Several films exploring black lives both past and present resonated strongly with Sundance audiences, regardless of race. “Black stories are human stories … and belong to everyone,” Shari Frilot, senior programmer for the Sundance Film Festival, told BuzzFeed News.

Shari Frilot speaks onstage at the Lila and Eve premiere during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 30, 2015 in Park City, Utah.

Michael Loccisano / Getty Images for Sundance

PARK CITY, Utah — The story of the killing of a rising young black leader in 1969 hit the Sundance audience hard. As the details of Fred Hampton's death rolled out — the Chicagoan was fatally shot by police in his apartment, a killing that felt like an assassination — it was evident that viewers were having an emotional reaction to The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution. It was one of several visceral moments in Stanley Nelson Jr.'s documentary, and even though it was first viewed by a largely nonblack audience, those who witnessed the film at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival gasped when they saw images of the 21-year-old's bloody, bullet-ridden body hanging halfway off his bed.

That same emotional connection would play out at other black films that screened at the festival. This year's group of films ranged in terms of setting and era; some reached back to explore the Black Panthers party or Nina Simone, and others took on contemporary issues like racial profiling and subsequent unjust murders. The common link between them was that they all were striking cinematic experiences, gut-punching viewers with a dose of historical reality from which it was difficult to quickly recover.

Shari Frilot is the reason why these types of stories are even being presented at Sundance, particularly to an audience that tends to be largely white. Frilot has been with the Sundance Institute since 1998 (her first Sundance Film Festival was in 1999), and she's the festival's only black programmer. She's also the curator of Sundance's New Frontier, an interactive art exhibit that presents storytelling in innovative and groundbreaking ways — to her, story is a way that we connect with our shared experiences.

"Culture is a way for us to see ourselves and to understand our humanity, to define ourselves to ourselves, and in the society that we live in," Frilot said in an interview with BuzzFeed News. "It really kind of sets the tone for our lives; not just film, but the stories. Film plays an important role in communicating story, and getting the story out there because of how immersive it is, and how engaging it is, how seductive film is, and how accessible it is."

An image from Stanley Nelson Jr.'s The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution.

Pirkle Jones / Via http://Sundance.org

It's not that the films felt heavy-handed or that they were lecturing to the audience. But there was a sense that many of the films shown this year had meaning and power. This hasn't been a banner year as far as quantity of black films or films made by black directors at the film festival, but the collective subject matter has been exceptionally gripping.

There was the highly emotional documentary 3 1/2 Minutes, which recounts the story of 17-year-old Jordan Davis, who was killed in 2012 at a Florida gas station for not turning his music down. The Spike Lee-produced Cronies echoed what we saw play out in Ferguson, Missouri. "This is why black boys are having a hard time living in the society," said Frilot, "because we're telling ourselves the wrong story, and we're doing the wrong thing because of it — it's important to have films that are diverse."

This mirroring of societal struggles old and new playing out on Sundance screens was not intentional, Frilot said. Even some of the filmmakers who had films in the festival this year — like Nelson, who directed The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution — said they were pleasantly surprised when Frilot reached out to them to ask them to submit their films for consideration. ("Really? For Sundance?!" he joked in front of an audience, adding that he was incredulous when Frilot first approached him about screening his 2010 documentary Freedom Riders.) But being wholly inclusive is important, Frilot said.

"Black stories are human stories, and black stories belong to everyone because black people are part of society," Frilot said. "Whether you're a black audience, a white audience, everybody's going to benefit from understanding and being empathetic about black lives, black stories, black experiences. It creates a world that is livable. There are a lot of levels of engagement, and interest that I have in film … it's all rooted in creating a more capacious society."

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A new film looks at pregnancy through two very different women — one a black teenager, one a white schoolteacher — but foregrounds class and economic issues instead of race.

Anders Holm and Cobie Smulders in Unexpected.

Dagmar Weaver Madsen / Via http://Sundance.org

PARK CITY, Utah — The biggest surprise about Unexpected, the new movie from Kris Swanberg (Empire Builder), isn't that a white high school teacher and her black star pupil are pregnant at the same time. It's that the film manages to be a subtly told work about white privilege, without resorting to tired tropes about the Mighty White savior who rescues the poor black girl who's lost. Instead, the over-arching themes that are played out are socio-economic pitfalls and cultural presumptions.

On the surface, this is a story about the struggle of the teacher, Samantha (Cobie Smulders), to come to terms with her own pregnancy. She and her live-in boyfriend (Anders Holm) haven't quite had the forever-after chat, and she'll have to forgo the pomp and circumstance of a wedding and deal with the judgmental eye of her mother. Instead, she'll rush into matrimony before having the child. She'll also have to debate her own internal issues with maneuvering career versus motherhood.

Jasmine (newcomer Gail Bean) is a senior at an inner-city high school. She had been expected to escape the destiny of her neighborhood — she would go to college, find an equally educated husband, and have a child at an appropriate age, long after she's settled into her career. Her adult life was supposed to be unlike her childhood: a drug-addicted mother and an older sister with two out-of-wedlock babies. All of them live with Jasmine's grandmother, who works and also is on public assistance.

