Despite the fact that no matter how old he gets, he’ll always be one of the best looking brothers out there to many women, Morris Chestnut opened up during a sit-down interview with Hello Beautiful at Essence Festival in New Orleans about his struggles early on to get in the business as a dark-skinned actor. While folks were still drooling over the wave of light-skinned, curly haired male singers and actors dominating the industry, talented chocolate actors were getting the shaft according to Chestnut. So much so that he wound up naming his production company that he started back in the day, “Dark Skin Productions.” Yeah, it was that deep. Here’s what he had to say in front of a live audience when asked if dark-skinned males face the same type of discrimination in Hollywood as some women do:
“You’re talking to the right person, because when I was coming up, it was all about Prince, Michael Jackson, Jesse Jackson. So it was really difficult for me coming up. Matter of fact, my first production company when I started my production company was called ‘Dark Skin Productions,’ because it was difficult breaking in. And then, Wesley Snipes broke through, and he opened it up for us brothers, us dark-skinned brothers. Some of my boys, Shemar Moore, they’re light-skinned, they get theirs too. There’s enough for everybody.”
While the focus is often put on what dark-skinned women deal with (à la, the recent documentary Dark Girls), folks often forget that the brothas of a darker complexion have had their struggles as well in many ways. And even though Snipes’ career hasn’t been as strong in the past few years (mostly because of legal issues due to tax evasion), he definitely helped the Morris Chestnuts, the Taye Diggs and more get on and get taken seriously, whether he knows it or not.
