Dear Netflix, Disney+, Warner Bros., Paramount+, et. al.

Please Tell Your Actors who Promote Your Films to STFU

Have we all walked into an episode of the original Twilight Zone where reality has dissolved into a 1 minute and 30-second soundbite that must get clickbait prominence? I posed that hypothetical because somehow people seem to be buying into this conundrum as if ts a right of passage. I don’t know how it got started or when it got started but there has been this trend going on where actors of a certain status, from A-level to D-level, have been voices their discontent primarily with the fan base about how these fans should not disparage, condemn, or say anything negative about the picture they are starring in. In some cases, no fan had ever said anything bad about the film or TV show but the actor would make a preemptive strike and would solicit their comment negatively about the fan base. But why are they doing this? Social media has turned some sheep into paper lions and it comes with heavy costs, a downturn in box office revenues.

But what are the studios, who finance these costly productions, doing anything about it? So they have the motivation to reign in their actors? Depending on who that actor may be, they may not have any choice in the matter. Contractually, an actor must promote a film but how they promote it carries with it a big tent to move around in. Let’s take a look at the film, Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn.

First, this film had the worst title of a film that has ever come out in this century. The title left people confounded because it was so long and it was a mouthful to say. After one week of its release, the studio, Warner Bros. Changed it simply to Birds of Prey. But that wasn’t the only thing hampering this film. One of the actors, Ewan (pronounced U.N.)McGregor decided to include some controversial comments while promoting the film. In an interview with Good Morning America, McGregor said of the film “the film deals with misogyny in a very extreme way.” It’s “peppered with that sort of everyday misogyny that women have to put up with” from men, he noted. “It’s a good message to put out there to remind guys that those days are over.” His comments came during the height of the #MeToo and #TimesUp movement. Many viewed his comments as virtue signaling and an indictment against every man in existence. The film turned out to be a cinematic flop filled with identity politics and an incoherent mess of plot holes. After the film flopped at the box office, the female director, Cathy Yan, blamed misogyny for the film’s failure at the box office even when data showed that more men saw the film than women. She then went on to say that the film didn’t get any support because as she stated, “That was an extra burden that, as a women-of-color director, I already had on me anyway”. The implication being that the studio wasn’t giving her the needed support as opposed to her white male contemporaries. As this went on, the narrative kept changing while the studio kept quiet.

Another high-profile production helm by Netflix with director Kevin Smith became a slow-motion train wreck after Masters of The Universe: Revelations aired. What started off as a harmless innocuous blip of s comment from YouTube’s ClownfishTV proprietors Geeky Sparkes and Kneon responded to a rumor about what may have been coming inside the He-Man universe with certain characters and the direction of the story. In a surprise move, Kevin Smith decided to respond to the said rumors snd decided to plant a flag on that hill as a false rumor. However, when the Masters of the Universe was released, ClownfishTV clearly had won the war of credible source material and Kevin Smith was painted into a corner, including the walls and ceiling, as a liar. You would think that a rational person would amend his statement on the direction of his show but Kevin Smith went in a whole different more precarious route and doubled down with a completely new narrative. To say it got more ugly than Joe Biden trying to read Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers on a teleprompter while eating peanut butter and crackers would wholly underestimate the situation. Kevin Smith held a press conference to justify his stand on why he did what he did by using the term “subvert expectations”. Defenders of Kevin Smith brought up the standard rebuttal of it being a case of “toxic masculinity” even though there were a lot of women in that circle who also had a disagreement with the way Kevin Smith handled the new direction of Teela.

Furthermore, Kevin Smith threw Netflix not under the bus but under a long-running train claiming that Netflix “didn’t give a shit” about the backlash. As far as Netflix is concerned, bad press is good press from Kevin Smith’s mind’s eye of a lofty perspective. However, I find that hard to accept. Netflix has faced criticism in the past when it chooses to run the controversial film, Cuties, about a film prepubescent girls where one is seen blowing up a used condom. Netflix’s American audience implored them not to air it but they did anyway and as such, many people unsubscribed to them. It’s hard for me to believe that Netflix would be so negligent as to not care what their viewership would watch and subsequently resign from their service because of content. Masters of the Universe left the top 10 viewing list after one week.

You would think that Netflix may a learned a lesson or two from Cuties and Masters of The Universe: Revelations and perhaps they might following the backlash from the latest live adaptation of the Japanese anime, Cowboy Bebop. The live-action Cowboy Bebop is about to air on Netflix and for those who are familiar with the IP, Cowboy Bebop is canon. However, the live-action version did some creative changes particularly with two of the characters. Instead of three Asian characters, there is only one. Two of them are race-swapped, one black and one Latin. Of those two, the female is Latin. While the rumbling has been muted on the race swapping, the same cannot be said about Faye Valentine’s costume.

 In the anime, Fave is dressed in yellow hot pants, thigh-high clear stockings, white shoes with a heel, a red pull-down jacket, and a yellow crop top, and a yellow headband. In the live-action version, Faye is wearing dark shorts, it looks like dark pantyhose under a mesh tattered stocking, a red leather jacket, black hiking boots, and a muted yellow shirt. Fans of the anime saw this as problematic and being untrue to the character. This sentiment was bolstered by the fact that there is a legion of cosplayers who paid homage to the anime character and portrayed her IRL to the letter. So why couldn’t this actress, Daniella Pineda portray Faye Valentine in all of her splendor like the anime?

