Will didn;'t want to offend Black Americans - Six Degrees of Separation (1993) Discussion

[–] 20 years ago

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[–] 20 years ago

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Kevin Spacey is out of the closet? Are you sure?

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Actually I never heard him say it - I thought it was common knowledge because it has been mentioned several times on the boards by different people in regards to him and also Jodie Foster. I never knew it before I saw it mentioned here.

But then I never heard Elton John say it either I just heard it from around so.....Anyway basically the point was that there were a lot of gay people in film behind the camera and in front....the old British guy who was in Lord of The Rings would be another one....and I heard him myself talking about it on "The View"

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[–] amazing 19 years ago

Ha ha.. you are so funny. The "old British guy in the Lord of the Rings" is in fact Ian McKellan who played Geoffrey in this movie!!!

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[–] jazzfunkandsoul 19 years ago

It's tricky to start generalizing about what Black people think about a certain subject: it's foolish to assume that Denzel Washington is a mouthpiece of Afro-American/Homosexual relations.

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[–] Killswitch_locked 18 years ago

but it's safe to say Denzel was a homophobe, and Will too for caving in.

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[–] eeleyebrown 18 years ago

Actually I heard Will later say that he felt he compromised himself by not doing it and wished he had because he felt that a true actor would have. Id have to agree with Denzel on this one but not for the sake of the black race but for myself personally if I was an actor and had second thoughts.

Will was climbing the Hollywood ladder and black Americans didnt want this to stereotype him because he was representative of us and we had so few black lead actors in big movies. Plus he was a rapper though not a gangsta rapper (which at that time was still only marginally popular) and that meant he was supposed to be braggadocious and confident and not sensitive and soft. We wanted a tough hero like Denzel and Wesley became. Fortunately "Bad Boys" was around the corner.

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[–] They-Call-Me-Steve 18 years ago

"but it's safe to say Denzel was a homophobe, and Will too for caving in."
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Not to argue, but what about Philadelphia? Denzel's character wasn't gay but he had a pretty big role in that movie. It came out the same year.

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[–] swami73 16 years ago

Denzel's character changed his opionion of homsexuality towards the end of Philedelphia aswell. He and his client had a strong bond as men. I think the impression Will's character portrays with the homosexuality tinged incident in the film SDOS, was more of a fashion statement, to say he had so much but underneath it all he was also a bit selfless, which some people see as fashionable believe it or not, pink shirt etcetera and so forth.

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[–] kidjay83 12 years ago

"but it's safe to say Denzel was a homophobe, and Will too for caving in." Will took the role because he wanted people to take him more seriously as and actor.That is why he went to denzel washington about the advice it wasn't advice about being homosexual.It was career advice from one actor to another denzel told him it would be a bad career move because. Of what sidney poitier said to denzel about picking roles .

The roles that and actor choses on the come up are roles that will define his career .In the future it'll be what you are known best for ,homophobia has nothing to do with it .If it came down to that don't you think will smith would of passed on the role entirely? The fact that he took it says the opposite,he did his role the way it was supposed to be done.He played gay,it seems that for some people that wasn't enough .

Maybe he should of dropped to his knees and pulled a chloe sevigny and drained his co star's balls .So you would see he's not a homophobe

In Europe an actor is an artist. In Hollywood, if he isn't working, he's a bum.

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[–] krasblak01 18 years ago

and who in real life... is gay

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[–] 18 years ago

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[–] Locksley_Hall 17 years ago

Plus he was a rapper though not a gangsta rapper (which at that time was still only marginally popular) and that meant he was supposed to be braggadocious and confident and not sensitive and soft. We wanted a tough hero like Denzel and Wesley became.

Right, because we all know that gay men are only ever sensitive and soft, and they can never be tough or heroic. Just like black men are always drug dealers, Italians always belong to the mafia, and Jews are always avaricious moneylenders. *Groan*

By the way, you might want to explain to Eric Alva, an openly gay man and the first US soldier to be wounded in Iraq, that he is supposed to be sensitive and soft, not tough. Guess he didn't get the memo.

The truth is that the truly "tough" thing to do in this situation would have been for Will Smith to kiss the man and say that he didn't care what anyone else thought about it. I don't blame him for not doing it... I can understand the fact of worrying about other people's disapproval. But then, I'm sensitive. And so, evidently, is Will Smith.

Fortunately "Bad Boys" was around the corner.

Yeah, fortunately. Because it is so much better to play a guy who shoots people dead than a guy who kisses another man.

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[–] HereMyDear 16 years ago

Get off your high horse. If Will wasn't comfortable kissing another man, and the director wasn't insistent, then he wasn't wrong to NOT do it. Why should anyone be forced into doing something that they aren't comfortable with? Scenes are cut, and/or altered, from films all the time because the actor didn't feel comfortable doing them. It's part of the trade. At the end of the day, no one was hurt because Will Smith opted out of that kiss scene...just like it hurts nothing when a nude scene is cut because an actress decides she doesn't want to bare it all.

Also, the title of this thread wreaks of hysteria and second hand theory. Will didn't do the kissing scene, most likely because he didn't want to. I haven't heard any declarations from him stating that the reason he chose not to was because he "didn;'t want to offend Black Americans."

