#DMTBeautySpot #beauty

It’s been 20 years since Tara Reid played Melody Valentine, the sweet, spacey drummer from Josie and the Pussycats, but she still talks about her as one would a beloved friend. “Out of all the characters I’ve ever played in my life, she was one of the greatest because every day I woke up and I got to play the happiest girl in the world,” Reid told Refinery29 over the phone.

In 2001, Melody was mistaken for a dumb blonde. Now, Reid knows she was right to bet on her. Josie and the Pussycats, once a critical and commercial failure, has since been reborn as a cult classic. What Roger Ebert once called “dumb as the Spice Girls” is now widely recognized as a landmark cultural phenomenon for an entire generation of young women. Josie McCoy (Rachael Leigh Cook, hot off of She’s All That), Valerie Brown (Rosario Dawson), and Melanie weren’t just punk rock prom queens — they were proof that women could value friendship over love, and excel at our chosen path without having to tear each other down along the way. 

It’s a lesson that has steered Reid as she undergoes her own transformation. Once an underestimated talent who dominated tabloid headlines as the girl next door  from American Pie and Van Wilder, she made an unexpected and unprecedented comeback as an action star in the behemoth Sharknado franchise. At 45, she is reinventing herself once more, this time as a producer. Reid is no longer waiting for the right role to come along. Instead, she’s making that material for herself. 

Her IMDb page is loaded with projects — 21 in various stages of production as of this interview’s publishing — but the one she’s most excited about is Masha’s Mushroom, a thriller directed by White Cross, which Reid is both producing and starring in. She plays the titular Masha, a mom whose birthday party goes very, very wrong when she and all her guests are drugged and forced to battle hallucinations in order to get out alive. 

There’s been a learning curve — ”Normally, I get the part, I got to set, I do my job, and I leave,” she said. “I never realized how much goes into making a movie.” But Reid isn’t a quitter. After all, the industry has forgotten about her before, and she’s always bounced back in new and unexpected ways. “I’m a survivor,” she said. “At the end of the day, when you love what you do, you’ll always come back to it.”

Ahead, Reid looks back at the legacy of Josie and the Pussycats, and what’s next. 

Refinery29: You never auditioned for Josie and the Pussycats. How did you end up getting cast as Melody Valentine?

Tara Reid: “I had a three picture deal with Universal [Pictures]. The first two movies were American Pie and American Pie 2, and the third one was Josie and the Pussycats.”

What did you like about Melody? 

“She’s such a free spirit. She seemed naive, and some people called her dumb, but she was never. If you really watch the movie she had these psychic moments, and predictions. Her heart was so big — if a rose fell down, she’d feel like the rose was dying with her. And I was with girls I loved, and we had so much fun together. It was like a sleepaway camp. We had to learn the instruments, which was hard in the beginning. Rosario didn’t know how to play the bass; I didn’t know how to play the drums; Rachael didn’t know how to play the guitar. They made us take lessons for like three months, and finally we learned.”

Do you still play?

“No, because I live in a high rise, and if I played the drums here I’d probably get kicked out of the building! It’s not the most light sound. But when I’d go out before the pandemic — I can always play the bongos. I know my beat now!”

What’s so special about Josie and the Pussycats is that it’s the rare early aughts movie that starred three young women who weren’t playing a love interest or competing with each other for a guy. 

“I loved that. I don’t think movies have to be about competing for a guy or always having to have a love interest. Let’s be natural! Times have changed. We’re not in the days where you need a man, you have to get married and have kids. Women can do whatever they want. We have just as much power as they do, but it took a while to do that. Josie and the Pussycats is one of the first female empowerment movies of that time — no one knew that at the time, even we didn’t! And now 20 years later, it’s become this cult film. It was awesome to be working with these incredible actresses.” 

If you go back and read the original reviews, it’s pretty shocking to see how dismissive critics were of the movie, given how important it was to young women who saw it. 

“It was before social media. It was so ahead of its time. We were saying Puma is the new Adidas, red is the new black, all these subliminal messages. No one understood what that meant. But today, it makes perfect sense. If it came out now, it’d be a huge hit. And it is in a different way — it did terribly at the box office, but now everyone wants to have an interview with us about it, asking What happened, and What changed? 

“It was girls, with each other, not being mean to each other. We had the best time of our lives, and I think people see that. When people watch that film, they go, Wow, I wish I could have that.” 

Do you have a specific memory from filming that you cherish?

“Something so silly is that we were wearing the smallest costumes, and it was freezing – we were in Vancouver. Everything was custom-made, and they were so small! We were shivering to death every time we had to go outside. And every time we would finish a scene, we would just run to the trailer and they would have three pairs of Ugg boots put together. We’d kick our heels off and put the Uggs on and sigh, Ahhhhhhhh. It was heaven. “

I was obsessed with Melody’s wardrobe. All those early aughts going out tops!

