Reel Inequality: Hollywood Actors and Racism
Nancy Wang YuenReel Inequality examines the structural barriers minority actors face in Hollywood, while shedding light on how they survive in a racist industry. The book charts how white male gatekeepers dominate Hollywood, breeding a culture of ethnocentric storytelling & casting. Nancy Wang Yuen interviewed nearly a hundred working actors & drew on published interviews with celebrities, such as Viola Davis, Chris Rock, Gina Rodriguez, Oscar Isaac, Lucy Liu, & Ken Jeong, to explore how racial stereotypes categorize & constrain actors. Their stories reveal the day-to-day racism actors of color experience in talent agents’ offices, at auditions, & on sets. Yuen also exposes sexist hiring & programming practices, highlighting the structural inequalities that actors of color, particularly women, continue to face in Hollywood.
This book not only conveys the harsh realities of racial inequality in Hollywood, but also provides vital insights from actors who have succeeded on their own terms, whether by sidestepping the system or subverting it from within. Considering how their struggles impact real-world attitudes about race & diversity, Reel Inequality follows actors of color as they suffer, strive, & thrive in Hollywood.