Ty Hodges is creating better representation of Black men on screen

Brut America

"When I'm seeing men that look like me on screen, it's dealt, in an arena of pain, oppression, violence."  With his new film, actor and director Ty Hodges is challenging representation of Black men on screen.

Transcript

00:00I've had a casting director tell me,

00:02can I be more black?

00:03I've written something and someone's like,

00:05can you put a church in there?

00:06Like, I feel like it needs to be like,

00:08somebody gets shot.

00:22Don't let them put you in a box.

00:23And don't continue to feed into a narrative

00:27that's this small.

00:28You know what I'm saying?

00:29Society looks at me like this,

00:31this is all I can be.

00:32Let me lean into it and let me rebel

00:34and let me get pissed off when I'm confronted

00:36with the same old narrative

00:38because this is what they expect us to be,

00:40which is violence and all these things.

00:53I got introduced into this industry

00:56not being, you know, put in a box

00:59and being the only black actor in the room

01:01and the white kids are like,

01:01what you going for?

01:02I'm like, I'm going for Larry.

01:03And they're like, just confused.

01:05Like, all the time.

01:08And my agent at the time, he was like,

01:09would just pitch me.

01:10He's like, this kid could be black.

01:11He doesn't have to be white.

01:13And so as I started to get older,

01:14I started realizing that a lot of content

01:16as I get older as a man,

01:17I was having to be, can you be more black?

01:19Can you be more rough?

01:20And I look at my audition lines and I was like,

01:21everything is stemmed in trauma.

01:23For some reason, music has evolved.

01:26Fashion's evolved when it comes to us.

01:29But with film and the narrative places,

01:32we kind of haven't expanded from that.

01:42I'll never forget, I went to audition

01:44and I'm going to audition.

01:44I'm with like Derek Luke and I'm looking at me

01:46and I'm like, we go for the same role?

01:48Like, and we're completely different

01:51or, and it's one role.

01:52And that's why I started writing.

01:53Cause I was going in a room with just,

01:55there's one role for black guy.

01:57And I'm like, and we all look different.

01:59I'm like, why can't it be five?

02:14Our generation is really about that life.

02:16It's understanding like how just powerful

02:21and how much we feel.

02:23When I'm seeing men that look like me on screen,

02:25it's very dealt in an arena of pain, oppression, violent.

02:32And I was very deliberate to do something

02:34a little bit softer to show, you know,

02:37a black man, man of color,

02:39that wasn't going to allow society to shift them off,

02:43like expose a certain vulnerability

02:45that we rarely see on screen.

02:46It's simple.

02:47It's like, how do you heal?

02:49And how do you get to where you want to go in life?

02:51And when everyone's trying to put you in a box,

02:53you know, that liberation,

02:55that black boy liberation is definitely like intentional.

02:58For me, it's very deliberate to open up the door

03:01and like expand what, you know,

03:03people have told us we should be as black men

03:05or what media shows the world.

03:06Cause there's some people that never even meet black people.

03:08You know what I'm saying?

03:09Like they just see the news and they hear rap

03:13and they're like, that's black.

03:15You know what I'm saying?

03:15We can't wait for permission to be our authentic selves.

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