Waithe slams Denzel Washington, Will Smith for not supporting films made by people of colour

Team Udayavani, Jun 23, 2019, 10:08 AM IST

New York: Lena Waithe has called out Denzel Washington and Will Smith for their lack of financial support to films made by people of colour.

In an interview with New York Times, Waithe said major stars like Washington and Smith have the financial power which enables to fund “at least four or five independent movies a year” but they do not do so.

“We had a black man run this country, and we still have yet to have a black man run a major studio. That tells you a lot about where we’re at as an industry, we’re still trying to play catch-up.

“And don’t get me started on black financiers! How many of those do we have? I’m not (going to name) names because I know better, but there are some very big black movie stars out there, and they could pay for two or three or even five small independent movies to get made by black directors and black writers,” Waithe said.

The actor-writer noted that both “Moonlight” and “12 Years a Slave”, the two films that she believes are “very important to the black community”, were backed by Brad Pitt’s Plan B banner.

“(It) wasn’t Denzel. Wasn’t Will Smith. You won’t catch me making USD 20 million a movie and not paying for at least four or five independent movies a year. I do give credit to Ava (DuVernay) for trying to build something that hasn’t been built before, but that’s a lot on Ava’s back. I’m over here trying to build a community, and I don’t see other people doing it.

“I really do feel like there’s a way for us to change the movie business from the inside out, but we’re all in our own silos doing our own thing. We’re definitely in the middle of a renaissance, make no mistake,” Waithe added.