Larenz Tate has weighed in on the debate over black British actors landing roles in high-profile American movies and TV shows.
THE Power Book II: Ghost star addressed the issue during a recent interview on the “Earn Your Leisure” podcast.
Hosts Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings asked Tate about a ‘decline’ in the black American actor’s influence following a ‘British invasion’. The hosts were referring to the success of British stars such as Idris Elba, Damson Idris, Daniel Kaluuya and John Boyega.
“I don’t see it as a competition. I look at the collective,” Tate began. “There are brothers who do it, whether they do it here in America, whether they do it, you know, from the UK or even from the mother continent, Africa. I’m cool with whatever it’s gonna be.
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Still, he said Hollywood power brokers underestimated African-American actors.
“I feel like Hollywood thinks there’s more value in black British actors than there is in black actors,” Tate said. “And I think part of it comes down to, ‘Oh, they have an audience there, so they’re translating internationally.’ Going back to that, what I think is, you know, a hoax Whether we don’t sell or we don’t sell we have no value So I think they put that in the mix Also I think Hollywood is in love with the UK and of all things British.
Tate, 47, has been acting since the 1980s. He is best known for his roles in Society Threat II (1993), love jones (1997), Why fools fall in love (1998), Ray (2004), and Accident (2004).
The actor added in the interview, “I feel like the black American actor is, you know, I see what this decline is. But, you know, here we are”
Tate isn’t the only famous black American actor to have addressed the so-called “invasion” by black British actors.
In a 2017 interview with New York radio station Hot 97, Samuel L. Jackson suggested Jordan Peele’s award-winning drama To go outwhich starred Daniel Kaluuya as an African-American man with a white girlfriend experiencing the horrors of racism, could have benefited from having an American actor in the lead role.
“There are a lot of black British actors in these films,” Jackson said. “What would an American brother have thought of this role? Some things are universal, but not everything.
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Kaluuya said racism makes it much harder for black actors to succeed in England.
“I was going for a lot of things [in England]“, he told Britain The Sunday Times in 2020. “But I wasn’t getting roles because of the color of my skin. It wasn’t fair. It was a trap. »
Kaluuya, who was born in London, said he didn’t come to the US looking for a job by choice, he came here out of necessity after being repeatedly passed over for roles in the Kingdom -United.
“I came up for this show. It was 10 rounds of auditions. There was me and a white guy for the lead role,” he explained. “It was about extraterrestrials. And I realized as I was going to an audition that the other guy got an acting coach. They didn’t love me like they loved him.
He said it wasn’t the first time something like this had happened.
“It happened a couple of times, and I went, ‘Nah. I’m not an idiot,’ he added.
Watch Larenz Tate’s interview below.
