Terry Gilliam has an interesting relationship to the issues of diversity and equality in Hollywood. With the rise of #MeToo, the director has come forward on multiple occasions to talk about the way the entertainment industry is changing in the last year. A few months ago, the director compared #MeToo as “mob rule,” which made many people upset. However, during Cannes, Gilliam spoke about #MeToo and the issue of diversity and admitted that he was naïve and didn’t understand it at first.
However, in a press conference at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (via The Guardian), Gilliam offered his opinion on diversity in entertainment, and once again, it is sure to be controversial.
READ MORE: Terry Gilliam Addresses #MeToo & Says Superheroes Are “Bullsh*t”
Gilliam was responding to a recent interview with the head of comedy at BBC, Shane Allen, who said that if “Monty Python” was created today, it would have been more diverse:
“If you’re going to assemble a team now, it’s not going to be six Oxbridge white blokes. It’s going to be a diverse range of people who reflect the modern world.”
This came after he said that BBC is committed to telling “the stories that haven’t been told and the voices we haven’t yet heard.”
At KVIFF, when Gilliam was confronted with these comments, the director said, “It made me cry: the idea that … no longer six white Oxbridge men can make a comedy show. Now we need one of this, one of that, everybody represented… this is bullshit. I no longer want to be a white male, I don’t want to be blamed for everything wrong in the world: I tell the world now I’m a black lesbian… My name is Loretta and I’m a BLT, a black lesbian in transition.”
READ MORE: Terry Gilliam Reportedly Eyeing ‘Mr. Vertigo’ For His Next Film, Starring Ralph Fiennes
“[Allen’s] statement made me so angry, all of us so angry. Comedy is not assembled, it’s not like putting together a boy band where you put together one of this, one of that everyone is represented.”
John Cleese, another member of the famous Monty Python, took to Twitter to provide his response to Allen’s comments, saying, “Unfair! We were remarkably diverse FOR OUR TIME … We had three grammar-school boys, one a poof, and Gilliam, though not actually black, was a Yank. And NO slave-owners.”
Gilliam has just recently premiered his long-awaited film “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.” He’s reportedly working on a film titled “Mr. Vertigo” next with Ralph Fiennes attached to star.
https://twitter.com/JohnCleese/status/1009472455310827520
You go guys. You are ABSOLUTELY correct. It was a matter of timing, friendship and serendipity.
But they wanna pigeonhole everything and force it into little PC correct boxes. And THAT is why there is so much Shit made nowadays. By committee. By “Test Focus Groups” , etc
Social Engineering is as much a lie as Communism. Like Oprah said, “Success if the best revenge.” If you are good, you are good. If you are bad, you are bad. The Individual rules before any characteristic. Ridiculous to think by having “one of them” and “one of those” that YOU have created Diversity. Diversity ALREADY exists. You should just create opportunity by not discriminating…NOT by cramming someone. If an individual is worthy, they will succeed. It is stupid to create sacred cow TOKENS. As bad as pariahs. That is not natural. Just cherry-picking people of a certain race/sex/religion/whatever destroys the concept of worthiness. Self-fulfilling prophecies never turn out well.
What is this diversity anyway? Why should I think of it as something of inherent value? Why do we need oppressive rules to enforce it? When you pick people to do something you just pick the one who you think will be best. Ethnicity or gender jsut does not even come into it.