“Amistad.” “Blood Diamond.” “In America.” All major blockbuster films starring Djimon Hounsou that earned him widespread awards recognition and critical acclaim. Yet, in a recent interview, the actor revealed he still has difficulty making ends meet as a working artist.
Hounsou sat down with CNN Africa recently, opening up about his experience in Hollywood as well as how the industry still has a long way to go in terms of systemic racism. “I’m still struggling to make a living,” he revealed in the clip. “I’ve been in the filmmaking business for over two decades with two Oscar nominations and many blockbuster films, and yet, I’m still struggling financially. I’m definitely underpaid.”
Speaking about his earlier career in Hollywood, he revealed that he felt he was “ignored” for the Oscars when he was nominated for a Golden Globe in his breakout role in “Amistad.” He explained, “I was nominated for the Golden Globe, but they ignored me for the Oscars because they thought that I had just come off the boat and the streets …even though I successfully did that, they just didn’t feel like I was an actor to whom they should pay any respect.”
He added that he believes the “conceptual idea of diversity” still has “a long way to go,” explaining, “Systemic racism won’t change like that anytime soon.”
As we reported, this is not the first time the actor has opened up about his struggles in the entertainment field. He just said last September in an interview, “I’ve come up in the business with some people who are absolutely well off and have very little of my accolades, so I feel cheated, tremendously cheated, in terms of finances and in terms of the workload as well.”
This revelation is certainly a shocking one, as the actor has appeared, as we mentioned earlier, in some of the biggest and most critically acclaimed films over the last 3o years. He also has appeared in various Marvel films like “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Captain Marvel,” two films in the “A Quiet Place” franchise, “Shazam,” “Aquaman,” … the list simply goes on and on. The man was even in Janet’s iconic “Love Will Never Do (Without You)“ music video back in 1990!
You would think an actor with two Oscar nominations, one for “In America” and another for “Blood Diamond,” multiple NAACP Image Awards, numerous SAG Award nominations, and more would not be struggling to make a living in Hollywood, and yet here Hounsou is, vulnerably speaking out about the lack of opportunities in that industry to this day for Black actors. As far as we’re concerned, Hounsou is an A-lister and should not be struggling this hard with a resume like that.
This story originally appeared on The Root, our sister site, on January 11.
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