"I did find that when I was sending the script out to agencies or to mentors of mine, or to other friends in the business for advice, people were wanting it to go the traditional way," Swanberg, a former Chicago schoolteacher herself, said in an interview with BuzzFeed News. "They wanted Jasmine's neighborhood to be more like bullets flying by, and her life to really be dangerous because they wanted that promise of college to be even more of a dream."

Gail Bean as Jasmine in Unexpected.

Dagmar Weaver Madsen / Via http://Sundance.org

Instead, the neighborhood where Jasmine's family lives — while it's in an economically depressed area — it's not the same as the war-torn environment in, for example, Precious. It's an inner city pocket where residents are working-class and in some cases, need public assistance to stay just above the line. In other words, it's reflective of the lived experiences of many working-class people in America.

Swanberg, who still lives in Chicago, said she's not blind to the problems that plague parts of the city. "But that's not the whole story. There are families and communities that live in these neighborhoods that are loving and happy and kind and good, and you can show the class difference without it being a war zone," she said.

In her first major on-screen role, the 21-year-old Bean plays Jasmine very measured — strong, yet vulnerable. She's the furthest thing from a caricature; instead, she comes across as the voice of reason, and her character forces Samantha to rethink what she places value on in her own life.

Swanberg gave Bean freedom to help create a backstory of who Jasmine was, which she did by drawing on her own personal experiences. Bean grew up in the predominately black Atlanta suburb of Stone Mountain, and used her high school best friend (who got pregnant as a high school senior, yet is thriving, Bean said) as inspiration.

While race is an important factor here, it's not the focal point —it's never even talked about in the film. But when asked why her main characters had to be black and white, Swanberg said it was because that was her experience: a white teacher working with mostly black students. She wanted this film to reflect that, but she didn't want it to be a statement about race and race relations. Instead, she wanted this to be a story about two women from two different worlds finding common ground.

"It's a truthful story. Sometimes race has a play in truth and sometimes it's just a story," Bean said in an interview with BuzzFeed News. "It's about two women going through two very different things and comparing their backgrounds."

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“There’s a depth and diversity that you may not see elsewhere,” said NAACP president and CEO Cornell William Brooks in an interview with BuzzFeed News.

The cast of Dear White People

Code Red Films

Gugu Mbatha-Raw in Beyond The Lights

Relativity Media

Chadwick Boseman in Get On Up

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We’ll need a million Moments of Zen to emotionally endure this loss.

Nearly 16 years after he took over from Craig Kilborn as host, Jon Stewart announced on Tuesday that he would be leaving The Daily Show.

Comedy Central

Like, the fact that, throughout his tenure, Stewart fostered and supported on-air talent, like Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert.

Comedy Central

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We know your DVR is already full of conflicts, but these underappreciated series are worth your attention.

12 Monkeys

Embarrassing confession: I have never seen the movie 12 Monkeys. I know, and I'm right on top of that, Rose, but in the interim, I'm loving Syfy's slightly skewed take on the 1995 film. James Cole (Aaron Stanford) time-travels from the year 2043, where he links up with virologist Cassandra Railly (Amanda Schull) to stop the release of a deadly plague by the mysterious Army of the Twelve Monkeys. Its wacky, high-concept madness would quickly fail on network TV, but is right at home on Syfy. Nevertheless, the series has been slipping in ratings, which is baffling — it's Syfy's sleekest, sharpest show in years. Admirably complex but compulsively watchable, 12 Monkeys is the kind of smart sci-fi that network television should be aspiring to. —Louis Peitzman

12 Monkeys airs Fridays at 9 p.m. on Syfy.

Syfy

Agent Carter

Marvel's Agent Carter is one of the rare adaptations of a comic book where a woman is the main character, and that woman's gender is relevant to her life, and that woman isn't sexualized at all. Carter is a superhero without superpowers — her crime-fighting skill set never veers very far from the believable, except when she satisfyingly incapacitates largeish groups of men. If that weren't enough, there's a hard-boiled vibe to the '40s-set show that is both over-the-top and charming. Come for the female hero, stay for the appealingly corny hijinks. —Ariane Lange

Agent Carter airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on ABC.

ABC

Being Mary Jane

Gabrielle Union effortlessly delivers the flawed Mary Jane Paul rather, well, flawlessly. This BET drama has a limited audience, as it's running on a specialty network, but it deserves a broader, more mainstream one too. The dialogue is scary-real, and though you'd think the situations that Mary Jane — a single, successful cable news anchor who is longing for love and a baby — finds herself in are ridiculous and far from reality, they're not. Some of Being Mary Jane's elements read as specific to the largely black audience that turns out to view it — family dynamics that center around socioeconomic issues, fear of success, and keeping your eye on the prize — but it really is designed for anyone who is striving to have it all in a world that's not quite designed for such. And hey, if you can stomach the dumb decisions that Scandal's Olivia Pope endures, surely you can give Mary Jane a shot. —Kelley L. Carter

Being Mary Jane airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on BET.

