• Agencies, writers, producers: The time is now for Hollywood to do more in terms of diversity behind the scenes, Dascha Polanco said. In front of the cameras, the Orange is the New Black co-star said the industry must stop thinking of her and so many of her co-stars on the recently wrapped Netflix series as nontraditional Hollywood types based on size, looks, race, age or sexual orientation. "We are the tradition. We are the recent interview. "Hollywood has been very exclusive in who they consider an actor, who they want to depict on screens." Polanco said diversity on screen is slowly lurching forward, but it's equally important to do the same off camera. Her struggles finding work are not without emotional scars. She said she struggles daily over "self-love, self-acceptance, self-care." "A lot of my life as a young girl and as a young adult has been influenced by how people will accept me or feeling that I am not enough to accomplish certain things because of how I look. I was very fearful of going out on auditions and being told, 'Well you have to lose weight; your hair is curly,'" Polanco said. Learning how to make peace with discrimination and prejudice in her past is key for Polanco. "It's learning how to embrace those scars and how we use them as foundation and not as identity," she said. Now that Orange has wrapped, Polanco said she wants to spend more time enjoying every moment as she pursues life after the hit show launched her career.
• Universal Pictures has canceled the planned September release of its controversial social thriller The Hunt in the wake of recent mass shootings and criticism from President Donald Trump. The movie is a gory, R-rated political thriller that depicts liberal "elites" hunting people in red states for sport. Trump criticized the planned movie Friday on Twitter, without mentioning its name, saying it was intended "to inflame and cause chaos." Universal had already suspended the marketing campaign for the film, which stars Oscar winner Hilary Swank and is directed by Craig Zobel. But the studio said in a statement Saturday that it had decided to cancel its release altogether, saying "we understand that now is not the time" for the film. It was due to hit theaters Sept. 27.
A Section on 08/11/2019