“Melody’s wardrobe was amazing. Leesa Evans, our costume designer, was so cool. She asked, ‘What do you feel Melody should be like?’ We were so involved. I wanted Melody to be a total rockstar, totally cool, but that’s just her. She has no idea she’s even doing it. That was one of the best things about playing Melody. All I had to do to play her is to be happy. I didn’t even have to look for happiness, I had it with my co-stars. It was fantastic.”

Did you get to keep any of the outfits?

“Some of them! We usually had four or five versions of the outfits in case something happened, so I have a piece of all of them.”

You’ve made this pivot to producing, and you now have so many projects in development including Masha’s Mushroom. What prompted this shift in your career?

“Sitting down in my house during [quarantine], I started going back and reaching out to people I’d worked with in the past. White Cross and I have a movie coming out called Mummy Dearest and we really connected, so we decided to make this film called Masha’s Mushroom — I’m Masha obviously. And we started a company together, we became friends and started going at it. Because we were on lockdown, we got in touch with people that usually you can’t get on the phone. But everyone was at home, no one was busy. I accessed so many people and relationships. Right now, Masha’s Mushroom is one film of five. It’s like another American Pie or Sharknado — but this one’s my baby. It’s such a cool movie, when you see it you’re gonna get it. There’s nothing like it.”

“Everyone was looking at my senior yearbook, and yet I was growing into a woman and changing.”

Tara Reid

What did you learn from the experience?

“Normally, I get the part, I go to set, I do my job, and I leave. I never realized how hard it was as a producer and how much goes into that. How many years it takes to make a movie, to get the financing, to get the distribution. Being on both sides of the fence is the most incredible feeling. Even when we go to negotiate with the actors for different things — I know what they want; I know what they need, because it’s what I want and what I need.

“Instead of waiting for a part, which I did for a long time, I thought: You know what, it’s time for me to create my part. The ones that I want to make, the ones that will make people notice me again and put me back in the game. And it was me that created it all. At the end of the day, everyone says, if you want something to happen, who has to do it? You. 

It’s very satisfying. It makes you feel good, and that’s something that’s so important right now.”

Have you found that people in the industry still hold on to the image you had when you started out?

“For a long time I felt like that, but not so much anymore. Imagine you look at your senior picture in your high school yearbook, and then look at yourself now. Do you look the same? That’s how I felt in the industry. Everyone was looking at my senior yearbook, and yet I was growing into a woman and changing. But until you can show them the change, they can’t see it. Like, guys, it’s 20 years later. I’m 45 years old. I can’t even do what I did back then, I’m too tired. It was never a typecasting situation. It was about me turning the page. In Hollywood, it’s hard to turn the page if you don’t show them the next page.”

Speaking of typecasting, I saw you posted on Instagram about loving Bridgerton — would you ever want to take on a period role?

“One of the best shows ever! I’m obsessed with period pieces. That would be a project I would love to do.”

We’re now having this cultural reckoning with the tabloid coverage of young women in the early aughts, especially in the aftermath of Framing Britney Spears. Do you feel like you were unfairly portrayed?

“I hated it, but time is a healer of everything. Hollywood is changing. Women are having their time to come back up — that never happened before, where we have control of ourselves. It’s the women directors who are doing incredible, it’s women actors who are taking over. It’s our time. If anyone is going to get bullied, it would be me, and it’s not me anymore.”

“In Hollywood, it’s hard to turn the page if you don’t show them the next page.”

Tara Reid

What advice would you give to young women coming up in Hollywood today?

“To be patient, to be careful, to still always be inspired. Love your craft, and if you love something else, then love something else and go that way. Because it’s not the easiest job in the world. To be a working actress constantly in Hollywood is almost impossible.”

Was it difficult for you to transition into different kinds of roles as you’ve gotten older?

“When you’re that young, you’re playing high school or college roles. That’s not a leading lady. A leading lady is someone like Julia Roberts. Now, I’m getting to that time. I went through the awkward stage, and now I’m getting to a time when I will become a leading lady. [I am] doing it myself with my rules, my territory, and controlling my image, my press, which I didn’t know how to do before because I was too innocent and too young. I didn’t understand it. With age, you learn a lot. 

“I wouldn’t even take anything back. If everything was so easy like it was when I was on the cover of Rolling Stone, I wouldn’t be here on the phone with you. At the end of the day, I’ve learned so much. I feel like my career is starting really for the first time now.”

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?

Josie & The Pussycats Was Way Ahead Of Its Time

Beyoncé Was Almost In <em>Josie & The Pussycats</em>

Tara Reid Asked For A <em>Sharknado </em>Raise

DMTBeautySpot

via https://www.DMTBeautySpot.com

Anne Cohen, Khareem Sudlow

#DMTBeautySpot #beauty

It’s time to wake up. On Global Day of Climate Action, VICE Media Group is solely telling stories about our current climate crisis. Click here to meet young climate leaders from around the globe and learn how you can take action. 

As wildfires continue to ravage the West Coast, breaking horrifying record after horrifying record — more than 3.2 million acres have been destroyed so far — I keep thinking about Ferngully: The Last Rainforest. To those who grew up watching the 1992 animated musical, the apocalyptic images of scorching orange flames consuming vibrant landscapes and giving way to gray, ashy devastation are eerily familiar. They echo the destruction wrought by Hexxus, the pollution specter villain voiced with menacing glee by Tim Curry. Unfortunately, our current dire situation won’t be fixed by a spiky-haired fairy wielding a magical seed. 

