Holy bullshit, Batman!
'Hitch' Battled Race Issue
Eva Mendes was cast as Will Smith's love interest in new movie Hitch to avoid upsetting race groups. Movie bosses feared handing a Smith a black leading lady would alienate white audiences and a white actress would upset African American film-goers - so they settled on a latina. Smith explains, "There's sort of an accepted myth that if you have two black actors, a male and a female, in the lead of a romantic comedy, that people around the world don't want to see it We spend $50-something million making this movie and the studio would think that was tough on their investment. So the idea of a black actor and a white actress comes up - that'll work around the world, but it's a problem in the US."
Click on any of the above text to get the original with photo and links on IMDB. Sadly, there is no link to enlighten us as to what the hell they meant by "race groups," nor in what sense they "battled" this issue. Non-capitalization of "Latina" in the original. Courtesy of Mr. Chib Chaz.
Eva Mendes was cast as Will Smith's love interest in new movie Hitch to avoid upsetting race groups. Movie bosses feared handing a Smith a black leading lady would alienate white audiences and a white actress would upset African American film-goers - so they settled on a latina. Smith explains, "There's sort of an accepted myth that if you have two black actors, a male and a female, in the lead of a romantic comedy, that people around the world don't want to see it We spend $50-something million making this movie and the studio would think that was tough on their investment. So the idea of a black actor and a white actress comes up - that'll work around the world, but it's a problem in the US."
Click on any of the above text to get the original with photo and links on IMDB. Sadly, there is no link to enlighten us as to what the hell they meant by "race groups," nor in what sense they "battled" this issue. Non-capitalization of "Latina" in the original. Courtesy of Mr. Chib Chaz.