Black western, “The Harder They Fall,” has not yet been released, but there are already whisperings of the Hollywood flick nabbing several Oscar Award nominations.
On Wednesday, Jay-Z, who serves as one of the movie’s producers, shared why it was so important for him to be involved in the project.
“Just to see us represented, you know? With a lot of films we didn’t see ourselves in Westerns, as if we didn’t exist,” he told PA Media at the BFI London Film Festival in the U.K. . “It is almost odd. People think that it’s like a caricature, that they are playing roles, but they’re not playing roles.”
The film is directed by Jeymes Samuel and stars Idris Elba, Regina King, Jonathan Majors and LaKeith Stanfield and more.
“These names like Stagecoach Mary, all the actors in this, they really existed in this time,” he continued. “So, just see us represented and see that we have voices. There were so many towns that people didn’t know about. So, to bring interesting stories to the big screen and also educate — any time you can do that is just a blessing.”
Samuel talked with Shadow and Act this summer about the lack of representation in westerns.
“I really, really loved westerns, but I would just see a really clear inconsistency with the portrayals of people of color, basically in the Old West and being such a fan of actors like Woody Strode, who was amazing in Spartacus but then you’ll see him pop up in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and he couldn’t get a drink in the bar,” he said. “I just grew up wanting to know more about people of color and women and all of these ideas of the Old West that I was not getting from Hollywood movies. And so I would just buy books and would…uncover amazing characters–both heroes and villains, both men and women of all colors.”
He added, “I believe that The Harder They Fall fits firmly in the western [canon], because the western, when Hollywood was doing it, was fresh. The choice of music they would use, it was fresh at the time. It wasn’t actually cowboy music. So, it’s a perfect addition to the genre and brings it into 2021 and forward.”
