Fairness in Hollywood?

With all the recent talk about Hollywood and the Oscars not being fair to minorities, I’d like to get on my soapbox for a minute and point out another group of people that have been excluded for the most part since cinema began. And they are actors and actresses that have appeared in horror films. No matter how high of an achievement in acting they do, it is very rare that they are recognized or even noticed by the Academy. But these people have given some amazing and incredible performances over the years, but most of them are sweeped under the red carpet without even a first glance.

Now before you start with the hate mail about trying to compare horror films to a race of people that may or may not be being excluded, all I’m trying to do is point out that as horror fans, we’ve been a 2nd class citizen for most of the life of the genre, which pretty much means from the beginning of cinema. And nobody seems to being crying foul about this. Hell, at some stores, we can’t get our genre to have its own section, where they lump our movies under the Science Fiction section!!! And these people work their butts off, some of them having to work through a layer or two (or more) of latex appliances and still make sure their character comes through. Spending long hours in the makeup chair, then spending long hours on the set, and sometimes putting their minds into a very dark place to come up with their character, it is just what they do for their craft. But do they get any recognition from the Academy, or even the regular media? Sorry to say, but not too damn often. Which is just a tragedy, if you ask me, since these people are putting their heart and soul into their performance, just as hard as everyone who’s regularly nominated for an Oscar. I’d like to see George Clooney give a performance that would amaze the audience, while under a half inch of rubber. Last time he did that was Batman and Robin, and we all remember how great that performance was!

So what can we do that will change this? Probably nothing. But what we can do, and NEED to do, is make sure that as fans of this genre, when we see a performance that left you in awe, you need to spread the word. Social media is a great place for that and it so much better to use to spread praise for someone’s hard work then to use it to beat someone down. So spread the word. Tell your friends about this movie. Post your thoughts and reviews. Get it out there. Will it change the attitude of the Academy or the general public? No. But at least we are doing what we can to make sure more people know about them, as well as showing these artists that all of their hard work and misery they put themselves through for their character is very much appreciated by us fans.