Actor Djimon Hounsou says he's still struggling financially to make a living, despite starring in Hollywood blockbuster movies

[FaTaL]

Damn I just saw this on fb, I think this is going to hurt him

 

[Mission249]

Damn I just saw this on fb, I think this is going to hurt him

Yeah. People are going to cherry pick this to fuel the culture war.

Dude should've articulated it differently or kept quiet and found another way. There's no winning this even if he's 100% in the right.

 

[FaTaL]

Yeah. People are going to cherry pick this to fuel the culture war.

Dude should've articulated it differently or kept quiet and found another way. There's no winning this even if he's 100% in the right.

i wonder if his agent ok'd this, i cant see this working out in his favor

 

[Artificial Intelligence]

Hire this man.

 

[Sonny Bonds]

That said man needs to work more so he can maintain his lifestyle or alter his lifestyle so it fits his income.

Don't understand why he is complaining about something entirely in his power

I don’t think it’s entirely within his control. He has to live out in expensive ass Hollywood and I’m assuming he’s got family to take care of.

 

[get these nets]

At this point, he should have leveraged his fame/celebrity into financing his own projects. Even if they were small scale.

 

[2 Up 2 Down]

A lot of actors are in his position.

 

[Primetime]

Sometimes you're just born in the wrong era. Pre-streaming, if you weren't Denzel, Will, Wesley (for the "limited" star roles) or Sam Jack, Morgan, or Laurence (for the old man/wise sage roles), they were either offloading your parts to rappers (see: early 2000s) or the roles themselves were so basic and one note (i.e. GotG) that they weren't going to pay you much for that. Furthermore, tv wasn't as respected so the options were even more limited.

Basically left you with the low budget Tyler Perry/Morris Chestnut "relationship" movies, or the usual black trauma porn focused on slavery, civil rights, or hood/gang warfare. Between Amistad, Blood Diamond, Gladitator, you can kinda see where Djimon was placed.

Nowadays tho, it's still far from perhect however, an Aaron Pierre, Mamoudou Athie, Damson Idris etc can earn lead roles in streaming programs (or a conventional cable show) and propel that into lead roles in big budget IPs with Disney, Pixar, WB, etc. Aldis Hodge and Idris Elba have more diversified opportunities now, particularly as leads, compared to 10-15 years ago.

^My post from the locker room thread on this topic.

Put it this way: to Matt Damon's point, streaming certainly messed it up for the established, up n coming, (and keep it a buck, predominantly white) A-list actors. That and the corresponding transition to IP-driven projects over actor-driven ones (i.e. RDJ as Ironman or Sherlock Holmes guarantees money... RDJ as random og character, does not).

However, to Djimon's point... he wasn't getting them paydays or given them opportunities even during those "good ol days" 30 years back.

 

[Shadow King]

It's more expensive than ever to be a celebrity because they have to have a fully visible lifestyle that they put online to keep their names circulating, plus financing a team of people (accountant, stylist, publicist, etc). Used to be able to just pop out on the red carpet every so often, now you gotta put your whole life online.

He was famous before social media, I doubt this is it.

Part of it might be that he's always been a supporting actor.

I don't remember him being a lead.

If you're in supporting roles, you probably have to get into as many things as possible because you're not going to get that Denzel Washington money.

You gotta be like Eric Roberts. A whole bunch of actor credits but you probably haven't heard of half of them. Lol.

This is probably it.

 

[qwasi]

If I had the known face of an actor, I'd get into YT & Twitch streams. Do let's chat, gaming, reaction and occasionally invite other movie stars for watch-along or story times. Each fortnight do a story time about interesting encounters, weird experiences or vlogs. Avoid podcasts but engage nerd subculture as they're loyal and vocal online.

 

[Yehuda]

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