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Angelina Jolie continues to rack up nominations for her role as Mariane Pearl in A Mighty Heart. She is now nominated for the NAACP Image Awards for outstanding actress. Her competition in that category is Jurnee Smollett (The Great Debaters), Halle Berry (Things We Lost in the Fire), Jill Scott (Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married?), and Taraji P. Henson (Talk To Me).
This is a particularly interesting award nomination since the NAACP Image Awards are usually for outstanding African-American artists (the press release officially states the Image Awards honor those who promote diversity in the arts), and there was a veritable firestorm over Angelina playing Mariane Pearl in the first place. Her competition is very strong, especially Halle Berry who was equally outstanding in her role in Things We Lost in the Fire, but we’ll have to see what happens.
The Image Awards will be presented on February 14th in Los Angeles, with the ceremony being broadcast live on Fox (ideally, that is – we’ll have to wait to find out what will happen in relation to the writers’ strike).
(Photo source – NY Post)
Thank you to Ligaya for sending me the press release!
Technorati Tags: naacp. naacp image awards, angelina jolie, a mighty heart, angelina jolie nominated for naacp image award
Just for accuracy’s sake: Mariane’s mom was Afro-Cuban & Chinese-Cuban. Mariane’s dad was Dutch & she grew up in France.
That’s why identity is so complex. First, scientists say there’s no such thing as “race,” otherwise people of different backgrounds wouldn’t be able to have children. This is true of other animals – e.g., birds have races within the same species, but they can’t reproduce.
There’s only one race – the human race. What we call race is a class, social, cultural, national, political, etc. construct.
In the U.S., we tend to define anybody with black skin as black. (There’s an outdated but still sometimes used idea of the one-drop rule, i.e. one drop of black blood makes a person black, whatever their appearance.) But there are Arabs, Latinos, Filipinos etc. who are blacker than black.
And Afro-Caribbeans, Afro-Brazilians, & Afro-South Americans are steeped in their deep cultural Latino roots – which they retain even when coming to the U.S. So they bridge the black & Latino traditions in the U.S.
And immmigrants from Africa are described as black, but are thoroughly different from American blacks. Even the blacks from the South are different from blacks in the urban north.
A couple of friends worked in the Peace Corps in Brazil; they says it’s highly stratified according to skin & class, but class trumps race. Super-elite athlete Pele was black as night, but since he was also super-rich, he was treated and categorized as white.
Sorry, I wandered off in a major way. This whole “what’s right to do about race” is very interesting to me.
No, I don’t think there should be separate awards. I wasn’t stating my personal opinion, I was just saying that if there was a firestorm when she was cast in the role, there will likely be an uproar over this nomination.
The role of Marianne is what the award symbolizes. Marianne is only part Black, she is also part Cuban and French. So is Halle Berry, she is only part Black and I think Egyptian. It is the role they are depicting that is being evaluated for awards. Do you think there should be separate awards for crossing genders? John Travolta, Cate Blanchett, Felicity Hoffman, Dustin Hoffman, etc. This is the 21st Century, and we are more open to these issues. A great example is White Chicks. The Wayans role were two white chicks in this hilarious movie. So if Angie is playing Marianne who is part Black, what is good for the goose is also good for the gander.
I am a definite fan of the other actors performances over the years…(Haile Berry, Jurnee..etc) but in all honesty, none of them had a tougher acting job than Angelina…and that’s the truth. Angelina had to master a combination of accents by playing Marianne in a Mighty Heart, not to mention the critisism from all sides that she received questioning her abilities & whether she should have been given the role (though Marianne personally asked her to play the part), and the political/personal sensitivity that had to be incorporated as to not have the character be interpreted as a victim in a sappy or cold way. Angelina Jolie, HANDS DOWN, deserves the image award because she showed Marianne as a strong Afro/french woman who handled the terrorist threat and her husbands murder with Grace, forgiveness & beauty. Angie & Brad deserve to be commended for bringing that story to us.
I Remember When It Was 1st Discussed That Angie Would Be Playing An African American Character. As An African American Myself I Was A Little Concerned But After Seeing The Film And Angie’s Performance I Cant Imagine Who Couldve Done It Better. So Congrats 2 My Girl 4 Getting Another Acting Nod
Plus:
http://www.variety.com/awardcentral_article/VR1117978664.html?nav=news&categoryid=1983&cs=1
Independent or Foreign Film
‘A Mighty Heart’ (Paramount Vantage)
‘Dirty Laundry’ (Codeblack Entertainment)
‘Honeydripper’ (Emerging Pictures)
‘My Brother’ (Codeblack Entertainment)
‘Persepolis’ (Sony Pictures Classics)