Based on Diana Young’s YA book by the same name, director Bill Kroyer’s answer to the Disney machine follows optimistic fairy Crysta (voiced by Samantha Matthis), one of the many magical inhabitants inside FernGully Rainforest, a lush and verdant oasis untouched by humans. Years ago, the wise Magi Lune (Grace Zabriskie) imprisoned their greatest foe, Hexxus, inside a tree, making FernGully a haven for the Earth to thrive. One day though, Crysta gets curious about the world beyond that green canopy, and goes exploring, coming across a group of lumberjacks tasked with clearing a forest on the outskirts of FernGully. Surprised, Crysta accidentally wields her magic, and causes a city boy named Zak (Jonathan Ward) to shrink down to her sprite-like size. As Zak is forced to confront the effects his kind have on Crysta’s world, he comes to understand the importance of preserving, rather than destroying, nature. But when his remaining crew accidentally unleashes Hexxus from his prison, there may not be a FernGully left to protect. 

Even more prescient was the idea of young women leading the charge against the destructive forces of climate change, a prophecy we’re seeing fulfilled in leaders like 17-year-old Greta Thunberg.

Like many millennials, FernGully was a staple of my early childhood, the first — and most honest — lesson I received about the devastating effects of climate change. Vanity Fair once called it the “Millennial Silent Spring,” a reference to Rachel Carson’s world-altering 1962 book that helped shape the boomer generation’s view of their impact on the planet. In April, SyFy ran a story under the headline “How FernGully: The Last Rainforest Made Me An Eco-Friendly Kid.” The movie’s continued impact is seen in the FernGully memes flooding my timeline to denounce Donald Trump’s harmful stripping back of environmental protections or to poke fun at Melania’s gardening tastes. In August, when Hawaii’s Kaluae volcano erupted, forming a strange smiley face pattern, Twitter blamed Hexxus. (Like many animated villains, Hexxus also has a strong thirst following.) And don’t even get me started on the Avatar jokes.  

I’m not sure how much of FernGully’s lessons I grasped as a kid watching a VHS tape I rented over and over from Blockbuster. Mostly, I remember finding Batty Koda, the erratic animated bat voiced by the late Robin Williams in his first-ever film role (he’d go on to voice Genie in Aladdin that same year), raucously hilarious. After rewatching FernGully again as an adult, though, I’m struck by how dark and unvarnished the story is. Do you know why Batty Koda acts so weirdly? It’s because he has escaped from a nearby facility that introduced electrodes into his brain. In other words, he was an animal test subject, tortured and traumatized by humans. Like I said, dark. And then there’s Hexxus himself, a Venom-like oozy monster (designed incidentally, by Kathy Zielinski, the artist behind Ursula in Disney’s The Little Mermaid) who feeds off the poisonous fumes of machines and factories, whispering his catastrophic instructions to easily corruptible humans eager to follow his bidding for personal gain. 

Even more prescient was the idea of young women leading the charge against the destructive forces of climate change, a prophecy we’re seeing fulfilled in leaders like 17-year-old Greta Thunberg. In 2019, when teenage climate activists led A Global Climate Strike rally in New York City, young women made up the majority of the crowd. They are the face of this movement, and of the future we’re fighting for.  

We need them now more than ever. The sad truth about FernGully is that even as it sparked a burgeoning consciousness in a generation, we have largely failed to heed its warning. It’s easy to point fingers at leaders and call them Hexxus. But the reality is that most of us are Magi, burying our heads in the sand and clinging to the belief that the threat is contained. 

In 2020, the movie is a caution against complacency, a call to arms for the next generation, but also an apology.

For years, the FernGully fairies were living on borrowed time, sincerely believing that the previous generation had dealt with the problem by locking it away. When Crysta asks about Hexxus or the humans she’s heard about in legends, Magi waves her concerns away. Everything is fine. It’s not that bad. It’s far away. We did what we could. 

It’s hard to judge such an impulse. The ramifications and consequences of climate change are so vast, so all-encompassing, that burying our heads in the sand and wishing it away, hoping for a solution as clean and simple as a tree prison is, on some level, understandable. But it’s not sustainable. Ferngully doesn’t sugarcoat what’s at stake. The visuals of shorn, bare tree stumps stretching out for miles even after Hexxus’ defeat are haunting, but they are mere whispers of the real impact of the fires burning out of control across the West Coast, or the hurricanes that continue to worsen with each passing year. 

In 2020, the movie is a caution against complacency, a call to arms for the next generation, but also an apology. The final dedication card reads: “For our children, and our children’s children.” More than 25 years later, those children’s children are the ones tasked with cleaning up the mess their grandparents and parents were unable, or unwilling, to prevent. 

