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Melissa Harris-Perry: Welcome back to The Takeaway. I'm Melissa Harris-Perry.
It's award season, and the Golden Globes are back. Last year, the awards were heavily criticized for a number of ethical lapses, for lacking diversity, and for racist comments made by the former president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
Now, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is under new leadership. They have a new partnership with the NAACP, and they've announced a set of reforms promising to transform the organization, so the Golden Globes will return to NBC on January 10th with comedian Jerrod Carmichael hosting. Yesterday, they announced their nominees. With us now is Stephanie Holland, staff writer for The Root. Stephanie, thanks for joining us.
Stephanie Holland: Thank you for having me.
Melissa Harris-Perry: All right, can we start here? Take a listen.
Viola Davis: We fight not just for today, but for the future. We are the spear of victory. We are the blade of freedom. [chanting]
Melissa Harris-Perry: Okay, it's a fan favorite here on The Takeaway, so tell us about The Woman King, and who was and was not nominated.
Stephanie Holland: Well, obviously, Viola Davis was nominated for lead actress, which isn't a surprise because she probably could star in a movie where she reads Wikipedia profiles and be nominated for Best Actress, because she's just that great all the time. It was a little surprising that her co-stars who play the other warriors in the movie with her, none of them were nominated, and it was such an amazing ensemble cast. Also, to see the movie itself not be nominated, for the director to not be nominated, it really was a bit surprising that Viola was the only one recognized.
Melissa Harris-Perry: Yes. We had Gina Prince-Bythewood here on The Takeaway, and I have to say, I did presume, given the thoughtfulness around the directing of that really extraordinary film, that she would get a nod.
Stephanie Holland: Yes. It's so hard for women to get directing nominations as we saw yesterday. There were no women nominated for Best Director. Obviously, it's just two, three, four, five times as hard for a Black woman to get a directing nomination. It's surprising, but then, unfortunately, it also is not at the same time. This movie, it's just so spectacular, and the scope of it, and the story of how it took them so many years to fight through all the nos to get the movie made. It feels like there should be some more recognition for it.
Melissa Harris-Perry: Now, I want to pop on over to the Best Actor category. Let's take a listen.
Brendan Fraser: [unintelligible 00:03:09] I was always big. I let it get out of control.
Melissa Harris-Perry: That's Brendan Fraser's return to the big screen for his performance as Charlie in The Whale, but recently, that film has come under some criticism. What's happening with The Whale?
Stephanie Holland: Well, the thing is, as much as people like Brendan Fraser, and a lot of us grew up watching him in The Mummy franchise, in those '90s and 2000s rom-coms, he's very popular, and people like him. They really want to root for his big comeback. At the same time, the film is coming under fire for not hiring a plus-size or obese actor to play that role instead of going with Brendan Fraser.
His performance is great, he's great in the movie, but I feel like, and this is just for my personal feeling as a plus-size woman, a lot of times over the years we're not always given the best portrayal on screen, we're the joke, or we're not a great person, or were punished for being overweight. It's not always the best portrayal, so it felt like this was a chance to give an actor the opportunity to show us in the best light possible.
Again, it's not necessarily a knock against Brendan Fraser, because obviously, his performance is great, and his buzz and his recognition is well-deserved, but it feels like another missed opportunity from Hollywood.
Melissa Harris-Perry: Speaking of missed opportunities in Hollywood or these critiques that are not exclusively about the performances, but about the politics, the life of Hollywood around it, apparently, Fraser is not going to even attend the Golden Globes. He's accused the Hollywood Foreign Press' former President, Phillip Berk, of sexual assault.
Stephanie Holland: Yes. He definitely has his own valid personal reasons for not attending, and he came out very early on and let it be known he wasn't planning to attend no matter what happened. I think that leads into the bigger question as we talked about in the beginning, are people ready to come back to the Golden Globes? Because last year, they had a very low-key, untelevised-- it was like a glorified press conference, where they just announced the winners and nobody was really there. Everybody's waiting to see, are celebrities ready to come back to the Golden Globes?
NBC is trying to give it a big push to make it a big TV event again, but I'm just not sure Hollywood is ready to jump back in. I think you're going to see some very interesting conversations leading into the ceremony.
Melissa Harris-Perry: Are people ready to come back to it? Does it make a difference, for example, having Jerrod Carmichael hosting the awards?
Stephanie Holland: I think that will draw some people in because people like Jerrod, he's very funny. They know that the show will be interesting. They know that they won't be the same old tired jokes that you hear at other award shows. At the same time, the show is on a Tuesday, which is not the normal night of the week for award shows. Award shows are always on the weekend because that's when people are home to watch them, that's when celebrities are out to hit the red carpet.
Putting it on a Tuesday does signal something to me that maybe NBC doesn't have quite the confidence in it that they would have in the past. They nominated movies like Top Gun and Avatar 2, so they are definitely trying to get a star-studded show. I'm just not sure that they've shown enough of a change. It's only been a couple of years. I don't know if Hollywood is ready to fully embrace the Hollywood Foreign Press again.
Melissa Harris-Perry: Stephanie Holland, staff writer for The Root. Stephanie, we appreciate you being with us on The Takeaway.
Stephanie Holland: Thank you for having me.
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