Every Single Word

Every Single Word (Spoken by a Person of Color) is a Tumblr blog and YouTube channel that features videos on all the lines spoken by people of color (POC) in both contemporary and classic films. Created by Dylan Marron, the videos are an attempt to highlight the lack of casting and involvement of POC in Hollywood produced films, in addition to highlighting his own experiences in attempting to be cast in films as a Venezuelan American.[1][2]

The reasons for such low amounts of casting of POC in films is stated by Marron to be about fear, because the "people who finance the movies are not going to want to throw millions behind a movie of a non-famous person of color". In addition, default casting for films, even for works or scripts with no specified races for the characters, is to choose white actors. The novel The Fault in Our Stars by John Green is noted by Marron as a work with no races given for the characters and one that has had worldwide success in its book form, but the main cast for the film were chosen by the producing studio to be entirely white.[3] Manohla Dargis, writing for The New York Times, noted that Marron's videos show that even when POC are cast in films, they are often cast in stereotypical roles that function as tokenism for the casting quota.[4] The Boston Globe compared Marron's videos with other statistics presented in the "2015 Hollywood Diversity Report", which showed that scriptwriters and directors are also rarely POC, along with lead roles in films.[5]

Several celebrities have praised and shared the blog with their fans, including Aziz Ansari, Junot Diaz,[6] Kerry Washington,[7] and Chirlane McCray.[8] The blog was named by Tumblr as the most viral blog of 2015.[9]

History

Marron began producing the video cuts in June 2015 and the popularity of the blog began to increase soon after beginning the project. The idea for the blog came after Marron started a play titled "Every Single Word" for his theater group, called the New York Neo Futurists, which involved a large amount of short play pieces by different members. Marron's act consisted of him saying every line by Angelah Johnson-Reyes in Enough Said. In 2014, while re-watching the film, he realized that the writer was unable to view POC as separate from service jobs and caused him to form his act for the group. This act eventually led to his investigation of other films and the creation of his video cut blog.[10][11]

The coverage of POC representation in the Harry Potter series by Marron resulted in some controversy. Some fans were upset that the videos pointed out the low representation, "5 minutes and 40 seconds long – out of 1,207 total minutes of run-time" and the whitewashing of the character Lavender Brown from the black actresses that had played her in the first five movies to the "blond woman" from the sixth movie on, when the character has a heavier involvement and lines in the plot.[12] After doing videos on a number of popular movies and series, Marron decided to do a series of videos on every Academy Award for Best Picture winner since the first award in 1929, in chronological order so that any differences in POC casting can be seen in relation to historical time period.[13] Marron also created a series of videos looking at all the films directed by Nancy Meyers, six films in total. He found that POC representation across all of the films only made up 0.7% of run-time and that most of the characters were not named and were presented as working service jobs.[14]

A "Every Single Word: The Oscars" live event was conducted by Marron on February 28, 2016 in New York City, where the words spoken by people of color during the Oscars was live cut during viewing.[15]

Media featured

* The films and television shows below are presented in chronological order except for those released in the same year, which are presented alphabetically:

Films

Title Year released No. of POC Length of video
(in seconds)
Wings (silent film) 1927 0 (seen) 0:14
The Broadway Melody 1929 0 0:08
All Quiet on the Western Front 1930 0 0:09
Cimarron[16] 1931 5 2:10
Grand Hotel 1932 0 0:08
Cavalcade 1933 0 0:10
It Happened One Night 1934 2 0:52
Mutiny on the Bounty 1935 7 3:57
The Great Ziegfeld 1936 2 0:39
The Life of Emile Zola 1937 0 0:08
You Can't Take It with You 1938 2 1:49
Gone with the Wind[13] 1939 11 14:52
Rebecca 1940 0 0:06
How Green Was My Valley 1941 0 0:07
Jaws[7] 1975 0 0:07
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial[17] 1982 1 0:09
Mrs. Doubtfire[17] 1993 2 0:10
Titanic[18] 1997 3 0:54
What Women Want 2000 10 2:06
Harry Potter film series[8] 2001–2011 13 6:18
The Lord of the Rings trilogy[19] 2001–2003 4 0:46
Wet Hot American Summer[20] 2001 0 0:07
Something's Gotta Give 2003 4 1:53
Wedding Crashers[21] 2005 3 0:39
The Holiday[22] 2006 6 0:37
Juno[23] 2007 4 1:26
500 Days of Summer[3] 2009 4 0:30
It's Complicated[22] 5 0:45
Black Swan[24] 2010 1 0:24
Friends with Benefits[24] 2011 4 0:54
Midnight in Paris[25] 2 0:13
Moonrise Kingdom[1] 2012 1 0:10
American Hustle[24] 2013 5 0:53
Enough Said[26] 1 0:45
Frances Ha[27] 4 0:30
Her[3] 4 0:46
Birdman[19] 2014 9 0:52
The Fault in Our Stars[3] 1 0:41
Into the Woods[1] 0 0:07
Maleficent[28] 1 0:18
Noah[26] 0 0:10
Spotlight[14] 2015 4 0:27
The Intern[22] 5 0:26

Television shows

Title Year released No. of POC Length of video
(in seconds)
Girls (pilot) 2012 3 0:25

