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DEL.ICIO.USHollywood unkind to South
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Kim Wall, an Atlanta native and resident of Stone Mountain, plays a Kentucky socialite in "Glory Road."
On screen, she’s a snooty Southern woman.
In “Glory Road,” Kim Wall plays a Kentucky socialite who just doesn’t understand Don Haskins, the basketball coach at Texas Western. Her lines required her to use a word once reserved for blacks: “coloreds.”
It made Wall uneasy.
“Saying words like that always make me nervous,” the Stone Mountain resident told me. “I wouldn’t want anyone to think I am like that. It’s probably a silly concern, but it’s a fear that I have.”
Wall conquered her angst. She nailed the scene, and it survived the cutting room floor. You can catch the actress’ work in theaters across the county.
Wall has been an entertainer for decades. She and a friend took a modeling class when she was a kid. That led to acting workshops and, eventually, a major in drama at the University of Georgia. Then she spent four years studying acting in New York City.
Her credits include plays, commercials and voice-overs. She can bark like a dog and meow like a cat (excellently, I might add). She can invoke different accents, especially those that demand a twang.
“Glory Road” isn’t her first foray onto the silver screen. The Atlanta native played a “butch cop” in “The Dukes of Hazzard.” Her character rebuffs a request from a sweet-talking Daisy.
“Daisy always gets her way,” Wall said. “It didn’t work with my character.”
With “Glory Road,” and “The Dukes of Hazzard,” Wall has two high-profile flicks to her credit. Back-to-back films — one comedic, one true drama.
Both Southern fried.
Hollywood isn’t particularly kind in its portrayals of the South. Seldom do the producers and directors get us right. Granted, it’s hard to capture the essence of a region with so many strange, seductive nuances.
The regional bias is hard to ignore. Or dismiss. Especially if it’s your home.
On film, we’re dimwitted yahoos. We live in towns inundated with racist Bubbas and downtrodden, oppressed Leroys. We’re ignoramuses, and we’re content, save for the obligatory enlightened character who gets deemed eccentric by everyone else in town.
And unlike “Glory Road,” many of these movies aren’t representative of any set time period. It could be 1950 as easily as it’s 2006.
John W. Cones, a writer and Texas native, has researched the issue. In his 1997 book, “What’s Really Going on In Hollywood,” one chapter carries this subheading: “Hollywood’s Rape of the South.”
Cones informally critiqued more than 200 movies that spanned from the 1920s to the early 1990s. He wrote that “negative portrayals of the American South in Hollywood films are particularly offensive and often include the negative or stereotypical portrayals of people, places or things in the Southern U.S.”
“Nothing has changed,” he surmised via telephone from his Los Angeles office, but he couldn’t say for sure because he hasn’t updated his research.
Wall, though, thinks otherwise.
“It’s gotten better,” she said, noting that Atlanta actors audition for diverse, rich roles. In fact, Wall just auditioned for the role of a psychiatrist in an upcoming action thriller.
“Actors here are extremely happy with the roles that are cast out of here,” she said.
“We would love if they cast everything out of here, but we really love it when directors cast Southern roles out of here rather than New York or California. Here, they get real Southerners.”
And not an entirely scripted one.
Comments
Commenting is now closed for this entry.
By Dave
January 21, 2006 06:27 PM | Link to this
I could not agree more. I especially love it when “normal characters” get stuck in or return to the backwards South. At least in “Doc Hollywood” and “Sweet Home Alabama” the main characters came to love us backwards idiots. In “My Cousin Vinny,” they couldn’t get out of here quick enough.
By SharonH
January 21, 2006 06:32 PM | Link to this
I’m a native of the South (SW Georgia to be more exact) and I agree that the South is rarely portrayed accurately. In terms of race relations and small-town culture, we as a group are very complex and filmmakers do not usually care to get that right because the truth is boring.
But, BUT…… let’s be honest. If the South gets beat up on film, at least some of the time, it’s fair. As a region, we do not have a history of being progressive and that has not changed. In fact a lot of Southerners are proud of being backwards on any number of issues whether it be the Confederate flag, gay marriage, malpractice reform, the war in Iraq or labor law issues we lag behind the rest of the country and we are taking steps to make sure we stay that way. That’s why we are such an easy target for Hollywood.
