It’s not outrageous to suggest that the entertainment industry has a representation problem. (Howdy, #OscarsSoWhite!) Hollywood’s been (deservingly) hammered for a lack of diverse representation in terms of race, gender, orientation, physical appearance, etc., so a giant hot air balloon marked “Sympathy” did not magically come down into Chris Pratt’s yard when he had his own representation grumble inside the pages of Men’s Health. In fact, the Jurassic World star made a point to address his misstep on Twitter Friday.
Let’s reset, shall we? Speaking with publication, Pratt took issue with what he saw as a lack of movies about blue collar Americans.
“I don’t see personal stories that necessarily resonate with me, because they’re not my stories,” Pratt told Men’s Fitness. “I think there’s room for me to tell mine — and probably an audience that would be hungry for them. The voice of the average, blue-collar American isn’t necessarily represented in Hollywood.”
Evading dinosaurs and handling the duties of Star Lord aren’t exactly blue collar gigs, but the dude set himself up for a pretty easy rebuttal. Working class characters aren’t invisible from the Hollywood landscape. Moonlight, Fences and Hidden Figures alone shake off that notion. If you’re having a harder time seeing a white blue collar guy’s story at the multiplex than a Latinx story, please let us know where this mystical theater is located.
Realizing the error of his ways, Pratt made a point to admit that his comment was “pretty stupid.”
That was actually a pretty stupid thing to say. I'll own that. There's a ton of movies about blue collar America. https://t.co/DclYfNsiv3
— Chris Pratt (@prattprattpratt) April 21, 2017
“That was actually a pretty stupid thing to say. I’ll own that,” tweeted Pratt. “There’s a ton of movies about blue collar America.”
This ended as tidily as you could hope. Well-liked movie person says something questionable, the public makes him have a think on it, the well-liked movie person admits their mistake, learning happens. Who knew Men’s Fitness would lead to so much discussion about non-ab issues?
(Via CBS)