In the final moments of FernGully, Crysta uses her magic to grow a big, strong tree — the beginning of an entirely new forest. It’s a bittersweet ending, which gives hope for the future all while acknowledging the very real and lasting damage. It’s going to get worse before it gets better. We cannot escape unscathed. But that doesn’t mean we can’t start planting the seeds.

Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?

1 Year Later, This Is What Greta Thunberg's Up To

How Staying Inside Is Impacting Climate Change

Politicians Who Are Leading Climate Change In 2020

DMTBeautySpot

via https://www.DMTBeautySpot.com

Anne Cohen, Khareem Sudlow

#DMTBeautySpot #beauty

In July, Anjelika Washington, who currently stars on CW’s Stargirl, shared a disturbing story on Instagram. In 2017, while she was working on a previous, unnamed project, she was introduced to her first-ever stunt double: a white woman in blackface. 

When Washington pulled the producer aside to ask why she couldn’t get a Black woman as a double, she was told “Los Angeles doesn’t have many Black stunt performers,” and that she should be thankful to be working at all. In the end, Washington wrote that the incident motivated her to do her own stunts, so that a double wouldn’t be needed. But her experience — shared by many other Black performers in Hollywood, among them Riverdale’s Hayley Law and Station 19’s Jason Winston George, who responded in the comments — has shone a harsh light on yet another ugly gap in an industry that often only pays lip service to diversity. 

“I am vowing to never ever allow these types of micro- and macro-aggressions to happen to me again. And you should not, either,” Washington wrote in that Instagram caption. “We must value ourselves higher even if they call us a diva. We must use our voice even if they call us loud. We must demand equality even if they call us ungrateful. The next generation depends on us.”

Hollywood has a long, troubling history of “painting down” white stunt performers to appear darker. In the 1960s, Black stars spoke out against the practice, which eventually led to the formation of the Black Stuntmen’s Association in 1967. By 1973, they had 15 members, including three women, one of the first stunt organizations to be co-ed. But though what was once an open practice is now done a little more covertly, it hasn’t entirely disappeared from sets in the United States

SAG-AFTRA, the labor union that governs over movie and television actors, personalities, singers, and performers, including those working in stunts, has publicly condemned paint-downs on multiple occasions, including in 2014, when news leaked that Gotham was planning to double one of its Black leads with a white woman in blackface. Faced with backlash, Warner Bros. TV decided against it, and apologized for what they called a “mistake” in casting. In the aftermath, Kelley L. Carter investigated the industry’s ongoing blackface problem for Buzzfeed. The scandal seemed big enough to ensure it never happened again. And yet, Washington’s experience, along with those continuing to chime in with their own stories, prove that’s not so. As late as 2018, Seth Rogen apologized for using a painted-down white stand-in for 11-year-old Keith L. Williams in Good Boys, which he produced along with Evan Goldberg. 

The focus on the optics of stunt people in blackface is understandable — it’s an easy-to-understand visual cue of the prevalence of systemic racism. It’s also a symptom of much deeper problems. Black stunt performers — and Black stuntwomen in particular — face an uphill battle when it comes to getting work at all. Until recently, most of the discourse around diversity and inclusion in entertainment focused on getting more Black actors in lead parts and behind the camera in above-the-line roles, like writer or director. It’s only now that the lack of diversity in less prominent, below-the-line positions — like hair and makeup artists, assistant directors, and stunt performers — is getting some much-needed attention. 

In response to Washington’s story, stuntwoman Tiffany Abney called on her fellow Black performers to post about their career trajectories and experiences. Using the hashtags, #BlackStuntWomenExist, #BlackStuntMenExist, #BlackStuntPerformersExist, #BlackStuntDoublesExist, she wrote: “There have been more and more roles for Black actors and actresses, which in theory means we as Black stunt performers should have more opportunity to shine!”

If only it were that simple. Black stuntwomen continue to face disproportionate barriers to enter the profession, a challenge that only gets more pronounced as they seek to advance in their careers. In order to get a better idea of the challenges they face, Refinery29 spoke to eight Black women working in stunts, who described workplace incidents ranging from micro-aggressions to outright hostility, as well as revealed how a lack of opportunities for professional mentorship inhibits their ability to increase their visibility and, in turn, get more jobs. 

Jazzy Ellis has crashed through windows, been set on fire, and catapulted through the air while attached to a wire. Originally from New Jersey, and a graduate of Princeton University, Ellis was working as a teacher in New Orleans when someone in her martial arts class suggested she try out as a stunt performer. 

“I ran into stunt performers who were telling me that there were no Black stuntwomen in Louisiana, and I filled a need. They could train me and get me into those spots,” she told Refinery29. After three months of hard core training, she landed her first job as “Big Beautiful Black Cop” in Adam Devine’s House Party on Comedy Central in 2014.

“Sexy hoochie Black woman, Black criminal, Black thug, Black gangster — if I’m not doubling the lead, it’s usually those kinds of descriptions [in the script],” Ellis said. 