BET

Episodes

What The Office was to corporate America and Veep is to politics, Episodes is to the entertainment industry. A biting, savvy satire of Hollywood and the people who populate it, the comedy, now in its fourth season, has become so much more than a platform for Matt LeBlanc to skewer his public, post-Friends persona. In the very capable hands of David Crane (who co-created Friends with Marta Kauffman) and Jeffrey Klarik, Episodes has become a true ensemble piece, boasting standout performances from Kathleen Rose Perkins and Tamsin Greig in particular. —Jarett Wieselman

Episodes airs Sundays at 10:30 p.m. on Showtime.

Showtime

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Before NFL running back Thomas Q. Jones romances Gabrielle Union’s Mary Jane on the hit BET series, he gave BuzzFeed News some of his best dating tips.

This is Thomas Q. Jones, the newest love interest on BET's Being Mary Jane.

Jones is shifting gears. The former NFL running back is now turning to Hollywood: Beginning with the Feb. 17 episode of Being Mary Jane, he will be playing Brandon, a new love interest for Gabrielle Union's eponymous character.

Macey J. Foronda / BuzzFeed

When you find out the girl you were dating froze your semen...

Macey J. Foronda / BuzzFeed

When she’s caught up on her ex…

Macey J. Foronda / BuzzFeed

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The industry’s most famous and celebrated black women gather and honor one another at the annual Oscars week luncheon.

Oprah Winfrey at the 8th Annual Essence Black Women in Hollywood luncheon

Frank Micelotta / PictureGroup

All it took was two words.

When Mara Brock Akil, the creator of BET's hit show Being Mary Jane said "Regina King," the entire crowd — hundreds of some of the most powerful (and famous) black women in Hollywood launched into a rousing round of applause. The actress was one of several being honored at the 2015 Essence Black Women in Hollywood luncheon, and to toast her 30-year career, she was presented with the Fierce & Fearless Award. By the time the actress and director took the stage, following a video montage that featured the likes of Ice Cube, Holly Robinson Peete, Gabrielle Union, Ben McKenzie, and others, King's face was soaked with tears, humbled and overwhelmed at the words her colleagues offered to sum up her worth in Hollywood.

At one point, Brock Akil — before presenting King with her award — reminded everyone in the room of one of King's more dynamic roles: Margie Hendricks, the long-suffering lover of esteemed musician Ray Charles (Jamie Foxx), in Ray. Brock Akil noted that a moment was missed when King wasn't honored with an Academy Award nomination for that role, which led to another eruption of applause in the room.

Acknowledgments like that one are why the Essence event — this is the magazine's eighth such luncheon — has become such a powerhouse in just under a decade. This occasion is a chance to put the industry's biggest and brightest black women in one room and pay homage to those who often get overlooked by mainstream awards. It happens in the week leading up to the Academy Awards, and it offers black women in the business the chance to take a stage, hold a trophy, and give thanks in a sororal environment, something mainstream awards shows often don't give them.

"When I think of what 'fierce' and 'fearless' mean, we all experience fear. We all do. But courage is moving fiercely through that fear," said King, who is currently at work directing a future episode of Scandal and most recently directed this week's episode of Being Mary Jane. Then she spoke directly to Brock Akil and Shonda Rhimes, thanking them for giving black women opportunities both in front of the camera and behind it, and for telling diverse stories of black womanhood.

Regina King accepts the Fierce & Fearless Award onstage at the 8th Annual Essence Black Women in Hollywood luncheon at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.

Frank Micelotta / PictureGroup

This year's event — which will air as a primetime television event on Saturday, Feb. 21, at 10 p.m. on OWN — opened with Oprah Winfrey taking the stage and revealing that her mentor, Maya Angelou, died on the day that she filmed her first scene in Selma, the movie that documents the three marches from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965 that led to the passing of the Voting Rights Act.

"I can't tell you what it's like to lose a rock, a wisdom source," Winfrey said. "But I can tell you that the spirit of her abides with me every day."

The audience of mostly women was silent as Winfrey spoke of Angelou's inspiring words to her on her 50th birthday: to soldier on and continue, even in the face of adversity.

Stories like Winfrey's were the narrative of the luncheon, with presenters and honorees talking about the struggles and rewards of being a black woman navigating a world as closely knit and as complicated as Hollywood.

Writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood (whose 2014 film Beyond the Lights earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song) also captivated the crowd as spoke of her experiences playing basketball in high school and running track at UCLA, making one hell of a metaphor in the process.

"Most people love playing in front of a home crowd. But I loved to get the win in someone else's house. Being an athlete, you learn that ... there's always going to be someone talking and yelling at you from the sidelines, but it's just as important to tune it out and focus on the win. It's no secret that we in this room are playing in someone else's house," Prince-Bythewood said, the audience cheering in agreement. "But it really doesn't matter. It just means that we have to tune out the BS to get these wins. It really is a team effort. It takes those of us who made it through the door to find new voices and pull them up behind us."

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“I’d love to see Meryl, like, slutdropping on the dance floor.”

The Oscars are Hollywood's biggest party of the year, so BuzzFeed News asked the stars which nominee they'd most like to get drunk with.

BuzzFeed

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From Meryl’s Lego Oscar to Neil Patrick Harris’ underwear, here’s what didn’t make the ABC broadcast.

Jared Leto and Lupita Nyong'o chat during a commercial break at the 2015 Academy Awards.

