Let’s Rethink Hollywood Shuffle

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HOLLYWOOD—Robert Townsend‘s debut film Hollywood Shuffle (1987) is more than a spoof film; it is forever an earnest, imaginative and poetic work of satire, touching on industry gatekeeping, racial stereotyping, and the difficulties of being an actor. Townsend, who appeared more recently in The Bear – Season Two as Emmanuel Adamu, had written the script with Keenen Ivory Wayans, and according to Wikipedia, stand-up comedian Dom Irrera, as well as...

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HOLLYWOOD—Robert Townsend‘s debut film Hollywood Shuffle (1987) is more than a spoof film; it is forever an earnest, imaginative and poetic work of satire, touching on industry gatekeeping, racial stereotyping, and the difficulties of being an actor.

Townsend, who appeared more recently in The Bear – Season Two as Emmanuel Adamu, had written the script with Keenen Ivory Wayans, and according to Wikipedia, stand-up comedian Dom Irrera, as well as carried the movie as Bobby Taylor.

With a budget of $60,000 to $100,000 raised through Townsend’s own savings, along with multiple pre-approved credit card applications, it was shot over the course of two and a half years, with twelve days of filming, according Mark Olsen in an article for the LA Times.

In the film, the protagonist, Bobby Taylor, is a Black performer who struggles with being cast as the “Eddie Murphy-type”. In reality, when asked if he was getting more parts shortly after the film’s release—according to an article by Aisha Harris for the Criterion Channel—Townsend joked, “Oh, sure. All the ones that Eddie [Murphy] or Richard [Pryor] have passed on.”

Robert Townsend in a still from Hollywood Shuffle (1987)

Daydreams and intermezzi frequently cut into the story, which plays a bit like a diary, or a mockumentary. One, for “Black Acting School,” advertises white coaches teaching black actors how to play crooks and rapists, in a cheery bout of satire. In another sequence, Bobby and a friend review films that are popular at the time, including Dirty Larry and Chicago Jones and the Temple of Doom.

The movie is reminiscent in some ways, for me, of great works like Fellini’s Otto e mezzo, where the storyline takes a back seat to a highly visual, sincere, and difficult-to-articulate series of vignettes that drift in and out in an effort to communicate more than what a traditional story plot can offer.

Rather than being evaluated, as I believe it was at its release, for its ability to be a purely entertaining hit, I believe it should be recognized as a classic piece of introspective auteur filmmaking, a movie which challenges norms and cuts deep within its silliness.

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