Eight years later, her credits now include Avengers: Endgame, Zombieland: Double Tap, The House with the Clock in Its Walls, Fate of the Furious, AMC’s The Walking Dead, A Quiet Place II, HBO’s Lovecraft Country, and the upcoming Suicide Squad sequel. And yet despite this impressive resume, Ellis says that the COVID-19 pandemic and accompanying pause in work has made her consider her trajectory.

“Black people don’t have job security,” she told Refinery29 on a phone call. “The people in power take care of their own and they promote their own. I’ve been in the business for eight years and you’d think I’d be more skilled, or more well-known, or have more roles than I do now. I don’t, because there are no white men who are willing to take me under their wing and teach me what they know. They only call us when they need us. I get mostly what’s called ground-pounder roles — unskilled, just throw yourself on concrete kinds of roles. That’s what they give to Black women.”

Jadie David was one of the first Black stuntwomen to get steady work in Hollywood. In 1972, she got her start doubling for Denise Nicholas, and went on to double for legendary Blaxploitation star Pam Grier on films like Coffy, Foxy Brown, and Sheba, Baby. 

“I got lucky. I came in during Blaxploitation [boom], a time where there was a lot of work for a Black stuntwoman who was 5’9,” David told Refinery29. “I had struggles, but personally I want to say that they weren’t as bad as those other people have had. By standing up and being vocal, I was able to help the cause.”

In the mid-70s, she said, she teamed up with Marvin Walters — a stuntman who in 1971, had contacted the U.S. Justice Department about some of the racist practices he had observed on-set, and filed several complaints to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission — who filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Coalition of Black Stuntmen and Women.

“[We] ended up winning the complaint, and got stuntpeople of color monetary compensation for discrimination,” David recalled.

And yet, real change remained elusive. 

“It starts with white males at the top of the food chain,” David said. “And then, men of color, and white women. They kind of teeter on top of who’s below. At the bottom of the list, there are women of color. Generally, when you’re looking for people of color, often the jobs go to men. When you’re looking for women, often you’re looking for white [women]. It doesn’t mean Black women don’t work, but they’re not the first ones that you think about.”

“Sexy hoochie Black woman, Black criminal, Black thug, Black gangster — if I’m not doubling the lead, it’s usually those kinds of descriptions [in the script].”

Jazzy Ellis

There are different categories of stunt work on any given project. Stunt coordinators work with producers, directors, and writers to hire and manage a stunt team; then there are those who work the machinery to make certain stunts possible, like riggers, who work the pulleys and ropes that ensure performers can fly through the air safely; and finally, there are performers, those who actually do the daring feats required in stunts. Different performers can specialize in different areas, like driving, fighting, riding, etc. One can be hired as a double to an actor or actress, work to train them to master the choreography needed for a particular scene, and also perform the more physically demanding, draw-dropping athletic feats. But those higher-profile jobs remain few and far between.

A more immediate alternative to ensure diversity lies in increasing the number of Black stunt performers hired in “nondescript” roles: crowds running away from a monster, people driving down a busy street, etc. Movies and TV shows require large numbers of these performers, who can be cast — as the name suggests — in roles having no specific physical description available. And yet, Black women are still rarely hired for these parts, with many producers, directors, and stunt coordinators insisting — like that anonymous producer in Washington’s Instagram — that there just aren’t enough qualified Black stuntwomen in Hollywood. 

In 2018, Jwaundace Candece set out to fix that. The stuntwoman, who has doubled for Queen Latifah, Viola Davis, and Tiffany Haddish, among others, founded Stunt POC, an organization advocating for stunt performers of color. Based in Atlanta, Stunt POC also includes a directory, which can connect stunt coordinators with performers they might not ordinarily come across when they hire stunt doubles and for nondescript roles. 

With just over 160 members and climbing, Stunt POC has allowed Candece to carve out space as a mentor to younger Black stuntwomen trying to break into a profession that seems built to exclude them. In early July, she organized a live Zoom conference with some of the top stunt coordinators in the United States and Canada — men and women — focusing on the need for diversity, during which members of Stunt POC were encouraged to ask questions and make connections. 

Many of the stuntwomen Refinery29 spoke to said Candece had helped them review contracts, or given them advice on how to keep safe on the job. Ellis, in particular, credits Candece with warning her against taking a particularly risky project. According to Ellis, the men in charge of the stunts wanted to set her on fire and have her jump into a pond that hadn’t been surveyed, even after telling them she couldn’t swim. 

“They trusted that I could learn how to swim and do the stunt within a week,” she said. “Who does that?”

It’s important to note that for most stunt coordinators, safety is priority number one, a notion corroborated by many of the women Refinery29 spoke to. Still, the stunt industry operates as something of a closed loop — often, a job will come down to who you know and who is willing to hire you. It’s the ultimate Hollywood insiders’ club, only it doesn’t typically come with fame, glory, or even much money. But it does operate with its own kind of logic: Because of the inherent risks that stunt performers are tasked with pulling off — and making look easy — they’re wary about working with anyone outside of their intimate circle.