By the way, there have been some films set in the South which I enjoyed thoroughly like Driving Miss Daisy, Fried Green Tomatoes, and Down in the Delta.
By Scott
January 21, 2006 06:54 PM | Link to this
This is indeed a troubling topic, and attempts to define us are marginalizing at best. I think that many Southerners choose to appear backwards so as to not be confused as agreeing with or agreeable to New Yorkers and New Englanders, who have a condescending attitude towards people with a Southern accent. The most disturbed I’ve ever been about Hollywood’s portrayal of us was in that John Travolta movie where a black man is being held in a dungeon in Los Angeles and sexually molested and tortured. Not that L. A. is that kind of place? But nope, not good enough. They had to put a Rebel battle flag in the scene and make the antagonists Southern! Typical Hollywood bias and politics.
By gobucks2006
January 21, 2006 07:14 PM | Link to this
Yes we southerners are so backwards. Maybe if we were more supportive of aborion on demand and gay marriage and taking a bigger stand against Bush’s War For Oil and Haliburton. He’s awlful. Maybe some day southerners will get smarter and start voting for the truly enlightened democratic party. They are so much smarter than us dumb flag waving religious southerners. Oh well. Maybe some day that will happen.
By Maggie
January 21, 2006 07:19 PM | Link to this
Ha! Now you know how it feels to be unfairly stereotyped. When you do it to other people (Europeans, Latins, native americans, whatever)- remember how it feels, and then look in the mirror.
By John
January 21, 2006 07:31 PM | Link to this
Let’s be fair, there was once a time that the entire South was ruled by a single political party. That party oppressed blacks, Jews and gays, opposed integration, and voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The founded the Klan in Tennessee and ruled the South with terror for over a century. Those Southerners were called “Democrats.” Thank God the party of Abe Lincoln and General U.S. Grant is finally winning.
By Michael H. Smith
January 21, 2006 07:34 PM | Link to this
Hint: To all pregnant women in Georgia. Make reservations to deliver your baby in some other state outside of the South. By the time this blog is finished, if you still don’t understand the reasons why you should give birth outside of the South then you really don’t want to know the answers. But latter on your children will probably thank you for not having them branded in your womb as backward, bigoted and considered the bastards of America.
By SharonH
January 21, 2006 08:14 PM | Link to this
So John, I see you agree with me about how the South partly deserves the way it is portrayed by Hollywood. By the way, isn’t it funny how the old Democrats now call themselves “Republican”? Same game, different name.
By HobNailBoot
January 21, 2006 08:29 PM | Link to this
Who cares? My entire American heritage on my mother’s and father’s sides is southern. I have been to all regions of the US (some extensive) and have never failed to establish friendships. I have firm and lasting friendships with people from all over the country from my VietNam military days. I don’t give a flip about how movies portray people. If people want to take the time to know me as a southerner, they can. If they don’t that’s okay.
By Bryan
January 21, 2006 09:21 PM | Link to this
GoBucks2006,
By Bruce Wilcox
January 21, 2006 09:30 PM | Link to this
HobNailBoot you hit the nail on the head, if people don’t understand the difference between entertainment and reality there isn’t much hope for them.
By James
January 21, 2006 09:35 PM | Link to this
To Maggie: Ha? Get real.
To Michael H. Smith: You’re officially the a**hole of this blog.
The thing I hate about blogs - and life in general - is that there is no place for moderation. I was born in the South and raised here. Myself and my family are proud Georgians. Yet, I grew up in modern times (1970s-80s) and never experienced the “bad South” of the past. In fact, my wife is Jewish, my sister is married to a Latino and I tend to vote Democratic. Which side of this fence should I sit on? Neither, because this is a complex issue. Here is my take: the current South is a good place (no different from the rest of the US) that’s getting better every day, but Hollywood will never acknowledge this due the national bias against the South that’s rooted in the past.
Oh well, that’s my two cents. Too bad this blog didn’t turn into an intelligent discussion instead of an insult forum.
Go Dawgs!
By Michael H. Smith
January 21, 2006 11:42 PM | Link to this
Thank you James, due to the national bias against the South that’s rooted in the past, which very much continues to this day, is exactly why my comment was made; in hopes to turn this national insult - expressed at the very beginning of this blog’s comments against the South - into your so-called intelligent discussion.
