Being an actor or performer of color was difficult in the 1960s; just ask Harry Belafonte or Lena Horne, and even in 2015 there are still actors of color that face discrimination in this business (Um. Hello? #OscarSoWhite). Take for example Hollywood’s famous roundtable discussions, talks that bring actors from different backgrounds together to engage in candid dialogue. They touch on pressing issues such as racism, sexism, ageism that effect them while navigating the business.

On Aug. 28, 1963 –the same day as Mr. Luther King Jr.’s I Have A Dream speech–Harry Belafonte, Charlton Heston, Sidney Poitier, David Schoenburn, Joseph Manckiewicz, Marlon Brando, and James Baldwin sat down to discuss the meaning of civil rights after have attending the march.

Harry on whether or not he believes America can achieve the dream Martin Luther King Jr. talks about;

“I am not so certain it will be achieved without violence. Because the negro people have conducted themselves non-violently. The 200,000 people that were there today; there were many predictions that one could take book on whether there would be a display of violence by all the extreme factions and whatnot. But the truth of the matter is that the people who came to that gathering today were people in great anguish who come from the Birminghams and come from the Jackson, Mississippi’s and they came there with anguish and with hurt and with dignity and with integrity and it was one of the most orderly displays I’ve ever seen of 200,000 people. If the Bull Conners continue to release the bull dogs on the people as an answer to their legitimate cries, if they continue to use cattle rods to prod them, if they continue to use hoses to whip them through the streets, the human heart, and human body can only contain so much. There must come a point, if  they’re pushed to it, for retaliation. So once again I put the emphasis on who it is that will precipitate it. Because the Negro community, I think I can speak for most of the 20 million Negros are committed to this thing being done non-violently.”

Sidney on his involvement in the movement and the “negro question”;

“Well, yes I am forced to participate because it is my conviction that my country has to successfully negotiate the “negro question.” It is to me not a problem, it’s the question of the negro. The unsettled question of the negro in America, we must as a country successfully negotiate that before we can, with any degree of honesty, try to become eligible for participation in the future. We must negotiate other great questions that face us today. The stamina, the texture, of our endeavor, to solve the negro question will exemplify for me the kind of interest the country as a whole has in doing the things that are necessary for us to be entitled to a future.”

More recently, The Hollywood Reporter released their annul Emmy Roundtable Dramatic Actresses: Viola Davis, Taraji P. Henson, Jessica Lange, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Lizzie Caplan. This particular discussion dealt more with what they faced in Hollywood as black women, where they draw inspiration from and what roles they wanted to take on next. (Someone go ahead and bring a production of Hedda Gabler to Broadway with Viola as Hedda and Taraji as Thea please!!!)

Taraji on what motivates her to take on roles and the iconic Cookie Lyon;

“That’s how I was trained. It’s never been about the money for me. I mean, I went from being an Oscar nominee [forThe Curious Case of Benjamin Button] to No. 10 on the call sheet. I’ve never once thought, “I’m now part of some elite group of actors; I’m never going to do theatre again or do an indie again.” If I fall in love with the role, I don’t care if it’s outside in the parking lot.

Cookie scared the hell out of me. Just before I got the role, I’d said, “F— it all, I’m going back to theatre.” I felt lazy and like I needed to sharpen the tools. So I did theatre at The Pasadena Playhouse. Then my manager said,”You have to read this script.” I’m like, “Hip-hop? Oh my God, what are they trying to do? Fox is going to pick this up? This isn’t HBO?” And then I got nervous and started pacing the floor. “Oh my God, Cookie is bigger than life. You will love her or hate her.” Empire has forced people to have conversations that they were afraid to have. And that is what art is supposed to do. I just didn’t know it was going to shake things up this much!”

Viola what drew her to Annalise Keating and what she would like to do next;

“There was absolutely no precedent for it. I had never seen a 49-year-old, dark-skinned woman who is not a size 2 be a sexualized role in TV or film. I’m a sexual woman, but nothing in my career has ever identified me as a sexualized woman. I was the prototype of the “mommified” role. Then all of a sudden, this part came, and fear would be an understatement. When I saw myself for the first time in the pilot episode, I was mortified. I saw the fake eyelashes and, “Are you kidding me? Who is going to believe this?” And then I thought: “OK, this is your moment to not typecast yourself, to play a woman who is sexualized and do your investigative work to find out who this woman is and put a real woman on TV who’s smack-dab in the midst of this pop fiction.