References

  1. 1 2 3 McDonald, Soraya Nadia (July 10, 2015). "Meet Dylan Marron, the actor and playwright behind those 'every single word spoken by a person of color' YouTube videos". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 10, 2015.
  2. ↑ Harris, Aisha (June 24, 2015). "A Brilliant Video Series Shows Just How Few Words Are Spoken by People of Color in Movies". Slate. Retrieved October 10, 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Gajanan, Mahita (July 8, 2015). "Famous films re-edited to highlight Hollywood's race problem". The Guardian. Retrieved October 10, 2015.
  4. ↑ Dargis, Manohla (August 5, 2015). "Report Finds Wide Diversity Gap Among 2014's Top Grossing Films". The New York Times. Retrieved October 10, 2015.
  5. ↑ Brodeur, Michael Andor (June 30, 2015). "'Every Single Word' captures Hollywood's lack of diversity". The Boston Globe. Retrieved October 10, 2015.
  6. ↑ Coggan, Devan (July 15, 2015). "This video project cuts together every line spoken by people of color in movies". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved October 10, 2015.
  7. 1 2 Biese, Alex (October 9, 2015). "Dylan Marron on 'Every Single Word'". Asbury Park Press. Retrieved October 10, 2015.
  8. 1 2 Murphy, Shaunna (August 28, 2015). "Could The 'Every Single Word Spoken' Project Make The Next 'Harry Potter' More Diverse?". MTV News. Retrieved October 10, 2015.
  9. ↑ Vitto, Laura (December 7, 2015). "The 10 most viral Tumblr blogs of 2015". Mashable. Retrieved February 24, 2016.
  10. ↑ Desta, Yohana (July 8, 2015). "Bold video series shows how rarely people of color actually speak in films". Mashable. Retrieved October 10, 2015.
  11. ↑ Zakarin, Jordan (June 29, 2015). "Meet the Man Fighting Hollywood's Race Problem, One Supercut at a Time". Yahoo! Movies. Retrieved October 10, 2015.
  12. ↑ Minkel, Elizabeth (September 22, 2015). ""Your fave is problematic": why are we so bad at talking about diversity in pop culture?". New Statesman. Retrieved February 24, 2016.
  13. 1 2 Luers, Erik (December 29, 2015). "Interview: Meet Dylan Marron, the Man Behind The 'Every Single Word Spoken By a Person of Color' Video Series". Indiewire. Retrieved February 24, 2016.
  14. 1 2 Rodulfo, Kristina (April 27, 2016). "These Videos Chart Every Word a Person of Color Speaks in Major Films". Elle. Retrieved May 2, 2016.
  15. ↑ Biese, Alex (February 22, 2016). "Oscar week: Dylan Marron returns to 'Fan Theory'". Asbury Park Press. Retrieved March 9, 2016.
  16. ↑ Wilson, Christopher W. (November 17, 2015). ""Cast as white by default": Exploring the lack of diversity in movies". National Museum of American History. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved February 24, 2016.
  17. 1 2 Timi-Biu, Yero (September 10, 2015). "Every Single Word Spoken by a Person of Colour: A Painful Truth". Rife Magazine. Watershed. Retrieved October 10, 2015.
  18. ↑ Cooper, Chasity S. (February 28, 2016). "This Shocking YouTube Series Proves Just How Little Screen Time Actors of Color Actually Get". Teen Vogue. Retrieved March 9, 2016.
  19. 1 2 Kabango, Shadrach (August 5, 2015). "'Every Single Word' points out who's missing from the movies". CBC Radio. Retrieved October 10, 2015.
  20. ↑ Molloy, Tim (August 17, 2015). "Straight Outta Maine: Why is Hollywood so white?". Boston.com. Retrieved October 10, 2015.
  21. ↑ Rutherford-Morrison, Lara (July 9, 2015). "Man Edits Movies To Scenes With People Of Color To Show Just How Problematic Representation Is In The Industry". Bustle. Retrieved October 10, 2015.
  22. 1 2 3 Cook, Erin (April 29, 2016). "These Clever Videos Collate Every Time A Person Of Colour Spoke In Major Films". Marie Claire. Retrieved May 2, 2016.
  23. ↑ Molina, Mary Angelica (September 11, 2015). "When Dylan Marron Edited White People Out Of Hollywood Movies, There Was Barely Anything Left". NALIP. National Association of Latino Independent Producers. Retrieved October 10, 2015.
  24. 1 2 3 Wilkinson, Emma (July 8, 2015). "Silent Screen: Site Highlights Lack of Dialogue for Minority Actors". NBC News. Retrieved October 10, 2015.
  25. ↑ McCord, Shakeitta (August 2, 2015). "'Every Single Word' Videos Show Us What Popular Movies Look Like Without White People in — It May Shock You". Atlanta Blackstar. Retrieved October 10, 2015.
  26. 1 2 "He's Shared 'Every Single Word' — But It's The Silence That Rings Louder". NPR. July 11, 2015. Retrieved October 10, 2015.
  27. ↑ Berkowitz, Joe (July 6, 2015). "These Movies Are Shockingly Short When Reduced To "Every Single Word Spoken By A Person Of Color"". Fast Company. Retrieved October 10, 2015.
  28. ↑ Brown, Jeffrey (August 7, 2015). "Why do most movies still fail to reflect U.S. diversity?". PBS NewsHour. Retrieved October 10, 2015.

Further reading

External links

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