So your wife is Jewish and your sister married to a person who speaks Spanish and which side of the fence should you sit on? The same one the vast majority of Southerners sit on, the American side. I grew up through it all, old, modern, you name it, and the problem is very simple and ugly, too many non-Southerners want to have the South and Southerners live in the 1960’s and previous times, that would along with Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and Al Gore have Southerners apologizing for every wrong thing ever done in this nation to another human being till the day they die, while the rest us refuse to wear such imposed guilt for things we never committed and have moved on to live in 2006.
Oh by the way - not that it really matters - my sister-in-law speaks Korean and immigrated legally and I have an atheist nephew. Some of my distant relatives live in Muskogee, Oklahoma on a so-called Indian reservation. I’m an independent conservative and tend to vote that way.
By Scott
January 22, 2006 03:01 AM | Link to this
Hey Scott, I hate to break it to you but that John Travolta movie you were talking about, Pulp Fiction which is one of the best movies of the 1990s, was written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. Do you know where Quentin Tarantino was born? Knoxville, Tennessee. It p** me off when the south is portrayed like a bunch of backwards idiots but the sad truth is, is that alot of people really are like that. Especially when you get outside of cities. There are parts of Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and other southern states that look like 3rd world countries. Poor education continues to haunt alot of the south. That’s why we constantly finish towards the bottom of the national rankings for education. It’s sad really.
By gary haynes
January 22, 2006 07:03 AM | Link to this
Yeah, those Yankees may make fun of us Sutherners, but guess what, they’re moving south by the hundreds of thousands to get away from all the problems they created. Very soon all of those problems they left behind will be forced upon us, overcrowded schools, extreme grid lock, bad manners, and extremely high taxes. For the most part they tend to segregate themselves from Sutherners and form their own little enclaves. Thank GOD!! We were doing just fine without them!!
By Lisa
January 22, 2006 07:16 AM | Link to this
I am proud to be a southener. I am not bigoted, backward, or uneducated. I am a conservative that votes republican. My roots are deep in the south and will stay that way. Every area of the country has a dark side; but we do not all necessarily agree or participate in it. I am NOT defined by those that have chosen to hate a particular color of people or those that choose to remain ignorant or Hollywood for that matter. I am a proud, hospitable southern lady. Stop disecting me and my heritage.
By Michael H. Smith
January 22, 2006 07:35 AM | Link to this
Well, well…. In the 60’s the Southerner was called backward idiot, in the 70’s 80’s, you know, in the modern times, the Southerner was still called backwards idiot; and low and behold it’s 2006 and the Southerner remains so called the national backwards idiot. If a child is born in Georgia tomorrow, they will be the Southerner of the future called a backwards idiot in 2010 and probably 2016.
Yee Haw Howard Dean! We gotta stop basing elections on God, guns and gays. It offends Bubba.
Strange how so-called Progressive states including liberal Oregon a John Kerry state in 2004 passed marriage amendments? Only in the backwards South, only in backward Regressive Georgia was creating a gay marriage opposed…. and ten other states in 2004.
Odd the big Confederate battle flag flap wound up getting rid of the postage stamp battle emblem too, nothing Progressive in that move, the Southerner remains the backwards idiot, even Hollywood says so.
‘Cuse please, what’s that Ms. Tucker, did you say, an estimated 30 states would declare abortions illegal within a year of a high court decision overturning Roe?
Poor backwoods idiot Southerners, the educationally depraved souls only counted 13 states in the rebellious South. Probably ran out of fingers and toes.
Welcome to the South, whipping boy for whatever ails this nation.
By Eric
January 22, 2006 07:56 AM | Link to this
I have to say that parts of the South have earned their reputations. Between the wasted time spent arguing over a state flag, intelligent design, naming airports, and a host of other not-so-important issues, its no wonder the South is fodder for Hollywood. Our education systems certainly are not anything to brag about. Every part of the country has traditions and history they are proud of and ashamed of. Parts of the South have spent so much time re-living the glory days of decades past that they fell behind the rest of the country. Case in point, just last year a friend and I were driving up to the North Georgia mountains to go hiking and he was the target of a racist remark at a gas station. Parts of the South haven’t progressed all that much. It is these things that continue to give the South a bad name. That and Cynthia McKinney’s mouth.