I’d like to go back to Broadway and revisit [Henrik Ibsen’s] Hedda Gabler at some point. But I mostly want what [actress] Lynn Redgrave said to me once. I did a reading of Agnes of God with her right before she died. She told me she’d left L.A. many years ago, and I asked her why. She said one thing she felt after many years in the business was that her past hadn’t counted for anything. I want to feel like my past has counted for something. I’ve been doing this for 27 years. I’ve performed in basements, churches, off-Broadway. I want the work to reflect my level of gifts and talent. I don’t want it to reflect my color, my sex or my age. That’s what I want most.”

It’s important that these roundtables exist and even more important that people of color are represented in them, letting their voices be heard. We’ve been silenced for so long, it’s extremely inspiring to hear when actors/actresses are using their platform to share their experiences and speak out against injustice. Whether it be in their field or in relation to the current state of America. After all, they are people too, they navigate through this world just the same as we do. Even though they have a bit more glitz and glamor, underneath it all they use their art to inspire and cultivate minds just like art should.

The post Hollywood Roundtable Then & Now: Social Justice & Creating Art appeared first on Broadway Black.

Having become one of the oldest recipients of a Tony for her performance as Ms. Carrie Watts in Horton Foote’s The Trip to Bountiful, Tyson also won an Emmy in the Lifetime production of the tv movie of the same name. With the esteem of this role solidified, Cicely spoke exclusively with The Hollywood Reporter about her experience and the significance this role has to her amongst the many other notable performances in her career.

In 1985 I was wandering around Hollywood and saw Geraldine [Page]’s name on the marquee. I absolutely adored her, but I had no idea what The Trip to Bountiful was about—I hadn’t ever read it, I hadn’t seen it on television, I just was not familiar with it—so I just went into the theater to see her. And I walked out, got in my car, drove right to my agent’s office and I said to him, “You get me my Trip to Bountiful and I will retire!” He just laughed. But I made a visit to his office every single month, and every time I was there I said, “Where’s my Trip to Bountiful?!” Now, tell me if this is not miraculous: in 2011, I’m sitting in my house; the phone rings; it’s my assistant, and she says, “Van is looking for you.” Van Ramsey is a costume designer whom I have worked with a number of times. He was looking for me because, he told me, he had a friend who wanted to meet with me and talk about a possible project, so we met. She said to me, “My father had such tremendous respect for you. I want to do one of his plays. I’d love to do it with a black cast. And if you say no to the lead, which is what I want you to play, I won’t do it.” So I said to her, “Who was your father?” She said, “Horton Foote,” and I fell off the chair. [laughs] When I could recover I said, “And the play is what?” She said, “The Trip to Bountiful.” Is that something? It was 26 years later!

Cicely also had some beautiful and encouraging words about being looked to as an inspiration by budding stars such as Keri Washington and Viola Davis:

 If, in fact, I have, in some way, been the inspiration for any of them, I will feel that I have accomplished what I set out to do, and that is to break the mold and the concept that limited people’s vision of what we, as black women, or black actresses, could do in this business.

We love Cicely Tyson and appreciate her for all of her accomplishment in the field of acting. A true testament of knowing and honing your craft, Cicely has been a beacon and the blueprint for what a carefully navigated career looks like and how owning your presence benefits you both on and off-stage, a lesson worthy of real-life application.

The post Cicely Tyson Gushes Over Dream Role “The Trip to Bountiful” appeared first on Broadway Black.

That part is so unlike anything I’ve ever wanted to do, anything I’d been able to do, anything I ever thought I could do and I think that….if you challenge yourself through things you’re afraid of, on this scale especially, it demands personal attention and you have to be on point.

Even though the winners have already been announced, you can still check out the interview below for your own seat at the roundtable and let us know in the comments what parts resonated most with you.

The post Watch: THR’s Interview With This Year’s Tony Nominated Actors appeared first on Broadway Black.