Lena Waithe Calls Out Will Smith and Denzel Washington for Not Financing Films With Black Talent

Any (and what little) creditbility had was lost when this chick identified “Moonlight” and “12 Years A Slave” as “important” films to the black community; GTFOHWTBS.

those films won HOLLYWIERD awards - important to the industry.
she's displaying the problem that comes with someone getting opportunity & success quickly.
they put a mic in their face and lack of knowledge spews forth!
 
Excellent fucking point. Nate Parker said the same shit about HIS indie pic and how none of the big names would assist in financing. Nigga said he got his bigger contributions from athletes (Tony Parker was a big one). Nobody came in flailing and attacking Nate for the audacity of criticizing their heroes tho. These niggas are clowns man. Like i said, none of these muthafuckin hollywood cats are beyond questioning.
Everybody can be questioned.

It's just who is doing the questioning that is questionable.

Nate Parker? This is him speaking on Denzel.



If she wants to make gay movies she can crowdfund and get the gays to pay for it. If they don't or haven't, go argue with them.
 
Nate Parker? This is him speaking on Denzel.
Good stuff. But Nate Parker acknowledging that Denzel gave him a role has nothing to do with Nate expressing disappointment in lack of financing from fellow black actors, nor Lenas point about lack of funding for black independent films. Stay focused brother.
If she wants to make gay movies she can crowdfund and get the gays to pay for it. If they don't or haven't, go argue with them.
Why do you guys keep concentrating on her sexuality? Whats it have to do with her comments ?
 
Why do we always expect people to give back or help? This mentality is sickening. It's always that "what have you done for us" bullshit in relation to rich black folks
 
Why do we always expect people to give back or help? This mentality is sickening. It's always that "what have you done for us" bullshit in relation to rich black folks


They should give back and help
Definitely
That's not up for debate


It's just that if they give back and help in the way they feel comfortable someone shouldn't come and say you need to give back like this in order for it to count

That's how you get the opposite reaction and where ppl are like ok I did this but it's not good enough ok cool I ain't doin shit then


And her whole thing calling out those two specifically was meh. Like I said Denzel helps actors out and actresses. For decades

Will 21% of the movies he's produced that isn't him was minority features he literally only had one movie that was cac'd out that he produced


And she was careful to try and say Ava is trying but that's all because Ava was her mentor
And Ava isn't financing movies which isn't a knock on her it's just true Ava just signed a 9 figure deal with wb, to do shit
And if that's the argument of how to give back then include shonda rhimes who signed that type of deal and Kenya Barnes the creator of black ish and grownish who signed a similar deal before Ava did
 
Excellent fucking point. Nate Parker said the same shit about HIS indie pic and how none of the big names would assist in financing. Nigga said he got his bigger contributions from athletes (Tony Parker was a big one). Nobody came in flailing and attacking Nate for the audacity of criticizing their heroes tho. These niggas are clowns man. Like i said, none of these muthafuckin hollywood cats are beyond questioning.

So why are we treating Will and Denzel different from all white filmmakers?

If you pitch a movie and people don't like it are they just supposed to give you money for it because you are black?

Movies get turned down and passed on all the time. I'm sure every movie that Will Smith and Denzel want to make doesn't get made.

A "production" company is in the business of making money. What a black production company can do to further the black community is give black people a shot at getting meetings and getting their shit heard. That's it. After that if you don't have an idea that is in line with what that company wants to do they are not obligated to give you money and put out your shit because you are black.

So her "critique" is bullshit. They don't like your shit. Just like she doesn't like these black movies that she says white critics love.

Deal with it? :dunno:
 
They should give back and help
Definitely
That's not up for debate


It's just that if they give back and help in the way they feel comfortable someone shouldn't come and say you need to give back like this in order for it to count

That's how you get the opposite reaction and where ppl are like ok I did this but it's not good enough ok cool I ain't doin shit then


And her whole thing calling out those two specifically was meh. Like I said Denzel helps actors out and actresses. For decades

Will 21% of the movies he's produced that isn't him was minority features he literally only had one movie that was cac'd out that he produced


And she was careful to try and say Ava is trying but that's all because Ava was her mentor
And Ava isn't financing movies which isn't a knock on her it's just true Ava just signed a 9 figure deal with wb, to do shit
And if that's the argument of how to give back then include shonda rhimes who signed that type of deal and Kenya Barnes the creator of black ish and grownish who signed a similar deal before Ava did

Pure fire...

I will wait for someone to try contradict any of this
 
Also if the premise is just cut checks cause you got money so finance films even tho that's not your lane

She definitely will have to do this and I hope she does walk it like she talks it


So far she didn't on one important issue

We'll see what's up with the rest

Hope she has nothing but success so she can finance those films

Mo fire...
 