By Jo
January 22, 2006 08:15 AM | Link to this
Take a close look at the spelling (sutherners, aborion, “latter” for later) and grammar in this blog and you’ll see why the south is ridiculed. Even the roughest New Yorker doesn’t say “I ain’t got no more”. I’ve been chastised here for correcting grammar, it seems Georgians (I didn’t say Southerners) are proud of their poor use of the english language. It seems to be some badge of pride that I’ll never understand. The Hall County Department of Transportation “spokeswoman” was quoted on the front page of the Gainesville Times, when referring to upcoming road work on Highway 53: “53 Is Gonna Be Tore Up”. I’m probably the only one who cringed. I’m just glad she didn’t add “Go Dawgs” at the end……and we wonder why Hollywood portrays us as bumpkins.
By Michael H. Smith
January 22, 2006 08:44 AM | Link to this
Um Jo, shouldn’t the ‘e’ in English be capitalized like the ‘l’ in Latino since both are languages? No offense intended considering my grammatical butchering of U.S. English. And please, do forgive my use of gotta. As in: Yee Haw Howard Dean! We “gotta� stop basing elections on God, guns and gays. It offends Bubba.
I’ll try to remember to use: We gotta(sic) stop basing elections on God, guns and gays.
By dino
January 22, 2006 09:26 AM | Link to this
Sure the movie industry is biased against our beloved South. Spend your money someplace other than the theater and if the South is not where you would like to live and rear your children, Lewis Grizzard said it best, “Delta leaves for Toledo every hour”.
By carol j. dennis
January 22, 2006 09:39 AM | Link to this
Lisa and Michael,
You are both correct:
I hate Hollywood’s bigoted portrayal of the South in the year 2006.
In Atlanta, you’ll be lucky to FIND a true native-born southerner with the stereotyped thick accent (which I think Hollywood has yet to get right, unless of course if the person is ACTUALLY from the South).
As far as democrats and republicans go, here the progressive party is generally the REPUBLICANS, as most ‘good-old boys’ generally vote democrat like their grandfathers, great-grandfathers,etc. unless otherwise enlightened that this is not your fathers party anymore. Thanks to Zell Miller for an honest look at what has held this great state of Georgia back—ignorance on what the new Democratic party is really all about—gays, murdering babies, and anti-war-mongering.
By Mark
January 22, 2006 10:05 AM | Link to this
hey gobucks…learn to spell…and thanks for everything
By Bud
January 22, 2006 10:07 AM | Link to this
As I read throught this blog (after becoming intrigued by yet another whine about how we’re portrayed in Hollywood and by extension, pretty much anywhere outside the south), I am reminded of the ways in which we tend to shoot ourselves in the foot when it comes to how we portray ourselves to those around us and the world at large. A lot of the responses to the blog so far have nailed various aspects of what I’m geting at: race relations, other forms of bigotry, poor education, ‘lazy’ language skills, you name it. But you know what? If I’ve learned nothing else from watching reruns of COPS over the years, it’s that no matter where you are in this vast nation of ours, the lower socioeconomic groups act pretty much the same. So your “knuckle-dragging, trailer trash”, of whatever ethnic background, tends to be the same whether you’re in the backwoods of southeastern Georgia or in the backwoods of southeastern Missouri or the backwoods of southeastern Oregon. Personally, I think it’s the accent. Stupid ignoramuses exist everywhere, but nothing seems to say backward quite like a southern accent. Is that Hollywood’s fault? Sure, but only partly. Another example: when it comes to Hollywood’s portrayal of slick criminals, I like mine with a decidedly Italian/’New Yawk’ accent; are all Italians/New Yorkers shifty criminals? If they’re going to be international criminals, and I don’t care where internationally, they always sound more sinister if they have a British accent. Billy Bob Thornton just doesn’t do it for me as a jewel thief on the French Riviera, so thank God Hollywood’s never gone down that road. But it’s that accent. Would Goodfellas have been as good if they were all out in the midwest somewhere(‘Oh, Yah’)?. I think my point is that we stereotype people, always far more than what is factual. Native Americans are savages, Mexicans are lazy, Blacks are stupid, Whites are racist, Asians are scheming over-achievers (or is that the Germans?) and on and on. If everyone will smile and put your best foot forward, I don’t think it matters much how Hollywood portrays us. The movie business is all about putting butts in seats anyway and they’ll do whatever and portray any ethnic group in whatever way they think will put the most butts in seats to be entertained by their product. And we all play into it. I’m just as amused by the imagery of a vapid, shallow, overly tanned, ultimately clueless Southern Californian as the next guy, but it doesn’t extend to thinking they’re all like that. Well, not totally, anyway…
By Matt
January 22, 2006 10:22 AM | Link to this
On the same page of the AJC is an article called ‘Bubba Santas’ keep the spirit year-round
We’re not helping ourselves here folks.
