You may not know his name, but there is no doubt that Djimon Hounsou has become one of the most requested secondary actors through his talent of the moment. As an example, we only have to take a look at his filmography, whose recent works include multi-million dollar franchises such as the Marvel and DC movie universes, ‘Fast & Furious’ or ‘A Quiet Place’.
However, the prestige of the African began to be forged much earlier. specifically during a golden decade in which he worked under the orders of Steven Spielberg in ‘Friendship’, Ridley Scott in ‘Gladiator’, and Jim Sheridan and Edward Zwick in ‘In America’ and ‘Blood Diamond’ respectively; two feature films that helped him to get hold of two Oscar nominations.
Oscars and dollars
However, Hounsou is not particularly happy with the way the industry has treated him, and this starts with his experience with the academy awards in hollywood. During an interview with The Guardian, the interpreter believes that today he would have had much more luck and, probably, recognition.
“Maybe I got there early. If my movies had come out today, I’d have won an Oscar by now. I’ve gone to studio meetings and they were like, ‘Wow, we thought you just got here and you left again. [después de ‘Amistad’]. We didn’t know you were here as an actor.’ When you hear things like that, you can see that the way some people perceive you or what you represent is very limiting. But that’s what there is. Fixing that is in my hand.
I felt tremendously cheated. Today we talk a lot about the Oscars being very white, but I remember there was a time when I didn’t have any kind of support: not from my own people, not from the media, not from the industry itself. I felt like it was like, ‘You should be happy to be nominated,’ period.”
Unfortunately, awards and pats on the back are not enough to eat, and in any profession what is truly important is a fair financial compensation proportional to the effort and results. Regarding the latter, Hounsou is not particularly satisfied either, coming to feeling cheated after all these years of castings, filming and premieres.
“I feel cheated, tremendously cheated, financially and also in terms of the workload. I still have to prove why I need to get paid. They always come up with some trick: ‘We only have this for the paper, but we I like you a lot and we think you can contribute a lot’.
Viola Davis put it perfectly: she’s won an Oscar, she’s won an Emmy, she’s won a Tony, and she’s still not getting paid. Movie after movie, it’s a struggle. I have yet to find the movie that pays me fairly.”
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