My "New Hollywood": 15 Actors of color that Hollywood should start casting a lot more immediately.
/With the onset of social media creating awareness, the box office success of movies like Get Out, Black Panther, Crazy, Rich, Asians, and Girls Trip Hollywood has been a buzz with talk of representation, and diversity. But as the doors of opportunity open ever so slightly, and we engage in the conversations around casting and deserving actors I'd like to encourage diversity amongst even the diversity. It isn't enough to cast actors of color if limited imagination, and an increasingly narrow focus on branding and star making allows for the same 5 actors in any group to be casted over and over again as if on a marginalized merry go round. And this doesn't just extend to casting directors. Many times even amongst pop culture commentators, and social media I see the same Michael B. Jordan for this John Cho for that type casting. A constricted bingo game with very few squares, limited chips, and the same ol numbers being called out ad nauseam. So I'd like to mention some names of a few (15 ) actors (There are many many more I could list but people have jobs) I think are either due, underrated, or breakouts that deserve recognition I've seen near no one give them.
Choi min sik
The actor - of Oldboy fame - has not only presence, but physicality, vulnerability, and truth. If the roles were there Sik would be a regular at Oscar ceremonies. He can descend into madness, I mean stare right into it and come out of it without bringing with him the slightest sense he was ever playing at being there. He is one of the most gifted physical actors I've seen since Jim Carrey and Jackie Chan - both descendants of Buster Keaton and Chaplin. His face is a map, his brow the X that marks the spot where his tension is focused and he never makes an uninteresting choice in my experience watching him. I truly consider him one of the greatest actors alive. There is no excuse I can think of not to cast this master thespian in a Villanueve, Winding Refn, Nolan, or any other top tier director film, his work speaks for and in itself.
Shoreh Aghdashloo
Aghdashloo is a storyteller. Her magnificent voice carries the emotion, her eyes tell the tale, while her body language turns the page. She can burn you down, warm you up, or freeze your attention. She is a trained actor one can easily tell, but she is not stiff, and she is more than willing to take acting risks, and bend the rules. She is a scene thief, a character actor, and a star, and the proof is in her role in House of Sand of Fog which may have techincally starred Jennifer Connelly, and Ben Kingsley, but was most certainly HER movie. Her gravelly silk harp of a voice is as comforting as a warm wind on a cool day, and she has a pension for understanding the importance of using the entirety of a set to an actor. Watch her pour a glass of water, or walk over to a chair, look out a window, or even clean a coffee table, and give it the same intention as she would a scene partner. This is craft, this is work, this is love, this is acting.
Debbie Morgan
A veteran actor who made her name known in daytime television (a breeding ground for a lot of our greatest actors whether you want to believe it or not) Morgan's performance in Kasi Lemmon's black Southern Gothic classic "Eve's Bayou" was a the astronomical birth of a star, or at least it should've been. Morgan has been criminally - and I don't use that word in a hyperbolic sense - slept on. She has a well of shifting instincts, sentiment as deep as Julianne Moore, and the presence of Lena Horne. In a pivotal and revealing scene in Eve's Bayou Morgan delivers a masterclass in monologue delivery. It is full of deliberate movement that never seems deliberate, gravitas, and heartbreaking sincerity. It is lived in and mesmerizing. You go where she goes because you can tell she was on a journey of immense importance..to her as an actor, and to the film...I stan.. And you would too if Hollywood gave her half the chance.
Alberto Ammann
So far I've only seen him in the three seasons of Netflix's high octane cocaine tale "Narcos" as Pacho Herrera. But all he has done in that time is steal the spotlight from a lot of the more prominent figures in the show, create a deliberate evolution of character and objectives from an actor's sense of instinct, and show a magnetism that usually comes standard with stardom. Ammann possesses an innate ferocity, but he also has soft eyes and it makes for compelling viewing. Anyone watching Narcos is made keenly aware of this. Ammann has made Pacho - a cold blooded viscous killer of the highest order - relatable and sympathetic, loving and cruel all at the same time sometimes in the same scene. The actor has the looks of a leading man, plenty of charm, and the skillset of a character actor which should give him an elasticity and longevity in Hollywood if they wake up... Cast him.
Adepero Oduye
Lupita Nyong'o's performance as "Patsy" got all the recognition and rightfully so, but that shouldn't have caused Hollywood to forget the devastating and lingering ache of Adepero Oduye's performance as "Eliza" in Steve McQueen's antebellum epic "12 years a slave ". Like the movie itself it took what is a tired subject matter and opened up new chanels of humanity, expression, nuance, and frankness. And that was after she had already wowed us with her performance in Dee Ree's " Pariah ". Intelligence is not often spoken of in relation to acting, but it is vital to being great. It informs decisions and choices for the narrative pathways of a character. Watching Oduye's work it's clear she has it in spades. Because of that I think Oduye could do a bevy of varied and game changing work in Hollywood, especially as it pertains to the independent circuit, and television. Directors whose work gravitates towards the A24's of the world, and HBO or Netflix, should shape projects around this beautiful and talented woman, the receipts will reward the decision as Dee Rees and Steve McQueen already know.
Zahn McClarnon
Having seen Zahn McClarnon steal scenes in Fargo, Frontier, and Westworld, I think it's time Hollywood take notice of both his skills, and inherent likeability. For comparison McClarnon gives me Fonda vibes of various members but especially Henry. He has that magic sort of steely intelligence rooted in hardened every man values. That ability to stare a thousand yards into another person's soul, or relay several different emotions in one seemingly similar look. You want a new era grapes of wrath? You doing a film about a cold blooded assassin who slowly either deteriorates or has a change of heart (Think "The American" with George Clooney), this is your guy. I personally think "Wind River" the latest from writer Taylor Sheridan (of Sicario, and Hell or High Water fame) would've been that much better had McClarnon starred rather than Jeremy Renner for a ton of reasons. Culture just being the obvious.