Stonewall Director Sidelined Black Characters Because He's 'White and Gay'
So, the reviews are in, and the general verdict is that Roland Emmerich's Stonewall is really — REALLY — bad. According to Jezebel, while the film's poster, as seen above, states that it tells the story of "where pride began," it seems as they were missing one key word in the phrase: "white."
Emmerich's deliberate casting of a white gay man as the film's main character brought a lot of negative attention to the project as, historically proven, the first person to throw a brick at Stonewall was a trans woman of color named Marsha P. Johnson. Instead, in the film, the honor was given to a white gay man named Danny Winters — yes, the irony is that blatant.
Well, the backlash from those who know the true occurrences of the LGBT movement don't seem to phase Emmerich, who basically told BuzzFeed that the true events are irrelevant since the white character chosen is "more relatable" for the straight audience. "Some people warned me, but I said, 'Well, you know, so be it,'" he said. "You have to understand one thing: I didn't make this movie only for gay people, I made it also for straight people. I kind of found out, in the testing process, that actually, for straight people, [Danny] is a very easy in. Danny's very straight-acting. He gets mistreated because of that. [Straight audiences] can feel for him."
And the line that sealed the deal of "douchbaggery" for many: "As a director, you have to put yourself in your movies, and I'm white and gay."
Watch transgender activist Janet Mock speak on the importance of LGBT pride in the BET.com clip below:
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(Photo: Centropolis Entertainment / Mel's Cite du Cinema)
