Transcriber: Manuel Greco Reviewer: Anna Sobota
For me and many others,
acting has been a way of expressing myself through the beautiful art of storytelling.
You can be a character and yet you can be yourself.
Every actor brings a piece of themselves to a character,
which explains why
there are so many different interpretations of the same character.
And that’s what makes acting beautiful.
While there are so many different adaptations of the same story,
none are quite the same.
This art that we call acting has survived for so long and through so much.
It has roots in almost every culture.
For many it’s a massive part of life.
It dates back to 550 B.C. in ancient Greek times.
Yet technology has led to the advancement of acting from cameras to TVs
and even being able to access films at any time on a mobile device.
The world will keep advancing, and so will acting.
So will this beautiful, unique art of telling a story
through becoming a character,
by feeling their ups and downs, by knowing who they are.
So, what does the future hold?
The first thing I’d like to point out
is the biggest problem we have in acting today, which influences films especially:
diversity.
That includes representing people of all race,
religion, gender and sexuality.
But we haven’t.
We've come a long way, but it isn't enough.
Yet there are still some things you can do to change.
We can change by doing a few simple things.
First, we need to identify the problem.
One big problem is that female roles are often small,
and leading roles for women are generally quite scarce.
Women are often presented as stereotypes in an unrealistic way on screen,
and even behind the scenes, women are often underrepresented.
For example,
of the top 1,300 films
counted from 2007 to 2019,
only 70 were directed by women.
70 out of 1,300.
Here’s a pie chart.
Do you see that tiny blue slither at the top?
That is female directing goals.
And the problem is, this is a deep-rooted issue.
It’s been around for thousands of years and we didn’t even know it.
From the ancient Greeks not allowing women to even watch theater to today,
we’ve made such vast improvements that it’s barely recognizable.
And yet we’re still showing future generations
examples of the outdated mistakes of the past.
Let’s look at one of the most obvious and common examples: Disney.
So, what makes a Disney princess?
Is it the kindness and personality traits as Disney attempts to suggest?
Or is it really the perfect smile, grace, thick hair and insanely thin waist?
In Disney’s first princess movie “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves”
looks a very important.
When the prince finds Snow White lying in a glass coffin in the forest,
he doesn't get to know her first or even wonder why she's there.
Instead, he kisses her and rides off with her into the sunset.
While this makes for a happy ending, essential fairy tales,
everything about this is wrong.
The prince is drawn to Snow White because of her beautiful looks,
not because of her kindness or intelligence
or any other qualities she may possess.
When he kisses her, she’s asleep and oblivious to the world.
The fact that Snow White is okay with this, when she wakes up
and falls in love with the prince the second she sees him
even though he technically just assaulted her,
teaches bad morals to young people.
What the prince does isn't okay.
No one, even princes,
have the right to disobey the law and not respect others as they should.
And a similar thing happens in “Sleeping Beauty.”
However, Disney’s most recent princess film, “Moana”, is entirely different.
“Moana” is one of the few Disney princess films where love isn’t included.
“Moana” also includes interesting Polynesian cultural overlaps.
In “Moana”, Moana sets out on a quest
to save her island from an ancient curse placed upon it.
She returns successfully after defeating monsters
and meeting great gods and goddesses,
and discovering that in order to achieve great things,
she needs to be herself and trust herself.
As I said, we have been making vast improvements
but there's still so much more to come.
For example, did you know that only 10% of films have a gender-balanced cast?
I haven't even mentioned the issues on screen with body image, racism,
homophobia and countless other issues.
We live in such a diverse society
and that diverse society needs to be represented on screen.
But there’s more.
You can help.
You can help simply by watching movies.
Watching movies that promote our diversity and equality.
There are so many benefits to widening movie diversity
from enriching our knowledge of the world to widening our viewpoint.
So, what does the future hold?
Well, that’s down to directors, producers
but most importantly us, the people.
So let’s move forwards towards a better future for acting together.
Thank you.
(Applause)