Kevin Winter / Getty Images

The cameras at the Oscars are always trying to catch famous faces doing interesting things, but they cannot capture everything. BuzzFeed News' Kelley L. Carter and Adam B. Vary attended the 87th Academy Awards on Sunday and saw how Hollywood's elite were celebrating and interacting when the cameras weren't in their faces.

1. Right before the show began, the Dolby Theater was filled with a mad rush of glad-handing and hellos. On the left aisle, Gwyneth Paltrow hugged Best Actress nominee Marion Cotillard, who then chatted up her fellow nominee Julianne Moore.

2. Meanwhile, on the right aisle, Jennifer Aniston hugged Selma star David Oyelowo, who then turned to talk with Oprah Winfrey's longtime partner Stedman Graham.

3. And then there was Oprah herself. Throughout the night, people would approach her to say hi. Among the very first was Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs, who did the high-five hand clasp with Winfrey. (Her signature!)

4. With roughly a minute to go before the show, Anna Faris struggled to make it to her seat, holding the train of her dress in her arms as her husband Chris Pratt dutifully followed behind her. Still, she had time to scream, "Hiiiiii!" to Best Actress nominee Felicity Jones.

Actors Chris Pratt, Anna Faris, and Felicity Jones at the 87th Annual Academy Awards.

Kevin Winter / Getty Images

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BuzzFeed News used the Oscars red carpet as an opportunity to #AskHerMore.

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BuzzFeed

And Chloe Moretz wanted them to embrace their flaws.

BuzzFeed

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Because the most important part of a woman’s body isn’t her fingernails.

E! via giphy.com

E!

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Bloop.

Jon Premosch/BuzzFeed News

Jon Premosch/BuzzFeed News

Jon Premosch/BuzzFeed News

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With dialogue like, “You wish you were white so they would like you better,” John Ridley, who earned an Oscar for the 12 Years a Slave screenplay, is adding to network television’s already much talked about diverse new offerings, but with a much harder punch.

Tony (Johnny Ortiz) as he gets placed into juvenile detention on American Crime.

Felicia Graham / ABC

The fact that American Crime premiered the day after the Department of Justice announced criminal charges would not be brought against a former Ferguson, Missouri, police officer for the death of Mike Brown is purely coincidental. The case has forced the country to talk about how crime and punishment play out in America, and it's one that has dominated headlines for more than seven months now.

American Crime is the latest network television show to put race front and center, and it could be the jumping-off point for more fiery conversations. The series, which debuted on ABC Thursday night, centers on the murder of a war vet and the brutal assault of his wife, both of whom are white. And when a drug-addicted black man, his drug-addicted white girlfriend, a Mexican-American teenager, and a Mexican man who has been in trouble with the law before are revealed as suspects, it quickly becomes clear that American Crime will go to uncomfortable places with regards to race, forcing viewers to consider their own prejudices as the characters do. Obviously, the series is timely as hell, and out of all of the new shows to join the network TV landscape with diverse casts this season, American Crime, created by 12 Years a Slave's Oscar-winning screenwriter John Ridley, is the one that gut-punches its audience with its approach to racial and economic issues.

In the show's premiere, for example, grieving mother Barb Hanlon (Felicity Huffman) speaks tersely to her ex-husband Russ Skokie (Timothy Hutton) as she reminds him of what he put her through: succumbing to a gambling addiction, losing all they had as a family, and forcing her — "a white mother and her two white kids" — to live in public housing. In the upcoming March 12 episode, Barb begins to unravel at the very thought of her war vet son not getting the same public empathy and outcry that someone like Brown, Jordan Davis, or Trayvon Martin received when each of the three black teens was killed by someone who wasn't black, signaling what many believe to be a larger problem with race relations in America. As a result, American Crime feels like a sociological experiment, brazenly forcing its audience to see another point of view — even when you're dead-set that what you believe is right.

The creator of American Crime, John Ridley, at a screening of his new show in February.

Matt Petit / ABC

Clearly, the new series isn't deliciously campy like Empire, familiarly funny like Black-ish or Fresh off the Boat, or whimsical like Jane the Virgin. On American Crime, we see how infractions are handled with regard to race, class, and gender through the drama's meth addicts, black cops, white cops, white parents, Latino parents, prosecutors, victims, white drugs dealers, and Latino drug dealers. And considering the current social justice climate, American Crime feels like a multifaceted docuseries, putting a face to all sides of the equation. In effect, Ridley has taken Facebook fights, political talking-head jabs, and grassroots protesters and included all of those vantage points into American Crime in grand, dramatic fashion.

Thus far, Huffman's character seems to be the most egregious, her language constantly peppered with racially provoking intentions. She negatively reacts to being questioned by a black female detective about the idea that her dead son could have possibly been a drug dealer himself. And when her ex-husband tells her one of the suspects is possibly Latino, she asks, "Some illegal?" "No, just Hispanic," he replies.

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En manque d’opportunités dans leur pays natal, beaucoup d’acteurs britanniques trouvent le succès –et des rôles bien plus substantiels– en racontant des histoires de noirs américains, et parfois même les plus emblématiques.

BuzzFeed

En Grande-Bretagne, David Oyelowo se sentait limité.

