Voting in Film, Actors and their Audiences

There are three actors currently in the running for a spot as King Dong this month. They include Daniel Craig, Gerard Butler and Jeremy Renner. So, I’ll make this week’s Monday Movie Meme theme simple and easy: Poll the Jury.

Share on your blog, or in the comments section, movies where the main characters are involved in some aspect of the voting process. The film does not have to be centered on politics but there has to be some type of election or voting setup going on -- in the government, at a corporation, between a family, in a hospital, etc. If your responses are on your own blog, remember to link to this post and visit the blogs of other Monday Movie Meme participants. Here are my selections for this week’s Poll the Jury topic.

Napoleon Dynamite

High school student government campaigns have never been cooler. Vote for Pedro!

Murder in Mississippi

This TV movie, based on real life events, is about civil rights activists who endured major hardships while trying to register people to vote.

That’s all I have right now. What about YOU?

'Prometheus' Actor Idris Elba on Popularity, Power and Prince's Trust

Idris Elba accepts the 2012 Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Miniseries or TV movie for his performance in "Luther"

“It’s important to know who you are as an actor or you’re bound for failure. In Hollywood, power is when someone does not have to green-light your projects. I have popularity but not so much power.” - Idris Elba

For all of the power Idris Elba says he lacks in Hollywood, this British actor surely makes up for it by having major influence -- which he uses for good, in underserved communities throughout England.

Elba is currently an anti-crime ambassador for Prince’s Trust, a U.K. based organization that provides career training, employment, mentoring and personal development skills to at-risk, disadvantaged and offending or ex-offending young people aged 14-30.

Idris Elba supports the programs at Prince’s Trust through various activities including round-table discussions, film events and fundraising efforts -- as a way to give back to the very people who believed in his potential as an actor; and to inspire young people to believe in themselves.

When Idris Elba was a teenager, he won a place in the National Youth Musical Theatre (NYMT) based in London. A $1,500 grant from Prince’s Trust helped him further develop his acting skills at NYMT. It is at the National Youth Musical Theatre that Elba began to take acting seriously with regards to a career pursuit.

After successfully landing acting roles in his hometown, Elba saved up some money from working at his other job -- as a wedding DJ -- and moved to the United States. He struggled to find work here in the U.S. for three years, particularly the kind of roles that he wanted to play. So, Elba supported himself financially by working nights as a DJ in New York.

Even now as he sports accolades for stellar acting performances in major primetime crime dramas such as HBO’s “The Wire” and BBC’s “Luther,” Idris Elba still maintains a love for music -- DJing celebrity parties and releasing R&B/Soul/Pop albums under the name Driis. He also co-produced and performed on the into to rapper Jay-Z’s “American Gangster” album.

All music and acting aside, Idris Elba changes lives by being someone who leads by example -- going after his dreams full-force rather than wondering what-could-have-been while botching Ford Fiestas during a night shift at an auto manufacturing plant. His confidence is powerful enough to show young people the possibilities of what happens when you believe in yourself, and no green light in Hollywood can make or break that -- it comes from within -- although, a little nudge from community-centered organizations like Prince’s Trust doesn’t hurt either!

Do YOU think Idris Elba would play a convincing James Bond?

What were YOUR favorite fields of study during your teenage years?

Actors Like Idris Elba who Buck the Typecasting Trends

“It’s up to you to be who you say you are.

I have not done anything different from any other actor, but I don’t accept everything. I very rarely let color bound me. I mean, you can’t be Blacker than me” -- “I was born to African parents. My legacy in life is not led by the color of my skin and I don’t choose a lane because of it. I’m just me.” - Idris Elba

JET magazine calls “Prometheus” star Idris Elba “the actor’s answer to a NASCAR driver” because he has successfully navigated through all entertainment genres without sacrificing the quality of his image. Elba’s previous roles include but are not limited to a blue-collar working single father in “Daddy’s Little Girls,” a French priest who rides motorcycles in “Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance,” a finance executive trying to save his family in “Obsessed” and a mythic warrior with superhuman powers in “Thor.”

After discussing complacency this past Thursday, Idris Elba’s quote featured above has me thinking about typecasting -- sometimes it seems necessary when it comes to casting directors or filmmakers trying to find the right actors whom they know will fit a role perfectly (you want an action scene with martial arts? you call Jackie Chan or Masi Oka; you don't call B. D. Wong) -- or when it comes to choosing a role based on strengths that as an actor, you know you possess more than any other person currently working in your field (Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe in "My Week with Marilyn;" Lindsay Lohan as Elizabeth Taylor in "Liz & Dick"). 

Other times, however, typecasting doesn’t always serve a useful purpose because it makes people think that one type of character is all you have to offer such as a thug or funnyman or jerk, etc. -- so it is important for actors to determine the direction that they want their career to go in or decide how they want to be portrayed and then choose roles that support that path -- whatever path that is. Still, for some actors, typecasting seems to be a double edged sword where landing roles are concerned. Action star Vin Diesel used to struggle to get selected for roles because casting directors often overlooked him due to his ethnicity (Italian, African-American “and a lot of other stuff”).

Diesel’s frustrations in trying to become an actor resulted in making a short film called “Multi-Facial” that is inspired by the many auditions he went on that led nowhere -- he was told that he wasn’t dark enough to play black roles, not Italian enough for other roles and not gangsta enough for some roles. In Vin Diesel’s short film, the main character is sent to an audition for a Latino character, despite the fact that he does not speak Spanish -- since casting directors considered him to be brown enough to play a Hispanic character. Legendary director Steven Spielberg was so impressed by Diesel’s “Multi-Facial” short that he cast him in “Saving Private Ryan” and the rest is history.

In “Hustle and Flow,” they said it’s hard out here for a pimp. Well, it looks like it’s also hard out here for actors who just want to live their dreams in an industry where your job prospects are either flowing or minimal depending on whether you fit certain stereotypes rather than how good your performance is in said role. So I say, cheers to actors like Idris Elba and Vin Diesel who take hold of the the driver’s seat, steering their careers in the lanes that fit the type of people they want to be -- influential, believable and as Chellebee once said -- Multifaceted!

Do YOU think that typecasting limits actors from reaching their full potential in a movie role?

In what circumstances would YOU accept the use of typecasting for a particular film?