office and whatever grift is going on with “Hollywood accounting”. To be concerned with certain aspects of the content being prouduced is counterproductive, especially for investors

yamanii ,
@yamanii@lemmy.world avatar

The Nintendo investor that loudly asked for a new F-Zero was kinda based ngl

shasta ,

But he’s not just an investor. He’s trying to get in the board of directors so he can affect products

pyrflie ,

And shouldn’t be allowed near it since his opinions are detrimental to both quality and profitability.

I’m more concerned with the first but investors should really be worried about the second given his stake. Disney is vulnerable to conservative takeover with enough capital.

synae ,
@synae@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

Gross

yogurt ,

Fun story when they made that psycho Transformers movie with the laminated age of consent law and the product placement transformer made out of Oreo vending machines, Peltz’s daughter is the teenager it’s supposed to be legal to molest and Peltz was on the Oreo company board.

Tier1BuildABear ,
@Tier1BuildABear@lemmy.world avatar

I’m not having fun…

elbarto777 , (edited )

Wait, what? What psycho transformers movie is this?!

Edit: nevermind. I looked up the scene. Whatever the fuck was that?!

ButtDrugs ,

Link?

elbarto777 ,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUq0HlMvQw0

sin_free_for_00_days ,

What the fuck?

Blackmist ,

Probably the first movie where “starring Mark Wahlberg” isn’t its biggest problem.

Smoogs ,

People like this shouldn’t ever be considered ‘creative’. Dunno how we got here but glad they are choosing to reverse that decision.

scytale ,

Imagine being an “activist investor”.

NigelFrobisher ,

Neither of those casts were all anything, apart from human.

Cosmicomical ,

Found the alien activist

PotatoesFall ,

“activist investor” yeah cool that’s about all I needed to know

njm1314 ,

I mean why wouldn’t the cast of the Black Panther be mainly black? That’s just weird that you wouldn’t have it that way. Also Captain Marvel and Ms Marvel are both female characters I don’t know what this guy is after here. Why would he pick those examples?

formergijoe ,

They should do what the comics did when they were told there needed to be more white people in Black Panther and just have him start beating up the KKK.

skyspydude1 ,

From the Lee power duo of Stan and Spike, coming this summer: BlacKKK Panther

Ranvier , (edited )

Because whenever a movie or TV show or video game has anything except a cis hetero white man as the main character, people like this start screeching. They aren’t satisfied with having people that look like themselves represented in the vast majority of main characters. They view any time a character not matching the above description shows up in some kind of media as discrimination against themselves. Any slight reduction in privilage they mistake for real discrimination. They mask this by claiming they’re just concerned with the integrity of the art or some nonsense, especially the gamer gate type crowd.

Anytime a gay character or a female character or someone pops up they start yelling, “why does this character have to be gay? It must be lazy pandering at the expense of a good story.” To which I would pose the same question back to them. Any piece of media featuring a straight cis white man, why does the character have to be a straight white man? Must be lazy pandering at the expense of story.

Or maybe, just maybe, it’s more interesting to have a wide variety of characters and stories in media. Sometimes people are just gay, or are just straight, or just female, or just male. It might have a big impact in a story and it might not. It shouldn’t be “unless this is a story specifically about the gay/female/black experience the character must be straight/male/white by default.” If that is going to be part of that piece of media, great, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be depending on the story being told. You’ll never see this crowd upset with a straight white male character for these reasons though, very transparent.

Smoogs ,

Just ask where all their inclusive screeching was back when it was an all white male cast in everything. If they shut up back then they need to shut it now.

Beetschnapps ,

All this guy is basically saying is “why make a movie that isn’t exactly the way I think?”

Embedded in his mindset is the idea that black people don’t deserve their own audience.

SeaJ , (edited )

Why would you have a movie set in Africa have a nearly all black cast? He’s seriously asking that? Apparently you don’t need basic intelligence to be a billionaire. How often does he ask why shows like Billions or Succession have to be about white families?

ME5SENGER_24 ,

The Disney philosophy, at this point, is that people who have been unrepresented for years will take issue towards efforts that are not strictly made with inclusivity in mind and those who have been represented will accept it as progress, then the small few who take issue with “wokeness” will watch it because “it’s Disney”

Their gamble is paying off because lets face it, 90% of the world with a TV screen has grown up with Disney.

