Friday, February 29, 2008

One of These Things Is Not Like the Others

Like many other American black folk, I spent my Monday night watching the ABC broadcast of A Raisin in the Sun. Overall, it was pretty good. It was good to see most of the cast from the 2004 Broadway revival reunited on screen, again under the careful direction of Kenny Leon. Audra McDonald was fabulous as Ruth Younger. Sanaa Lathan, though older than her college-aged character, was no less fiery and precocious as Beneatha Younger. And Phylicia Rashad gave the performance of her career as Lena Younger.

Each of these women has not only an impressive resume, but extensive training. Audra (Juilliard, '93) is a goddess in the minds and hearts of theatre geeks everywhere, and has 4 Tonys to prove it. Sanaa is known for crowd pleasers like Something New and Love and Basketball, but homegirl studied theatre at Yale. And Phylicia, in addition to being everyone's favorite TV mom, Clair Huxtable, attended good old HU (you know!) as a theatre major. When you combine all three, you have a flawless cast, right?

Enter Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, he of stupid-ass nickname and wack-ass rapping fame.

Sure, he played Walter Lee Younger in the Broadway revival a few years back, and I know he's trying, but it's just wrong on so many levels. This man is not an actor. He belongs in Proactiv commercials and on MTV's 10-spot, not sharing scenes with the likes of McDonald, Lathan, and Rashad. Not that he was horrible; he wasn't as strong as the other players, but he didn't ruin the movie, either.

But what right does he have to be there? How many other black stage and screen actors, scrounging for work, could have used that role? That notariety? That opportunity? That paycheck? It's hard enough for black actors to find work to begin with. Why make things worse? How presumptuous of Diddy to think he could even attempt to fill the shoes of Sidney Poitier! He wouldn't stand for such behavior from his Making the Band contestants.

Now, I don't hate all rapper-actors. But there's a right way to go about it. Small roles in Crash and Hustle and Flow a la Ludacris, or the RZA's believable turn as an undercover cop in American Gangster make sense. Sure, those are parts that could go to black male actors as well, but they're hardly starring, career-making roles.

Look, Diddy, if you want to act, cool. I'm all for it. But why don't you try guesting an episode of Law & Order before you tackle the classics, okay?

Posted by: Brittany
Image: um, Wikipedia

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