Here’s what I learnt from the Academy Awards 2014.
1) You CAN have a black lead character – 12 Years A Slave
2) You CAN have a female lead character – Gravity
3) You CAN have lead characters who are gay – Dallas Buyers Club
4) You CAN have lead characters who are over 60 – Nebraska, Philomena
5) Hollywood DOES reward originality – Her
And those movies aren’t just winning awards, they are all commercially successful. Hollywood, let’s not forget, does not reward movies that are a commercial disaster.
So the next time you get told that your spec script isn’t commercially viable because your lead character is a woman, or black, or over 60, or gay just remind them to look up the winners at the Academy Awards 2014.