Brillant acteur capable de se fondre dans un rôle et d'en tirer une performance portée aux nues par ses contemporains, David Oyelowo –qui s'est fait connaître pour son personnage de Danny Hunter, l'espion maudit de MI-5, la série de la BBC– ne trouvait plus matière à progrès. Son travail prestigieux au sein de la Royal Shakespeare Company lui avait fait connaître quelques succès mineurs, mais les portes de la télévision ou du cinéma semblaient irrémédiablement coincées. Et en s'imaginant une carrière faite de rôles de composition, ses ambitions crevaient le plafond.

Il y a sept ans, David Oyelowo et sa femme Jessica se sont donc envolés pour Los Angeles, avec l'espoir de trouver des rôles à la hauteur de sa formation au sein de la glorieuse Académie de Musique et d'Art Dramatique de Londres. Il est arrivé en mai et, en juillet –soit à peine deux mois après avoir posé ses valises à l'endroit où il espérait trouver le rôle de ses rêves– le scénario d'un film intitulé Selma lui est tombé sur les genoux.

Il aura fallu encore sept ans, cinq réalisateurs et une réécriture avant que le film arrive dans les salles obscures, mais, aujourd'hui, David Oyelowo impressionne les critiques avec son interprétation plus vraie que nature de Martin Luther King, le pasteur qui allait contribuer à changer la vie de millions d'Américains avant d'être assassiné en 1968.

L'histoire de David Oyelowo n'est pas si rare. Elle ressemble à celle de beaucoup d'acteurs britanniques noirs et, à bien des égards, son rôle –et son histoire en tant qu'acteur– relèvent d'une tendance actuelle d'Hollywood. Il y a comme une Renaissance de l'acteur noir britannique due, en grande partie, au fait que ces acteurs ne trouvent pas au Royaume-Uni le genre de rôles susceptibles de leur offrir la profondeur qu'ils recherchent. Aux États-Unis, ces expatriés donnent vie à l'Histoire nationale, une Histoire qui fut bien souvent aussi funeste que complexe pour les noirs américains.

Les opportunités, la chance ou le timing y sont sûrement pour quelque chose. Mais l'odyssée de David Oyelowo –qui, avec Martin Luther King, joue l'un des Américains les plus reconnaissables et les plus emblématiques de tous les temps– donne presque l'impression d'avoir été orchestrée d'en haut.

«Dans Lincoln, je jouais un soldat qui rencontre le président et qui lui dit, à l'hiver 1865, "quand allons-nous obtenir le droit de vote?". Dans Selma, je me retrouve 100 ans plus tard dans la peau de Martin Luther King avec le même acteur, Colman Domingo –lui aussi présent dans la scène avec le président Lincoln– nous sommes en prison, dans une cellule, et nous nous demandons quand nous allons obtenir le droit de vote», raconte David Oyelowo dans une interview à BuzzFeed News. «J'ai joué un prêtre dans La couleur des sentiments, j'ai joué un pilote de chasse dans Red Tails, j'ai joué le participant d'un sit-in, un Freedom Rider, un Black Panther, puis un sénateur dans Le majordome. Autant de personnages qui m'ont fait voyager dans l'histoire et m'ont fait vivre ce qu'a pu vivre une personne noire au cours de ces 150 dernières années».

Là, l'acteur s'arrête et se corrige. Dans pratiquement tous ses rôles joués depuis son arrivée aux États-Unis, il a voyagé dans l'histoire des noirs américains, et ce qu'ils ont pu vivre ces 150 dernières années. Une nuance que l'acteur de 38 ans ne prend vraiment pas à la légère.

«Aujourd'hui, je connais davantage l'histoire américaine que la nigériane ou la britannique», dit-il dans un bref éclat de rire.

Paramount Pictures

Dans Selma, deux des plus célèbres et des plus importants noirs américains de l'Histoire ont droit à leur portrait de cinéma. Ensemble, Martin Luther King et Coretta Scott-King sont devenus le couple emblématique du mouvement des droits civiques, qui promouvait des manifestations non-violentes afin d'obtenir des droits inaliénables pour tous les Américains. Dans le film, réalisé par Ava DuVernay, les deux rôles sont interprétés par des acteurs britanniques; Carmen Ejogo, qui avait déjà joué Coretta Scott-King (dans Boycott, un film de la chaîne américaine HBO) est elle aussi née au Royaume-Uni.

«Je suis désolée – c'est juste qu'ils étaient excellents» ironise Ava DuVernay pour défendre son casting très british lors d'une interview avec BuzzFeed News. «David est tout simplement un artiste extraordinaire. Je n'ai jamais rien vu de tel, que ce soit dans la profondeur de sa préparation ou dans la façon qu'il a eu d'ouvrir son cœur face à ce rôle – il s'est vraiment fondu à l'intérieur, avec le désir d'y disparaître, de lui offrir toute sa personne, dans son intégralité. Ce niveau d'engagement est celui dont on a pu entendre parler avec Daniel Day-Lewis et sa préparation. Je voulais vivre ça. Et je savais que c'était très important pour lui. Et avoir pu contribuer à sa performance a été un énorme honneur. Tout simplement un honneur, et je crois que la nationalité n'a pas grand chose à voir là-dedans».

