Source: Jennifer Johnson / Getty
By now, we already know Marsai Martin is a bawse. She was the youngest person to produce a feature film. And right now, she’s in the midst of working on a new series, “Saturdays” for Disney that seems promising.
And in case, you were thinking that her creativity and subsequent success was some type of fluke, you should know that Martin is very intentional and thoughtful about the work she is doing.
As we mentioned before, her upcoming Disney series features two dark-skinned Black girls and also a storyline about disability. It’s the inclusion we need more of in Hollywood.
After taking home two trophies at the NAACP Awards for her work in “black-ish, Martin spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about recognition from mainstream institutions and a specific rule she’s implemented when it comes to her work.
About the lack of diversity in the Academy for Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
We don’t need awards to know how valuable a person is. It’s amazing to get the recognition and the love from all of these big ceremonies and stuff but I mean, we don’t need awards to tell us if we’re good or not. If the Oscars or whoever are not giving us any recognition or being diverse as much as they need or anyone’s opinion, it doesn’t really matter to me. We’re in a system that wasn’t created for us and it is what it is. We just keep moving forward, we keep doing what we love, we keep inspiring the people that are watching, and hopefully it goes from there. I’m not basing my success on any trophies or awards because it doesn’t matter at the end of the day.
Her project and not doing “Black Pain.”
We’ve been working on it for quite a while now. I’ve always wanted to have just a cool activity that like us Black people love — like everyone loves it but the aesthetic of roller skating is just amazing and it just doesn’t get the recognition that it needs. I just wanted to shine a light on it. Then also, sickle cell is a very big thing in our Black community, it tackles us the most. It’s never been seen on TV or film before so I wanted to make sure this was a moment to shine a light on it — in not a bad way because we don’t do Black pain, but to where our main character is still celebrated, still loved and lives her life the way that she wants to. It’s just very fun and very exciting. We’re just bringing back the Disney Channel era that I grew up watching with That’s So Raven and Good Luck Charlie, the shows that I love, and I wanted to bring that back in a way where everyone can watch it, not just the kids, but the family. It’s our humor; I’m excited for it.