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[–] jconnerjr2 15 years ago

The person wasn't saying it was wrong that Will didn't do a kiss, he was calling someone on their assumption that to be gay one has to be soft and sensitive.

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[–] 15 years ago

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[–] Intellectual_Intercourse 17 years ago

I don't think it makes him homophobic. I honestly think that if you're not really comfortable with something, you shouldn't do it...BUT if he really decided not to kiss the actor that played Trent just to not offend the black community, then I think that it was a bad decision at the time. However,he was very young, it was very early in his career, and Will has since acknowledged the mistake.

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[–] mit800 16 years ago

It`s easy to apologize after the fact. That`s an easy way out.

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[–] jconnerjr2 15 years ago

Apologizing isn't an easy way out. For one, you have to put aside your pride as well as admit you're wrong. Two things most people have trouble doing.

The point of an apology is that the apologizer acknowledges they made a mistake and don't make that same mistake again. Apologies aren't easy.

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[–] 15 years ago

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[–] shalanika 16 years ago

I agree that it wasn't homophobic of Will not to kiss him and if he felt uncomfortable doing it, he had a right not to. People have their standards, and it should be up to the individual that's participating in the act to determine how far they are willing to go.

In addition, it should be the audience and not so much Will that should change their perception on the idea of his character kissing another man. If the black population would just drop the stigma of homosexualality and open their minds to what's going on around them and accept the fact that homosexuals are here and they're not leaving, then Will would not have had a problem with doing anything more sexually intimate with his co-star, had the time had come for him to do so if necessary. Too many of our black people are too close-minded and too unaccepting to something that's already been mostly if not completely accepted by most of the world. Even if black people, and others who share the thought, don't loathe it with every fiber of their being, we still shouldn't be hiding from and omitting the homosexual lifestyle. We as black people should be more accepting and more understanding and open about it.

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[–] Isaac5855 16 years ago

I don't think Will was worried about what "Black America" would think of him playing a gay character. I think Smith's own homophobia was what frightened him about this role and if he was truly worried about offendingfans, he wouldn't have taken the role. And since you brought him up, Denzel Washington has always come off as a homophobe to me as well.

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[–] mmw_rocket 16 years ago

I love it when people speak of the "black community" as if tens of millions of INDIVIUALS are some monolithic entity. I know this thread is close to 4 years old now but I will respond anyway.

I can't comment on Denzel's Will Smith's personal views, but his worries probably had more to due with his fear as to how/if he would be typecast in his career and if the role would hurt him. Also, the early 90's, though it wasn't that far away, was a much more homophobic society than what has been experienced in the late 90's early 2000's.

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[–] 16 years ago

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[–] Zinnober 15 years ago

I think the fact that 70% of African-Americans voted Yes on Prop 8 is at least somewhat suggestive of the "community's" opinions regarding homosexuality.

And no, I'm not blaming black people for the passage of Prop 8... so don't start.

http://eugenicsbeginswithyou.typepad.com/

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[–] rashamc 15 years ago

That was in California.Not the rest of the country. But I do agree there is a stigma about Homosexuality in the black community. Just because each and every black person doesn't feel that way..it's still there.

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[–] HereMyDear 15 years ago

Zinnober, I think you have no idea of what you're talking about. That "70%" figure has been refuted. The real figure for AA voting in favor of Prop 8 is approx. 59%.

But what Prop 8 has to do with this movie is beyond me.

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[–] 15 years ago

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[–] zachanscom 14 years ago

in order to understand this, you need to understand "downlow" culture.

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[–] dathaler 14 years ago

Sorry zachanscom, but the Black community needs to take off its blinders and get over itself. You think G-d said "Well, after those 'slavery' and 'apartheid' debacles, I'll give 'em a break and make them all heterosexual."?!?!?!?!?

There will probably always be "downlow" culture, but there are plenty of "out" Blacks too--the Black community shouldn't just forget about them because it's "convenient."

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[–] ikke_for_let 13 years ago

If blacks are homophobic, does that make it OK to call them Ni66ers? What would be the argument against it?

Nothing more pathetic than one minority hating on another minority.

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[–] SkaterDave 12 years ago

If the part called for him to kiss a man he should not have taken the part if he didn't want to do it. It's that simple. If you're afraid of offending people by doing something, do get involved in whatever it is that has you do it. At this point in time, playing a gay charector does not hold the stigma it used to and alot of well known actors, both A listers and B and C listers have done it with no effect to their career. I know it was different back then but it would have been a good thing if he did.

One other thing..someone said that the black and latino communities are more conservative. I find that especially fuuny in regards to the latino community because the men will have sex with just about anything that moves. Their official saying is..as long as your on top it means you're not gay.

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[–] 12 years ago

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[–] dathaler 11 years ago

"I find that especially fuuny in regards to the latino community because the men will have sex with just about anything that moves. Their official saying is..as long as your on top it means you're not gay."

That only strengthens the argument--latino men will have sex with men, but won't refer to themselves as gay. Why? Because to them, it's not "normal" and socially acceptable. Newsflash: men who have sex with men ARE gay (or perhaps bisexual). "In denial" is not the equivalent of "heterosexual."

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[–] Zuider_Zee 11 years ago

It would be a shame if Smith lost his black homophobic audience. How could his audience ever recover from not being able to see his so-called talent?

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