Reste qu'il y a quelque chose à dire de la formation technique que beaucoup d'acteurs reçoivent en Angleterre. Daniel Day-Lewis, lauréat de l'Oscar du meilleur acteur pour son interprétation du président Lincoln dans le film éponyme de 2012, est lui aussi britannique. Et dans Selma, Ava DuVernay a choisi Tim Roth, encore un britannique, pour jouer l'ancien gouverneur d'Alabama, George Wallace.

Tim Roth a beau être blanc, il dit qu'il est facile de comprendre les difficultés auxquelles doivent faire face ses compatriotes et collègues noirs.

«Ils n'ont pas ces rôles chez eux», précise Tim Roth dans une interview avec BuzzFeed News. «On y fait des bons trucs, mais (...) il y a une dynamique noire bien plus importante dans le monde américain».

Une dynamique qui dépasse la simple émigration d'acteurs en quête de super travail. S'ils obtiennent de tels rôles, c'est qu'ils sont nombreux à pouvoir utiliser leur formation théâtrale britannique et à la traduire dans des grosses productions d'Hollywood, une logique assez parfaitement adaptée aux rôles très profondément construits dans lesquels beaucoup atterrissent.

«A mon avis, c'est lié à la scène, parce qu'ils ont une préparation scénique», estime Ava DuVernay. «Leur travail est profondément ancré dans le théâtre. Notre système de création d'acteurs est bien plus commercial (...) ils ont une profondeur dans la construction du personnage qui est vraiment merveilleuse».

Des acteurs comme David Oyelowo et Carmen Ejogo peuvent aussi compter sur une déconnexion culturelle, qui leur permet d'endosser la vie de personnages emblématiques comme le couple King et de la jouer avec suffisamment de vulnérabilité et sans ressentir, disons, la peur (et dans certains cas, le fardeau) que des acteurs américains peuvent ressentir en s'attaquant à des morceaux de leur Histoire et de leurs traditions.

«Ils avaient une distance, oui», ajoute Ava DuVernay. «C'est tout le concept de la révérence –si vous n'avez pas cette révérence et que vous ne les mettez pas sur un piédestal, alors vous êtes plus capable d'aller au cœur de votre exploration et d'y trouver la vérité. Vous ne bataillez pas avec votre histoire, avec le fait que votre grand-mère avait une photo de King accrochée au mur. Parce que ce n'était pas le cas. Parce que vous n'êtes pas d'ici. Vous n'avez pas appris par cœur le "I Have a Dream" à l'école. Vous n'avez pas tous ces résidus à gérer».

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“There’s more than the five or six of us,” the actor told BuzzFeed News. “There are so many more women and men who deserve opportunities. People of color. Period.”

Octavia Spencer poses for a portrait during Fox's 2014 Summer TCA Tour at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on July 20, 2014 in Beverly Hills, California.

Christopher Polk / Fox / Getty Images

Octavia Spencer took off the high-heeled shoes she'd been strutting around in for much of the day, and slid into some flip-flops before sinking into a comfortable chair in a suite at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills.

It had been a long day. And it was far from over.

In the middle of promoting her latest movie, Insurgent, the sequel to Divergent, news broke that the 44-year-old actor had signed on to play God in the film adaptation of William P. Young's best-selling novel, The Shack, which starts shooting next month.

"I'm excited and terrified all at the same time," Spencer said, after giving her feet a quick massage and waving off a compliment about how great she looks ("Lots of underwear, honey. I'm not going to lie to you.") "I mean, Morgan Freeman has played God how many times? And he's amazing in every incarnation of God."

"I'm playing a manifestation of God," she continued. "But I also know, going into the role, from my upbringing as a Christian, that God made us in his form, so I will be playing God in human form," said Spencer, who hails from the bible-thumping Montgomery, Alabama.

A deity is the latest in the list of varied characters the actor has taken on since she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 2012 for her performance as hip-shooting maid Minny Jackson in The Help — we've seen Spencer play Wanda in the emotional and gripping Fruitvale Station; she's worked the small screen as a take-no-prisoners nurse in Fox's late children's hospital drama Red Band Society; and she pulls off the intricate and ethereal Johanna, the leader of a peaceful, culturally diverse commune, in Insurgent.

The Help

Dreamworks

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Fox’s new series has broken ratings records — and it’s also broken ground in terms of its portrayal of race, queerness, and women on television. But that doesn’t mean it’s perfect, as BuzzFeed Entertainment Senior Editor Kelley Carter, BuzzFeed LGBT Editor Saeed Jones, and BuzzFeed Staff Writer Ira Madison III discuss.

Cookie Lyon (Taraji P. Henson) and Lucious Lyon (Terrence Howard) on Empire.