So while you might disagree with Disney’s take on X, Y or Z, that fucking mouse is so engrained on us that we will accept whatever bullshit they put forward

QuarterSwede ,
@QuarterSwede@lemmy.world avatar

And let’s be honest, it’s not like they’re pushing anything immoral, obscene, etc.

VaultBoyNewVegas ,

Yep. I’ve had no interest in watching the remakes but that’s because I grew up with watching the originals as a kid but if I had kids then I would take them to see the remakes while they can watch the originals too. It’s a non issue imo. The remakes aren’t essential viewing for anyone.

ryathal ,

Their recent movies have been obscene insults to writing.

deegeese ,

If you’re angry about the critical and financial success that is Black Panther, tells me you’re not an investor, just a racist idiot.

zzzzzzyx ,

Ok I am about to argue that having an all black cast in Africa is in fact racist.

So I did a very quick look through the 20 “black” actors that appear when you search “black panther cast” in Google. I selected every one with a character name.

Out of 20 exactly 2 are actually from Africa. And they are both from south Africa, notably not anywhere near the central African region of the mythical Wakanda.

So as an example; not only did they get say 90% of their actors to play, say, new Zealanders from Europe but just as a kick in the balls they got the rest from Australia.

As if being a COLOUR would be some great gesture as opposed to a linguistic and cultural identity.

That’s without even touching the numerous examples where marvel has done the opposite and just plain got away with it because it is a piece of European cultural heritage they are using for profit like in the cases of Little mermaid and snow white.

For the love of God just make good movies. People will watch watch whatever tripe Disney puts out that has a large enough marketing budget. But dear God have they put out some “successful” pieces of trash in the last few years. Largely being shit because of the forced diversity.

That’s not even addressing the problem of Black panther not really having anything black in it aside from the name. If they had any real balls they would make a Luke cage movie and actually address the issues instead of putting the word black in stuff and printing money cos it has “marvel”, “disney” and “black” in the same sentence.

Disney is without a doubt very agenda driven lately. Their “represetation” agenda is useless bullshittery at the least and actively harmful to the cultures it tries to represent at worst.

girlfreddy OP ,
@girlfreddy@lemmy.ca avatar

Good on you for admitting you’re a racist. You could have done it quicker tho.

zzzzzzyx , (edited )

American, you do not dictate your cultural heritage to the world. Go cry into the bloodstained flag of your failed state.

girlfreddy OP ,
@girlfreddy@lemmy.ca avatar

I’m not American.

zzzzzzyx ,

Sorry I just heard racist bullshit and knee jerked.

girlfreddy OP ,
@girlfreddy@lemmy.ca avatar

Ass-u-me.

Warl0k3 ,

Er, yeah we do in fact dictate it. It’s kinda our whole thing.

drphungky ,

I think maybe the young folks haven’t heard of cultural imperialism?

Xrfauxtard ,

While most of his comment read that way, reread the last two paragraphs. He definitely has a point there, all of the corporate inclusion and diversity is about market share, not addressing real issues.

GlitterInfection ,

His point was that none of the actors cast in the film actually come from the fictional country of Wakanda.

He did his research on it and everything.

His last two paragraphs and your entire comment are baseless assertions that are at best pointless cynicism (“they’re doing the right thing but only to make money” doesn’t counter the fact that they’re doing the right thing) and at worst it’s regurgitating current American right-wing propaganda (Branding “inclusion and diversity” as bad or outright illegal is a current right-wing political agenda item. It is designed to harm minorities by removing programs that have proven effective at lowering racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. in schools and the workplace).

It’s not a good look for either of you.

roscoe , (edited )

Like I said to that guy, did you even watch the movie? “Addressing real issues” was core to the movie. Michael B. Jordan’s character was motivated by hundreds of years of colonialism, the transatlantic slave trade, and racism faced by black people the world over, and specifically in the U.S.

drphungky ,

I don’t necessarily agree with you but I’m upvoting you for adding to the conversation, because I think you have some nuggets of truth but miss some of the forest for the trees. Particularly, that they did make Falcon and Winter soldier that addressed some of the issues you’re talking about.

Regardless it’d be cool if Lemmy were like old reddit before it got big, where even if people disagreed with you they’d engage and dispute your points rather than just calling you a racist and hitting downvote. Just makes discourse devolve into “both sides” screaming at each other with their fingers in their ears.

roscoe , (edited )

You don’t think black panther “address(ed) the issues”? Did you miss all of Michael B. Jordan’s character’s motivation? Or did you just not even watch the movie?

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