Amandla Stenberg spoke about how audiences want inclusivity in movies, and we couldn’t agree more
As if we needed another reason to absolutely love her, in a new interview Amandla Stenberg has spoken about how audiences want diversity in movies, and we couldn’t agree with her more.
Despite only being 18 years old, Amandla Stenberg is one heck of an inspiring person. The actor has spoken previously about her attitudes towards sexuality and gender identity and how she embraced her natural hair, and what she had to say was pretty wise. What’s more, the star shares some pretty great stuff on social media, too, encouraging people to live happy and healthy lives, and it’s a message that we can certainly get behind.
A post shared by amandla (@amandlastenberg) on Apr 22, 2017 at 3:13pm PDT
Now, in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Amandla Stenberg has opened up about the importance and need for inclusivity and diversity in movies.
Stenberg is currently promoting her new movie, an adaptation of YA novel Everything Everything, and she sat down with EW to talk about the movie, and spoke about how, when she was growing up, she didn’t feel like she had any role models because of her race.
“As a 13-, 14-, 15-year-old there aren’t necessarily… you don’t see roles for black girls that age,” she said.
Continuing, the star noted that when she first started out in her career there weren’t that many roles for her to play. But now, she argues, people are fed up of the lack of inclusivity.
“People are bored,” she said, “and it’s the responsibility of studios and the mainstream media to catch up to what people want.”
In fact, she said, people really want diversity in movies.
“Diversity is something that people desperately want. I’m lucky enough to be here and see what’s happening and take those roles when they do appear,” she said. “I’m very aware of how special it is that I get to have this experience of creating representation while talking about representation at a time where people really, really want to see black girls as leads in movies.”
A post shared by amandla (@amandlastenberg) on Mar 7, 2017 at 3:47am PST
Indeed, she added, diversity in movies is a good way to reach those people who might live in communities that aren’t that inclusive.
“I definitely think it’s important to balance creating content that speaks directly on race and content that doesn’t talk about it all, but it speaks for itself,” she said. “It can be more powerful to create a film like Everything, Everything and then get distributed to kids in the Midwest who maybe don’t live in very diverse communities and get to see this black girl in the lead, you know? In many ways they’ll be able to understand that much more than they’ll be able to understand an article about representation.”
We absolutely love what Amandla has to say about diversity and inclusivity. As we know, having a varied and inclusive portrayal of people in the media does have a positive affect on people’s lives, and we love that, despite being so young, she is championing for these stories to be told.
Meanwhile, we can’t actually wait to see Everything Everything. The movie is set to hit screens on May 19th, and we just know that it’s going to be great!