Judging from Daniella Pineda’s response, the fan base was objectively insulting her. But when you dissect her response to the criticism of the costume the live-action version was portraying, the numerous cosplayers dressed as the anime character, and the hypocrisy of Daniela Pineda dressed scantily in a thong, hot pants, boots, and a top. The Internet never lets go of your past deeds, what is forgotten is remembered. Daniella’s comments take everything out of context. Nobody criticized her about her height, her breast size, or her thighs. They talked about her costume only. The cosplayers were women of all sizes and shapes. They proved that dressing up like the character could have been done without any issues. And as YouTubers Nina Infinity and Anna of That Star Wars Girl fame has pointed out, many women from the WWE dress in less attire than that and they keep everything in. But we are in a different era where men aren’t supposed to look at women in revealing outfits from their point of view.

But this time, Netflix stepped in and had Daniella remove the Instagram video to quell the controversy. But maybe it was too late because now there is a sizeable number of people who are fans of the anime who are now opting to forego the live-action piece because of Daniella’s comments. She put down the fans and was highly dismissive of their concerns.

The latest person to throw their hat into the social media ring of WWW (Wide World of Whiners) is Simi Liu. He’s the most recent Marvel superhero who thinks he’s the first Asian superhero. At this stage of the game, there is no first anything anymore, just rewritten notes over scratched-out icons. Hey, Jack, let’s just race swap or gender-bend the character and give them a social name like The Stunning Braveman/ — Bravewoman/ — BraveTrans, I don’t know, is Safe-Space still available? But let’s get back to Mr. Liu. He has taken it upon himself to shine a perspective light on his character of Shang-Chi as the first Asian superhero. There is a saying though, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,”. In Mr, Liu’s case, he has forgotten a lot of cinematic history with Asian characters. 

The first one that comes to mind for me is Bruce Lee’s Kato who came to life on the TV series, The Green Hornet. Mr. Liu stated that “And it means that kids growing up today will have what I didn’t, which are characters that are aspirational, that also reflect their lived experience.” Has he not seen Kato, that character was aspirational for a lot of kids. Who didn’t want to be Kato when you were little?

For me, Bruce Lee was the start of all Asian characters When Enter The Dragon came out, his style was unique and nobody has ever been successful in duplicating any part of his move or mannerisms. Sure, others have made vain attempts by tweaking their nose with their thumb to mimic the tick of Bruce Lee or beckons the person to come over when he flips his hand but those are pale pretenders.

Mr. Liu must not have seen any action films starring Asian characters. He doesn’t recognize the works of Jet Li, Chow Yun-Fat, Ziyi Zhang, Sammo Hung, Jackie Chan, or even his co-star in his film, Michelle Yeoh. Every one of these actors has had “aspirational” characters. If I were Michelle Yeoh I would feel insulted by him not recognizing her accomplishments in cinema with her body of work. Hell, she was an action Bond Girl. Mr. Liu needs to redeem himself after insulting these actors. I would recommend that he go back and read everything about Bruce Lee and the hell he went through for his art and how the TV series, Kung-Fu, was taken from him. Right now, he is the president of the WWW club (Wide World of Whiners).

And there is one more film I’d like to discuss, Black Widow. Everyone associated with this film promoted it. But there was one aspect that took the sail out of the film just a bit. Scarlett Johansson stated that her latest Marvel film, Black Widow, is a response to the #MeToo movement. She goes into further detail about which aspect of the movie taps into those aspects of the #MeToo zeitgeist. Here is the thing though, nobody wants to pluck down their money to buy a ticket or streaming service and be lectured to for something they are not a part of. Black Widow opened moderately average for a Marvel film but by the time the second week rolled around, it lost 70% of its audience and will struggle to break even.

All of these films have some aspect of wokeness about them. So far, these actors and directors are sabotaging their products. They are turning off the very audience that helps pays for the product. This era of “If you don’t like my politics, don’t buy my book.” is a serious negative aberration to fiscal soundness. As the cost of major tent-pole films keeps going up, no studio in the right fiscal mind can afford to allow unchecked talking points to go unanswered without some sort of intervention. Scarlett Johansson’s comments about her #MeToo Black Widow film might have cost Disney that $50 million she’s suing for? Kevin Smith killed the ratings on Masters of The Universe: Revelation to disappear after one week. Daniella Pineda has turned already upset the apple cart judging by a sampling of YouTube podcasts who’ve discussed her comments and gone through them with laser precision.

For the most part, social media is a boon and also a bust. It all depends on what is being put out there. It’s not for everyone. Not everyone needs to be heard. Not everyone has reverence for your activism. Not everyone enjoys your politics. Not everyone has monolithic thinking. Not everyone veers left. Hollywood needs to rethink who. Will they follow the company line when promoting it or will they leave that warm suckling of the teet for some cold gelatinous leftover spam?