By carol j. dennis
January 22, 2006 10:31 AM | Link to this
Bud,
Very eloquently stated, especially for a backwards Georgian:)
By carol j. dennis
January 22, 2006 10:33 AM | Link to this
Matt—
I guess the name ‘Bubba’ here is much like ‘Dino’ or ‘Vinny’ up in New York or New Jersey.
By carol j. dennis
January 22, 2006 10:35 AM | Link to this
Dino,
BOY I miss Lewis Grizzard.
He passed the same week as my mother.
By LG
January 22, 2006 11:39 AM | Link to this
It’s not only Hollywood portraying Southerns are dumb, we’re doing it ourselves with the lowest SAT scores in the country. To improve what’s portrayed, we have to improve reality.
By Bud
January 22, 2006 12:16 PM | Link to this
Carol,
Actually, I’m a backwards Tennessean by ancestry. It’s just that I grew up in Georgia. I remember moving to St. Louis when I was 12 and living there for a couple of years. I remember how I thought in some ways St. Louis seemed to be on the other side of the globe, culturally speaking, from my own experience growing up in Macon. I mean, where were the Baptists, the Winn-Dixies, the Piggly-Wigglies, the drive-in theaters, the dirt roads? I’d grown up to that point around redneck Democrats and Bulldog fans in a middle Georgia where Atlantans were occasionally thought of as being part of too big a city to be considered ‘Southern’ any longer and God help you if your accent suggested you were from anywhere else. My wife, by the way, was born and raised in Maryville, Tennessee, just south of Knoxville, in eastern Tennessee. Her job entails talking with people all over the country on the telephone. Invariably, people who talk to her for the first time comment on what a charming accent she has, so it works to her advantage most of the time. In the end it’s less about where you’re from (or at, for that matter)than what kind of person you are. ‘Friendly’ and ‘Helpful’ sell me almost every time, whether you’re from exit 29 off the Jersey Turnpike or Vineville Avenue in Macon, Georgia
By Kimberly Sherard
January 22, 2006 12:24 PM | Link to this
I agree the south is always getting a bad wrap for stereotypes. I am a native from California and I have seen a great dislike for southerners in other areas of the west. Unfortunately, it is not only just Hollywood. I live in Japan and teach english, and I have noticed that there is a bad stereotype for southerners here as well. When employers view my resume and see that I have worked in the south, they sometimes may question my credibility to teach , but when they find out that I am from California, and that I went to school in California, it clears up any pre-conceived notions that they may have about me. In Japan they also view southerners as being dimwitted and not articulate.However, as an educator I try to clear up any form of ignorance.
By James
January 22, 2006 12:28 PM | Link to this
I’m tired of the annual SAT argument. The thing that doesn’t make it into the BIASED news reports (AJC) is that Georgia offers the SAT to over 80% of its students, while other states only the top 5-10% take the SAT. For a fair comparison, compare the top 10% in each state, and you’ll find that GA is in the middle of the pack (and ahead of NY, Jo). Such biased news accounts really does make it feel like the world is against us, hence our frustration with how we are portrayed. (Michael: As for the modern times, it’s written ’70s and ’80s, not 70’s and 80’s. But I agree with your argument - portrayals will never change.)
By James
January 22, 2006 12:32 PM | Link to this
Oh, I forgot, GO DAWGS!
By cison25
January 22, 2006 12:48 PM | Link to this
since when has hollywood ever been fair? the hollywood elites always prtray all of their subjects in alight that best fits their point of view of the world/nation. the souhtern streotype is a convenient tool they use to push an agenda. WHO CARES! southern pride will never be taken away by friggin’ hollywood.