Chuck Hodes / Via Fox

Ira Madison III: I've really enjoyed the different shades of blackness that we've seen on television this year thus far, and Empire has contributed to that. The Lyons are completely different from the family on Black-ish, or Gabrielle Union on Being Mary Jane, etc. After all, this is the first time we've gotten to see a glossy soap with black people in it (aside from the sorely missed Generations), and white versions of this show have existed for decades. Prestige dramas on cable are great, but for something this great to be on network television is much more important, I think, since it's "for everyone" and less niche. By putting a new type of representation of blackness on television in American homes every Wednesday night in primetime, the landscape of television will surely have to change. It's not just some HBO show. It's a high-rated network television show that mainstream America is watching in increasing numbers each week. But, for all the good that's come from and will hopefully continue to come from Empire, I've also seen some typical colorism creeping in. Anika (Grace Gealey), for instance, really just turned out to be a Tyler Perry archetype of the scheming light-skinned woman.

Kelley L. Carter: I'm very sensitive to images of light-skinned versus dark-skinned portrayals in television and film, and when I heard someone mention that in regard to Empire, it threw me back a bit. I get it. Anika is this light-skinned woman who comes from an upper-class upbringing, and therefore, she's evil! That said, what I've largely noticed in Tyler Perry pieces is that it's not just the light-skinned women who are evil — it's black women generally speaking who want to escape economic strife or black women who haven't experienced being downtrodden and are awful to those in less-than-ideal situations. In Perry's movies, the latter set of women usually have something horrible happen to them or it's clear that they're evildoers who get something (like an STD) they can never come back from. And I just don't feel that Empire reinforces that narrative in the same way. That said, it does stand out that the dark-skinned people in the TV series are the worker bees; I'm not sure how I feel about that just yet, though?

Saeed Jones: Something I've been thinking about regarding colorism on Empire is how whiteness is perceived by the many of the Lyons as evil. Lucious (Terrence Howard) cited Andre (Trai Byers) marrying Rhonda (Kaitlin Doubleday), a white woman, as one of the reasons he knew he couldn't really trust his son. "I knew the moment you brought her into my house," he says. Her very inclusion in the family is perceived as a betrayal. I bring this up because I wonder if it connects to how colorism functions on the show. Despite the show's contemporary setting, Anika's character is surprisingly retrograde: She is the "evil mulatto" who can't be trusted because her identity itself — her father is white, her mother is black — is constructed as a racial betrayal. Her final betrayal is when she literally leaves Lucious to work with a white man — Lucious' longtime rival Billy Baretti (Judd Nelson).

Lucious and his second wife Anika (Grace Gealy)

Fox

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“You have to dream it. You have to say it. And then you have to put in the work to achieve it,” said King in an interview with BuzzFeed News. This month King appears in new ABC series American Crime and directs her first episode of Scandal.

Regina King arrives for the Los Angeles premiere of ABC's American Crime on Feb. 28.

Gabriel Olsen / Via Getty Images

When Regina King walks into a room — any room — a small group of people immediately flock around her. Everyone knows her. Celebrated actors count her as a trusted friend; showrunners Shonda Rhimes and Mara Brock Akil have hired her to direct episodes of their hit TV shows, Scandal and Being Mary Jane, respectively; and people serving hors d'oeurves and cocktails at Hollywood events can often recite lines from her films on command.

King is luminous. And on one day in particular — this time at an event leading up to the 87th Academy Awards — she held court with grace, smiling at friends and fans alike during the cocktail hour at the Essence Magazine Black Women in Hollywood event, where she would be honored later that day with the Fierce & Fearless Award. King has appeared on the magazine's cover four times over the course of her career, and on that day she was celebrated by some of the most famous people in a town full of them. It's apropos that she received this honor in 2015, having managed three decades of consistent work in an industry that often focuses on the newest and the youngest. Before she accepted her award, King struggled to compose herself and contain her emotions. She failed miserably, wiping tears of gratitude from her face with one hand and holding sides from an upcoming episode of Scandal in the other.

If ever there were a career-defining experience, this was it.

"I was overwhelmed," she said weeks later when describing that day in an interview with BuzzFeed News. "I was feeling so full. I go through life truly enjoying life, but not really thinking of all of the things I've done. I am always within the moment."

King in 227.

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Creators Lee Daniels and Danny Strong and showrunner Ilene Chaiken talked to BuzzFeed News about being at the helm of network TV’s biggest success story in years, how they made it happen, and their hopes for Season 2 (Oprah Winfrey, Denzel Washington, and Spike Lee, to name a few).

Lucious (Terrence Howard) and Cookie (Taraji P. Henson) on Empire

Chuck Hodes / Fox

Artist Kehinde Wiley's naturalistic paintings of black people have been featured throughout the debut season of Fox's massive hit Empire, hanging on the lush walls of the tony pad and executive offices that belong to music legend Lucious Lyon (Terrence Howard). The Brooklyn-based artist is also friends with the series' creator Lee Daniels, whom he called one recent Wednesday night to ask him to skip watching his own show to instead hang out with some buddies of his.

"I said OK, because I'm just trying to get more art for next season. I'm willing to sell my soul!" Daniels joked to BuzzFeed News over lunch with fellow Empire creator Danny Strong and showrunner Ilene Chaiken. He headed downstairs and popped into Wiley's car, which was already filled with two other friends.

"One guy says, 'Lee … I'm Swizz Beatz. We met at Oprah's. I'm Alicia's husband,'" Daniels recalled.

