![]() I still have my first crew jacket from that set!" "It was really weird, but that's how I made my first connections that have lasted to this day. "I worked with extras in casting and in craft services, which meant dealing with food and garbage," she remembers. An operator put Brown in touch with her cousin ("I don't even know that woman's name, but she's responsible for my first big break!), who helped Brown land her first job as an intern on The Five Heartbeats. So she did the only thing she could think of: call the Black Business Bureau. EFFIE BROWN HOW TOBut as a senior in 1993, on the brink of graduation without the privilege of the connections that many of her white classmates had, she had no idea how to break into Hollywood. So it was at Loyola Marymount's film school that she honed her production skills. Initially Brown wanted to be an actress, but because in the '80s she was "a bit of a mess - a dark-skinned Black girl wearing a Jheri curl and purple eyeshadow," her parents suggested she look at other routes in addition to the acting track. Gilligan’s Island, The Brady Bunch.that was foreign to me." Alien with a badass female lead, I could understand. "Even if characters didn't look like me, there was still some form of other. "We were always into inclusive films," Brown says. She also loved to bond with her dad over Bruce Lee movies. It was the first on-screen representation Brown can remember that made her feel "like we are here, we exist, not just with an older white guy taking care of us, like on Different Strokes." An early favorite was The Warriors, a 1979 film about a multicultural gang in the Bronx. It's a love story that began when she was a self-described latchkey kid in New Jersey, when she'd often do homework and watch movies while waiting for her working parents to get home. ![]() The more Brown speaks, the more her ardent passion for the craft is evident. It means that there is a place for all of us to have a seat at the table.'" We need the 'woke' people to stand up and say, 'Hey hey hey, inclusiveness doesn’t mean that someone is taking something, it means that we’re sharing. "What we really need is a coalition of people on our side to make things happen. ![]() "I think we're getting a little tone-deaf with the word diversity," Brown says. People always ask me, 'What was that like?' and I'm like, 'It was like any other Tuesday.'"īrown clarifies that she's not trying to be flippant - it's just that while conversation is great, harping on the same moment over and over can be frustrating when no actual change is happening. "Everybody was like, 'Oh shit, that happened to me on Thursday,' in their boardrooms or their meetings. "I think people couldn't stop talking about that moment because it was all too common," Brown says. EFFIE BROWN SERIESIn a scene with producer Effie Brown on HBO's series for aspiring filmmakers, Project Greenlight, Matt Damon told the producer that a Black filmmaker might not be necessary for a project they were considering because, "When you're talking about diversity, you do it in the casting of the film, not in the casting of the show." It was an arrogant moment of white mansplaining that immediately went viral minutes after the scene aired. It was the sound bite heard 'round Hollywood last year. Effie is our final subject be sure to check out parts one, two, and three. I am sorry that they offended some people, but, at the very least, I am happy that they started a conversation about diversity in Hollywood," he said.īut, as TMZ reports, Damon is an executive producer on the show and likely had power over his apparently misleadingly edited comments.Introducing The Gratitude Series, a four-part Refinery29 special running in November that will celebrate the women of color whose work in Hollywood we are grateful for - especially d uring a time when the industry is still struggling to be more inclusive. "My comments were part of a much broader conversation about diversity in Hollywood and the fundamental nature of Project Greenlight which did not make the show. I want every young person watching Project Greenlight to believe that filmmaking is a viable form of creative expression for them too. "I believe deeply that there need to be more diverse filmmakers making movies. In a carefully worded apology to TMZ, the actor said he was taken out of context but is happy to have started a conversation on diversity in Hollywood. The comments were made during the HBO series Project Greenlight, where Damon and long-time friend and colleague Ben Affleck discuss aspects of filmmaking. * Why Nasa is excited about Matt Damon film Damon's remarks sparked a backlash on social media. ![]()
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