In 2018, The Hollywood Reporter published an in-depth look at how the rise in peak TV has led to an increase in injuries and even deaths among stunt performers, as increased demand for productions leads to unqualified people being hired for jobs they aren’t able to do. Safety is paramount, and so stunt coordinators are likely to hire people they’ve worked with before, who have a proven track record. Likewise, directors and producers will hire stunt coordinators they know they can trust. But, this then means women and people of color might never be given the opportunity to reach the upper echelons of the industry, because they’re never given the opportunity to even enter it. Claiming to only be concerned for safety is often just another way to maintain the status quo, and make Black stuntwomen feel like they don’t have what it takes. 

Marché Day is one of the many women who has leaned on Candece. A new addition to the stunt community, she started training in October 2019, and was soon hired as a double for a high profile comic book based project she prefers not to name. Though her experience has been overwhelmingly positive so far, she’s always aware of the double standard at play when it comes to being a woman of color in the industry. 

“When we do get roles that accomplishment is taken from us,” Day said. “It’s like, Oh, you only got that role because you’re the only person that is the right color. Even though I’m in the gym training every day, sometimes twice a day, you’re going to tell me I only got it because of my color? No one tells you you got this part because you’re a white guy.”

Though Candece has over 19 years’ experience and 140 credits to her name — and the more than 500-working days suggested by SAG-AFTRA to qualify as a stunt coordinator herself — she hasn’t been given the chance to take on the challenge. 

“I actually gave up on it,” she told Refinery29. “I got frustrated with asking people, Can I come watch you, come shadow you? There’s always some excuse or most of the time I don’t get returned calls. Even people who liked me and hired me, they’re busy or they have their people.”

Only two Black women have worked as stunt coordinators in the United States. (Angelica Lisk-Hann, perhaps the most well-known Black woman stunt coordinator working today, is based in Canada.) The first to crash through that glass ceiling was La Faye Baker, a veteran stunt woman who worked on projects like Clueless; Independence Day; Sister Sister; Scary Movie 2; and Mission Impossible 3. In 1999, she was hired as the stunt coordinator for  Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, directed by Martha Coolidge and starring Halle Berry; Baker was the first Black woman to hold that position on a big budget project. 

“One of my best friends — Eddie Watkins, who’s a male stunt coordinator — went in for the interview,” Baker told Refinery29. “But Halle specifically wanted all women in key positions, so I put storyboards together and went in there, and got the job.”

“When we do get roles that accomplishment is taken from us,” Day said. “It’s like, Oh, you only got that role because you’re the only person that is the right color.”

Marché Day

Baker, who worked in stunts part-time for almost 30 years while also holding a job as a probation officer, says she regrets not making the jump to full-time stunt coordinator after that. Instead, she channeled her energy into creating the Action Icon Awards, recognizing stunt performers and extreme sports enthusiasts, and Diamond in the RAW, a non-profit organization that aims to empower at-risk girls between 12 and 18 through arts and STEM. Recently, she has renewed her interest in pursuing a career as a stunt coordinator — she co-coordinated stunts on the latest season of Issa Rae’s Insecure — but has been finding it difficult. 

“It’s about choices. I think they don’t trust that women can do the same job as a man,” she said. “It’s really up to the producers. There are stunt coordinators who were just stunt men —  and then somebody gave them an opportunity.”

According to Katie Rowe, president of the Stuntwomen’s Association of Motion Pictures, women in general are underrepresented in coordinator positions. The organization, founded in 1967 as an alternative to male-focused stunt associations — many of which still aren’t co-ed — represents the most elite women stunt performers working today, in an invite-only membership. It currently has 28 members, three of whom are Black women. Candace is one of them.

In an effort to even the playing field, SAG-AFTRA recently put together a new pathway towards stunt coordinator eligibility. In April 2020, a roster of stunt performers and coordinators who have completed their 500 days of work was released, so that productions can make sure that the people they are hiring are qualified. After 250 days, performers who are interested in pursuing this career path can have access to a list of volunteer stunt coordinator mentors, whom they can shadow for up to 25 days at no cost. Those days, while unpaid, will count towards their 500-day total. 

As it did in so many other notable ways, Black Panther marked a turning point in visibility for Black stuntwomen. Ryan Coogler’s Marvel epic required over 200 people working in stunts as coordinators, riggers, and performers — the vast majority of them Black. 

“Before that movie came out, you could probably count the amount of top-level Black stunt performers in this country at around a dozen,” Shahaud Roudbari, a stunt coordinator of Iranian descent who helped launch an initiative for Diversity in Stunts in June, explained to Refinery29. “But because of that movie, right now I could name 30 or 40 performers just in Atlanta more qualified and talented than people who’ve been doing this for over 20 years. They got that one opportunity.”