And, once they got to his 11th Avenue music studio, Beatz — who's responsible for creating major hits for artists including Jay Z, Beyoncé, T.I., DMX, and Drake (and husband of 15-time Grammy winner Alicia Keys) — couldn't help himself. As Daniels recalled, Beatz leaned toward him and said: "Right now, I'm freaking out because I'm not seeing the show. I'm with you."

"I was like Cinderella going to the fucking ball," Daniels remembered.

Beatz is just one of an ever-increasing number of fans that Empire, which chronicles the salty and delicious behavior of a successful hip-hop family, has amassed since it premiered in January. (Scandal creator Shonda Rhimes is another.)

Daniels, Strong, and Chaiken have all grown accustomed to a very uncommon practice for anyone working in television these days: When they wake up on Thursday mornings, they see just how much higher their series' ratings are than the week before, a history-making feat. Last week, Empire brought in 14.7 million viewers, helping it become the biggest network hit in years. "I am still surprised," Daniels admitted. "Are you kidding me?! I sit by my phones on Thursday morning, nauseous."

Bryshere Gray, Jussie Smollett, Trai Byers, Taraji P. Henson, Terrence Howard, creator Lee Daniels, creator Danny Strong, showrunner Ilene Chaiken, and Francie Calfo, the head of Imagine Television (the studio that produces Empire), during the Empire panel at the 2015 TCA winter press tour

Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images

The premise for Empire — the power struggles and opulence of the hip-hop world — came from Strong, who, Daniels joked several times over lunch, is so entrenched in black culture that he's a black man passing for white. The two have built a dynamic over the past few years since collaborating on 2013's The Butler, which Strong wrote and Daniels produced and directed. While working on the film, Strong brought the seedlings of what became Empire to producer Brian Grazer, hoping to turn it into another film. He also mentioned it to Daniels, who, as a fan of '80s primetime soaps, thought the concept would work better on television. Soon enough, Empire was a go.

But they needed someone to run the series day in and day out. Enter Chaiken, who is best known for creating the groundbreaking series The L Word, which centered on an underrepresented group of people in Hollywood: gay women. Now, with Empire, Chaiken is breaking boundaries with another marginalized population in Hollywood.

"Ilene was the perfect showrunner. L Word was so compelling and groundbreaking," Strong said. "We're all interested in talking about social issues and social justice. It makes the work more interesting. And I think that's what happening with Empire."

"This story is not just the African-American dream," Daniels added. "But the American dream."

On Empire, the visualization of that dream is former couple Cookie and Lucious Lyon — played by Oscar nominees Taraji P. Henson and Terrence Howard — who used drug money to help fund Lucious' burgeoning music career in the midst of the hip-hop/pop crossover music boom of the late '90s. Just as Lucious' career was about to catch fire, Cookie was busted in a drug deal and ended up serving 17 years in prison, leaving Lucious to raise their three sons — Andre (Trai Byers), Jamal (Jussie Smollett), and Hakeem (Bryshere Y. Gray). When the series begins, Cookie is newly freed from jail and reimmersing herself in her family members' lives, which couldn't be more different than the one she left behind: Lucious has found the type of success as a musician, producer, and businessman that he and Cookie couldn't have dreamed up in their down-and-out days.

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“It’s very easy to turn this into a trainwreck,” the rapper said in an interview with BuzzFeed News. “But I feel like when you have the right pieces in place … then you go from being cliché-ish to being the exception.”

Rap star T.I. as Russell, a former convict who is a cousin to Kevin Hart's character in Get Hard

Warner Bros. Pictures

T.I. can't help but chuckle and offer a knowing head nod when talking about his character in the new comedy Get Hard.

After serving twice in a county jail for probation violations and after being incarcerated for in 2010 for a highly publicized U.S. federal weapons charge, the rapper-turned-actor is playing Russell, a gang-banger and former convict from Crenshaw Heights who helps prepare a wealthy white businessman for life behind bars.

"I think I served somewhat as a consultant," T.I. said with a smirk in a recent interview with BuzzFeed News about his role both on and off screen. "A consultant to the consultant."

Get Hard centers on James King (Will Ferrell), a wealthy hedge-fund manager who's looking at 10 years in San Quentin for a white collar crime he insists he didn't commit. So, James hires Darnell (Kevin Hart), who runs the car wash service at James' office, as his prison consultant, presuming that, because he's black, odds are good that he's been locked up at some point in his life. And though Darnell has not in fact been to jail, his cousin Russell has.

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And you know this, maaaaaaaan!

Hector (Demetrius Navarro)

He laced Smokey's marijuana with angel dust and didn't tell him. A pigeon coop was involved. Oh, Hector.

New Line Cinema

Old Lady (LaWanda Page)

Her moment was brief — and her best line ("half-dead motherfucker") came after she gets a door slammed in her face — but it was a great way to open this comedy classic.

New Line Cinema

Red's father (Reynaldo Rey)

He thought he was doing the right thing, taking his son to the neighborhood bully to kindly request for his bike back (the beach cruiser). How was he to know that his son would get knocked out?

New Line Cinema

Joann, Smokey's mom (Vickilyn Reynolds)

She gives her son $1 and tells him to pick her up a pack of smokes. Even in 1995, you needed way more than a buck to get a pack of cigarettes. Mama, damn.

New Line Cinema

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