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Djimon Hounsou is opening up about how he’s still struggling financially after being nominated for several awards and spending 30 years in the industry.
The actor recently sat down with Larry Madowo in an interview with CNN, where the journalist asked Hounsou if African representation has changed since he first started his career. Hounsou replied, “Yes, quite a bit has changed.”
He added: “When I came out with Amistad, I was nominated for a Golden Globe, but they ignored me for the Oscars, talking about the fact that they thought that I had just came off the boat and off the streets where Steven Spielberg used me for this film.”
Hounsou noted that while he was in a successful film, he didn’t feel like he was “an actor for whom we should pay any respect to.”
“This conceptual idea of diversity and all that, it still has a long way to go. Systemic racism don’t change like that anytime soon,” he said.
Over the years, Hounsou has starred in many films that were considered successful at the box office like Gladiator, Captain Marvel, Charlie’s Angels, Blood Diamond and A Quiet Place: Day One. He’s also been nominated for two Oscars. However, despite these accomplishments, Hounsou claims he still wasn’t paid as much as one might assume.
“After 30 years, let’s say maybe the first 10 years was really trying to acclimate myself to the industry,” he said. “I’ve been in this business and making films now over two decades, and still, with two nominations, Oscar nominations, been in many big blockbuster films and yet I’m still struggling financially to make a living. I’m definitely underpaid.”
Madowo said it was “mind boggling” to hear that “one of the first big Black actors” that he saw growing up in big-budget films was struggling.
Hounsou replied: “That’s a sign for you that systemic racism is not something that you can deal with lightly. It’s so deep inserted in so many things that we do across the board and you don’t overcome it.”
But for Hounsou, he hopes that the work he’s done makes the people in West Africa, where he’s from, proud. “I came to California with this compelling need to do something for my continent and do something for my people in general and to champion this idea of reconciliation and reconnection with the motherland,” he said. “I just hope that I have contributed to change the narrative about our people and the continent.”
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