Just read the comments



Its interesting

The attempted DEFENSE of her comments is to try to play semantics with her words

But my rule is if you decide to ATTACK someone?

You BETTER come correct.

How you a writer director etc and you cant express yourself clearly accurately and succinctly?

The only defense i hear is well she has the RIGHT to critize..

What the hell does that have to do with being wrong?

Well technically she was right?

WTF?

Either will and denzel help or they don't.

First, She was completely WRONG on will

And if Denzel paying people's rent travel food and clothes to survive and network aint "financing", what is?

And ok...

will and Denzel aint never do sh*t for nobody like she say.

What about all that sexual harassment happening under her watch?

How that helping?

Cause if that show gets cancelled cause of her negligence in letting that harassment continue?

Dozens of black men and women gay and straight will lose work.

How that helping the finances?
 
So why are we treating Will and Denzel different from all white filmmakers?
Because her point was about lack of support from black powerbrokers. White powerbrokers fund white projects and have been doing so since time began. How is this basic point of her premise a hard one to grasp?

Her criticism wasnt limited to them. Those were mere name brand examples she used to illustrate her point.
 
Its interesting

The attempted DEFENSE of her comments is to try to play semantics with her words

But my rule is if you decide to ATTACK someone?

You BETTER come correct.

How you a writer director etc and you cant express yourself clearly accurately and succinctly?

The only defense i hear is well she has the RIGHT to critize..

What the hell does that have to do with being wrong?

Well technically she was right?

WTF?

Either will and denzel help or they don't.

First, She was completely WRONG on will

And if Denzel paying people's rent travel food and clothes to survive and network aint "financing", what is?

And ok...

will and Denzel aint never do sh*t for nobody like she say.

What about all that sexual harassment happening under her watch?

How that helping?

Cause if that show gets cancelled cause of her negligence in letting that harassment continue?

Dozens of black men and women gay and straight will lose work.

How that helping the finances?

Yeah, she didn’t think her comments through enough before she spoke or someone sent her to do their bidding. Either way, she’s way off base.
 
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I'm a fan of her work, well really just the thanksgiving ep on Master of None S2 and The Chi but Lena was put on by Aziz Ansari, most ppl including myself never seen/heard of her until Master of None so it was Aziz's cosign that got her on and not a Black man in Hollywood so she probably feels some type of way towards the black men in Hollywood already


Its interesting

The attempted DEFENSE of her comments is to try to play semantics with her words

But my rule is if you decide to ATTACK someone?

You BETTER come correct.

How you a writer director etc and you cant express yourself clearly accurately and succinctly?

The only defense i hear is well she has the RIGHT to critize..

What the hell does that have to do with being wrong?

Well technically she was right?

WTF?

Either will and denzel help or they don't.

First, She was completely WRONG on will

And if Denzel paying people's rent travel food and clothes to survive and network aint "financing", what is?

And ok...

will and Denzel aint never do sh*t for nobody like she say.

What about all that sexual harassment happening under her watch?

How that helping?

Cause if that show gets cancelled cause of her negligence in letting that harassment continue?

Dozens of black men and women gay and straight will lose work.

How that helping the finances?
 
“Alot of bad black movies get good reviews because white critics are afraid to pan them,” she said.

We still feel this guilt of, ‘Go support this movie because there’s black folks in it.'”


So white critics are afraid to pan bad black movies.


Also we still feel this guilt to go support bad black movies

And then if a movie doesn't do well because we think it's bad we're always told well if you want to see more black movies go support the ones that are in the theaters right?

And also they should be financing multiple movies even if they think the movies are bad


Interesting
 
I'm a fan of her work, well really just the thanksgiving ep on Master of None S2 and The Chi but Lena was put on by Aziz Ansari, most ppl including myself never seen/heard of her until Master of None so it was Aziz's cosign that got her on and not a Black man in Hollywood so she probably feels some type of way towards the black men in Hollywood already


That's not true
Ava put her on.
 
Thats not what she said. Gotta be careful assigning quote to people.
nah big bro thats exactly what she said. she shouldn't have mentioned that in the first place.
every black movie made is a plus for us. and cacs being scared to give negative reviews are good cause they were hating since the beginning
tuts me she doesn't want it to go back to the old days
 
nah big bro thats exactly what she said. she shouldn't have mentioned that in the first place.
every black movie made is a plus for us. and cacs being scared to give negative reviews are good cause they were hating since the beginning
tuts me she doesn't want it to go back to the old days
Nope.

This:
And then she says black films are bad but critics are scared to pan them
Is different from, this:
“A lot of bad black movies get good reviews because white critics are afraid to pan them,”
 
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