By Dave
January 22, 2006 01:00 PM | Link to this
I though this discussion was about Hollywood?
I can think of so many TV shows (West Wing, Law & Order, etc.) that have worked racist, violent Southerners into their storylines. I guess it’ll never change. But, in general, people cannot tell the difference between entertainment and reality, so it does make us look bad. Not that we should care, but I do.
By dukegirl72
January 22, 2006 01:19 PM | Link to this
I once would get mad whenever I saw a movie that had the negative stereotypes of Southerners. But now I just laugh at the producers and say, “Bless their hearts!” And of course all true Southerners know what that really means.
By Michael H. Smith
January 22, 2006 02:15 PM | Link to this
Thank you again James, this time for rightly expounding upon the false or inappropriate use of SAT scores to rank schools.
Wish as so many of us may to change these false portrayals of the South and Southerners some minds will forevermore remain closed to accept the resolve from honest discourse with the intent to only demean others as something sub-human. (James: As for your sister she married a man not a language, Latino – and your side, their side, of the fence regardless of ancestry is the same as mine, American.)
By jim
January 22, 2006 03:03 PM | Link to this
This is actually a very interesting topic that has been brought up….I’d like to read further dialogue as future movies depicting the south are released….One memory I have of a “strange” (for lack of a better term) part in a movie was one of the John Grisham novels (I’m sorry, I can’t remember which particular one). I believe it starred Matthew MaConoughey and Charlize Theron and they were a young well to do couple living in Mississippi, yet they sweated like pigs in their home during the whole movie. My wife and I said “Jeez, come on, it’s the ‘90’s, they do have air conditioning in the south. They’re not living in a shack.” Later, we heard other people had taken notice to that also….Other annoying things are when they butcher the southern accent by overstating it..truly pitiful.
By mike
January 22, 2006 04:14 PM | Link to this
So many people with so much time on their hands… True Southerners understand the following bumper sticker: “…and we don’t care how you did it up North” (or west coast for that matter)
By dave
January 22, 2006 06:10 PM | Link to this
well said mike .
By Atlantian
January 22, 2006 11:22 PM | Link to this
It is fine with me that Hollywood portrays the South as backwards. I’d just as soon those Yankees stay at home and leave me with my little patch of paradise.
By Susie
January 23, 2006 11:10 AM | Link to this
Proof that Hollywood has NO CLUE: When Jeff Foxworthy met with studio execs about his sitcom, they asked him to “speak with a southern accent.” he said, “I DO speak with a southern accent.” They said, “I mean with a REAL southern accent.”
CLUELESS.
By Dave Oliver
January 23, 2006 11:57 AM | Link to this
Everything “Bud” said in his blog I want to say, “Yeah, your right. Nothing more need be said. Have a great day in the USA, and be damned thankful you are in the USA “dragging” or not dragging your “knuckles” which depends mostly on your attitude.
By Damn Yankee
January 23, 2006 02:12 PM | Link to this
I am a “damn Yankee” from Michigan. As an African American I can appreciate the disdain of having your “ethnicity” stereotyped unfairly (we get it all the time). However, We should also be willing to acknowledge any hints of truth that may come from these depictions, however painful. My experiences here in the south have not been all pleasant, mainly due to the ‘truths’ of some of these negative depictions of southerners, and the South. We now live in the 21st Century and continue to battle with deeply rooted race issues, which still exist right here in the “Dirty Southâ€?, as sad and unfortunate as it truly is. I’m personally working on a plan of action to help “eliminate the negativeâ€? aspects of African American “stereotypicalâ€? culture. I encourage all “Good Ole Boysâ€? of the south to search your souls and do the same.
By Susie
January 26, 2006 12:07 PM | Link to this
I agree with you, Damn Yankee. There IS a hint of truth to stereotypes, or they wouldn’t have become stereotypes in the first place.
The best thing to do is for each person to try and erase the stereotypes, starting with him or herself. I am the only person I can change and you are the only person you can change.
(and I’m not so sure “Michigan” makes you a Damn Yankee, that’s more of a Dang Midwesterner, isn’t it? :D
By charles hayes
February 4, 2006 01:38 PM | Link to this
i’m from KY living in MI, a state full of hotheads and cold shoulderd.GOD BLESS DIXIE. CHARLES