Is The Black Male Actor a Dying Breed?

I saw a post on a message board the other day asking who people's favorite black male actor was, and almost all the choices were old ass *****s! Sam Jackson, Denzel, Will Smith, Don Cheadle, even lesser known Hill Harper is in his 40s.

It made me think about the fact that there are hardly any young black male actors on the come up nowadays. Where's the Derek Luke (he's 33) of this generation? If you wanted to make a black "Superbad" type movie there would be no one to chose from...

Is this a sign of the times? Is art imitating life with the increasingly diminishing importance/prominence of black males in American culture?

Speak2free

I don't think there's a short of young black male actors, just good material for them to act in!!!

Everyone wants to be a gangsta or a comedian...we don't produce epic films that feature blacks [male or female].

But, white producers and director pride in their work when it comes to their history, for instance, Troy, Alexander, Queen Elizabeth and just to name three out of many.

The only epic film ever made about a real African King played by a black actor [who was unknown] was Shaka Zulu...and it was writen, produce and directed by whites.

Like DP said there's a lot of black talent out there, just check out the film festivals, but no one tries to touch making films beyond topics such as salvery, rap music, honoring some sports figure and gangsta features when it comes to us....

sunshine1988

I love mos def and common has become a good actor as well

mrmckoy

I think its a good thing we've integrated more into the mainstream.
Black actors are headlining films regularly now.

Locutus 2.0

Weird this thread got bumped up by some spam... About to delete it but I have to agree with Indo... YOUNG black male actors are almost non-existent... at least when it comes to Hollywood movies