View this post on Instagram

Story Time 😀🦹🏾‍♀️ A year or so ago, I got a call from Thom Williams (@reactionstunts) saying that I was of interest in doubling an actress for a new HBO Tv Pilot. I didn’t know much about it besides the fact that I would be traveling to Atlanta for a few weeks and that it had the potential of continuing on to series. So, I waited and prepped myself for what I thought would only be a few weeks of work. Little did I know, the gates of my light were about to open and I would be in for an opportunity that wasn’t even present in my imagination. I had an amazing time, we finished the pilot and a few weeks later there’s a buzz in my ear saying that we might be going to series “sooner than we think”. Well, how soon? Who really knew… until a few (not so) patient months pass and Justin Riemer (@j.riemer_actiondirector) calls and gives me the green light! @hbo.watchmen came into my life as a gift from above and I never realized the magnitude of its impact until one day on set I was looking around, standing in my costume and across the way I’m staring at a Queen who trusts me, believes in me and encourages me to let my light shine so we can shine together. Experiences like this are never to be overlooked, and I thank you @iamreginaking for allowing me to find my presence in your life and I am beyond thankful for the ability to grow with you. It takes one person to roll a ball down a hill in order for it to begin moving and I thank @stuntpoc for allowing the ball to gain momentum. If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have this story and these memories to share. I am thankful for Thom Williams (@reactionstunts) for taking the time and effort in finding the RIGHT double for an actress who deserves unwavering representation, and for Justin Riemer (@j.riemer_actiondirector), Super Dave (@davemacomber) and all of the other coordinators I’ve worked with in helping me to continue on and realizing that I exist. Also, shoutout to @tiffystunts for bringing our light and importance to the forefront and proving a platform to share our stories! 🙏🏾❤️ #BlackStuntWomenExist #BlackStuntMenExist #BlackStuntDoublesExist #BlackStuntPerformersExist #watchmen #blackisbeautiful

A post shared by Sadiqua Bynum (@sadiquabynum) on Jul 28, 2020 at 1:30pm PDT

Sadiqua Bynum, an up-and-coming stunt performer who recently doubled for Regina King in Watchmen, was one of the stuntwomen cast as a member of the Dora Milaje, the all-women special guard to King T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman), led by Okoye (Danai Gurira). That job helped Bynum gain visibility among stunt coordinators, including Justin Riemer and Thom Williams, who then gave her a job on HBO’s Watchmen through Stunt POC. Bynum said she’s grateful to the many men who have been mentors to her, provided her with support and encouragement, and hired her for jobs she might not have gotten only a few years ago. But ultimately, she said, she’s looking forward to the day Black women hold more positions of power on-set.

“A lot of my [women] mentors are the ones that went through the paint-downs, and they saw men get wigged when they could have done the role,” Bynum said. ”[Some of it] has to do with safety and all of that, but I think it’s also just not really believing that they could do it — I’ve also felt that too on a smaller scale. They weren’t really given the opportunity to be able to even show their skills.”

“We’re starting to open up in terms of gender diversity, but in terms of racial diversity, [we’re behind],” Day added, echoing Bynum. “One of the few white female coordinators tafted me. She’s super talented, and while she’s been doing this for 20 years, it took 15 years of hard work to break through the ‘glass ceiling.’ How long is it going to take for a woman of color to get there?”

“One of the first things a guy told me is, ‘Be careful, don’t befriend anyone with the same build, the same skin color as you.’”

Nadia Lorencz

With so few of their peers holding positions of power, younger Black stuntwomen are forced to look to each other for support. But even that is sometimes discouraged.

Nadia Lorencz, who doubled for Teyonah Parris on Marvel’s upcoming WandaVision series, recalled that while she was training, stuntmen would often warn her about getting too close to other Black stuntwomen, claiming that they might sabotage her in an attempt to secure one of the few jobs available. 

“One of the first things a guy told me is, ‘Be careful, don’t befriend anyone with the same build, the same skin color as you,” Lorencz told Refinery29. “And I was like, Oh gosh, do I just not trust anyone? How is that going to work?”

But with productions shut down during quarantine, she has found a vibrant community of Atlanta-based stuntwomen to connect with. In particular, she’s formed strong friendships with Day and Bynum, whom she met through training. During socially distant hikes, the three have been sharing advice and experiences, bolstering their physical workouts with emotional support that will help them navigate the industry once filming resumes. 

“What they do is try to actively separate us,” Day added. “It’s easy to keep people weak if they’re separated — they know that we’re stronger together.”

Spending this time together has given them renewed hope for the future. As part of the new generation of Black stuntwomen taking on the industry, Day, Bynum, and Lorencz are determined to create a sisterhood that not only stands on the foundation built by the trailblazing women who came before them, but also ensures that their sacrifices won’t have been in vain. And judging by the Instagram posts in response to Washington’s paint-down story, it seems like this movement is only just beginning. 

“We just want everyone to win,” Lorencz added. “There’s more than enough work out there for everyone.”

“I prayed for people like you guys in my life,” Day recalled telling Bynum and Lorencz recently. “Women who look like me, that I can trust, that I can call if I’m going through something, whether it be professional or personal. Just to have that makes a world of difference. Had I not met you, I probably wouldn’t be where I am.”

Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?

Zendaya & Ana De Armas Are Oscars Voters Now

A Marvel Star Is Speaking On Its Diversity Problem

28 Movies By Black Creators For Your Watch List

DMTBeautySpot

via https://www.DMTBeautySpot.com

Anne Cohen, Khareem Sudlow

#DMTBeautySpot #beauty


Lesli Linka Glatter was supposed to be in Budapest when Hollywood suddenly ground to a halt.

The Emmy- and Oscar-nominated director was packed and ready to fly out for an eight-month trip to begin production on her new Amazon project, The Banker’s Wife. The night before her departure, she was told to hold off. The project was being put on hold because of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“I had nothing in the house,” she told Refinery29 over the phone. “I was not planning on being here. A friend literally dropped a chicken on my doorstep a couple of days ago.”

Struggling to gather enough supplies to weather out the storm in grocery stores that are all but empty, Glatter is one of the many people around the world whose lives and careers have been put on hold by the outbreak of COVID-19. But in Hollywood, where so many creatives are freelancers who work on a project-to-project basis (which means they need to always have their next project lined up to know they’ll have continued income), the widespread shut-down of productions has been particularly destabilizing and frightening. 

“As a director I am always with people — it’s a team sport,” Glatter, whose preview credits include Homeland, The West Wing, Mad Men, and cult coming of age movie Now and Then, said. “The big concern for me is: Are our crews going to be okay? Will they be taken care of? And I don't know if anyone knows the answer to that yet.”

Over the last couple of weeks, most movie and TV sets have announced that they’re either wrapping early or on hold indefinitely, leaving hundreds without jobs or, in some cases, health benefits. Movie theaters have closed, and it’s not clear when, or even if they’ll ever reopen. (If you want to help, consider buying gift cards to your favorite indie theaters now.) As a result, upcoming movie releases have been cancelled and pushed back. 

2020 was supposed to be a banner year for women in Hollywood. Five of the biggest and most highly-anticipated blockbusters of the year — Cathy Yan’s Birds of Prey, Niki Caro’s Mulan, Cate Shoreland’s Black Widow, Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman 1984 and Chloe Zhao’s The Eternals — were directed by women. And though Birds of Prey is now available on VOD, Mulan, Wonder Woman 1984 Black Widow, and The Eternals' theatrical releases have been postponed. And those are just the big studio releases. With festivals like South by Southwest and Tribeca Film Festival cancelled until further notice, it’s hard to even estimate how many indie women filmmakers are struggling to get their work seen. SXSW did hand out its usual prizes, but the majority of films went home without distributors, their main purpose in going to the festival.

Refinery29 is committed to sharing their stories. Scroll through for a snapshot of how women in Hollywood are handling the current coronavirus crisis, at all levels of the industry. 

Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?

Grey's Anatomy Is Donating Gloves

All The Hollywood Films Affected By Coronavirus

Network TV Shows May Not Come Back This Season

DMTBeautySpot

via https://www.DMTBeautySpot.com

Anne Cohen, Khareem Sudlow

#DMTBeautySpot #beauty


We live in scary times. Italy’s healthcare system is currently crumbling, as hundreds die everyday. The United States has issued a travel ban. Canada has closed its borders, barring non-citizens from entry. Spain and France are on lockdown. In that context, the very idea of being bored, let alone debating which of the millions of movies or TV shows currently streaming, may come off as naively trivial, a luxury that we might all look back on with disbelief. Who cares about entertainment when thousands are suffering? And yet, movies provide a respite, a window into a better time to come, or a challenge we’ve overcome. They’re an escape, and a way to confront the worst. They provide a sense of possibility, and a window onto a world that’s become elusive.

Like so many, I am currently in self-isolation in my tiny New York City apartment for the foreseeable future. I’m following the advice of medical professionals, doing my part to stem the spread of COVID-19. I know that this is the right thing to do. 

But my feelings about quarantine are complicated, and change pretty much every hour. I’ve experienced giddy euphoria at being allowed — nay ordered — to stay home in my lounge clothes, cook meals that involve more than three steps, and take time for myself without feeling guilty about performing all sorts of tedious tasks. From there, the pendulum often swings to major anxiety, and I start spiraling down the rabbit hole of toxic thoughts. In between those two extremes come more random and privileged thoughts: Wishing I could take advantage of the mild early spring weather, worrying about whether I will still remember how to put on makeup when this is all over, weighing the pros and cons of an online workout versus a walk outside. I worry about my family, my friends, my city, and others. I feel guilty about lots of things, but mostly about being safe when others aren’t. And finally, I think about what movies I’m going to watch. 

What I watch often depends on what mood I’m in. And since “sad,” “angry,” “happy,” or “scared” are not nearly complex enough for what we’re all experiencing, I’ve narrowed it down to more specific states of mind. Click through for a sampling of suggestions, all available to stream from home. 

Don’t see your mood represented? We’ll be updating for as long as we’re in this. 

COVID-19 has been declared a global pandemic. Go to the CDC website for the latest information on symptoms, prevention, and other resources.

Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?

Best Rainy Day Movies To Watch On Netflix

You Can Watch Some New Movies Online Right Now

Movie Theaters Take Action During Coronavirus

DMTBeautySpot

via https://www.DMTBeautySpot.com

Anne Cohen, Khareem Sudlow