View unanswered posts | View active topics
It is currently Thu Aug 21, 2025 7:47 pm
|
Page 1 of 1
|
[ 11 posts ] |
|
Nicole Kidman refused to say 'n-word', co-star reveals
Author |
Message |
Amnesia10
Legend
Joined: Fri Apr 24, 2009 2:02 am Posts: 29240 Location: Guantanamo Bay (thanks bobbdobbs)
|

Good for her |  |  |  | Quote: Actress Nicole Kidman refused to use an offensive racial epithet in a film when requested to do so by its director, her British co-star has revealed.
Speaking on Radio 4's Front Row, David Oyelowo said the Oscar-winning star had been asked to say "the n-word" in The Paperboy by director Lee Daniels.
"She flatly refused," said Oyelowo, who is of Nigerian descent.
"She felt that was a bridge too far for her and I really respect her for doing that," the former Spooks star went on.
Kidman, 45, received a Golden Globe nomination for her work in The Paperboy, which is released in the UK on 15 March.
Set in Florida at the end of the 1960s, the film sees two reporters, played by Oyelowo and Matthew McConaughey, work to have a murderer's conviction quashed.
Their efforts are both helped and hindered by Kidman's character, a blowsy hairdresser who has won the trust of the felon through sexually explicit correspondence.
"Anyone who sees that movie will see Nicole Kidman did virtually everything else that Lee Daniels asked her to do," Oyelowo was heard telling Mark Lawson on Wednesday's Front Row.
"But she would not do that [say the n-word]."
|  |  |  |  |
_________________Do concentrate, 007... "You are gifted. Mine is bordering on seven seconds." https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTg5MzczNTkhttp://astore.amazon.co.uk/wwwx404couk-21
|
Thu Feb 14, 2013 2:05 pm |
|
 |
timark_uk
Moderator
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 6:11 pm Posts: 12144 Location: Belfast
|
Why 'good for her'? If it's in character, of the time and not being used purely just as a shock tactic, why not say it? I had a very similar conversation about this on Fb when I posted the Sam Jackson interview where he asked the person interviewing him to say the word. In the right context, there is nothing actually wrong with saying the word nigger. Mark
|
Thu Feb 14, 2013 7:33 pm |
|
 |
brataccas
I haven't seen my friends in so long
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 9:14 pm Posts: 5664 Location: Scotland
|
_________________
|
Thu Feb 14, 2013 7:56 pm |
|
 |
timark_uk
Moderator
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 6:11 pm Posts: 12144 Location: Belfast
|
And that, ladies and gentlemen (and bratty), sums up my entire post in one gaudy little gif. Merely saying nigger is not racist. Mark
|
Thu Feb 14, 2013 8:02 pm |
|
 |
JJW009
I haven't seen my friends in so long
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 6:58 pm Posts: 8767 Location: behind the sofa
|

Seriously, how many people would be personally offended at the use of the word in a film? In a film where, I'm guessing, we're probably not supposed to like the character saying it.
I've never really understood the concept of rude, racist or taboo words. It's just bloody stupid. Surely if you tell someone, for example, that they are a "fat, ugly, lazy waste of space" it's just as hurtful as saying "f*cking lard-arse honkey c*nt face", if not more so, despite being perfectly acceptable.
In most cases, it's the way in which you spit out the words that really expresses hatred or disgust. People don't like to think that other people hate them or find them disgusting.
Additionally, the more personalised you make the insult to encompass an individual's true weaknesses and insecurities, the more hurtful they will find it. Using generic terms like "the n word" displays no imagination or effort and is unlikely, in itself, to hurt someone any more than saying "I hate you". I don't imagine there are many people these days who are so insecure purely about their colour.
A properly hurtful insult might be "Your mother is an 'amster and your father smells of elderberries." - especially if it's true. Something like that should never be broadcast; obviously.
_________________jonbwfc's law: "In any forum thread someone will, no matter what the subject, mention Firefly." When you're feeling too silly for x404, youRwired.net
|
Thu Feb 14, 2013 8:20 pm |
|
 |
brataccas
I haven't seen my friends in so long
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 9:14 pm Posts: 5664 Location: Scotland
|
best use of nigger is in fawlty towers tbh but I think they say "wog" too 
_________________
|
Thu Feb 14, 2013 8:25 pm |
|
 |
l3v1ck
What's a life?
Joined: Fri Apr 24, 2009 10:21 am Posts: 12700 Location: The Right Side of the Pennines (metaphorically & geographically)
|
It's a bit like making a holocaust movie and not having the Nazi's being nasty to the Jews as it's not acceptable today. (Anyone seen The Pianist? Now there's an emotionally powerful film.)
|
Thu Feb 14, 2013 8:30 pm |
|
 |
Amnesia10
Legend
Joined: Fri Apr 24, 2009 2:02 am Posts: 29240 Location: Guantanamo Bay (thanks bobbdobbs)
|
Not all Germans were anti semetic, but enough were. I can understand why she would not want to use it. It is still an offensive word to blacks. Therefore I can understand why she would refuse to say it. Also it was not her who made this public. She was not seeking publicity for doing this.
_________________Do concentrate, 007... "You are gifted. Mine is bordering on seven seconds." https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTg5MzczNTkhttp://astore.amazon.co.uk/wwwx404couk-21
|
Thu Feb 14, 2013 10:41 pm |
|
 |
bobbdobbs
I haven't seen my friends in so long
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 7:10 pm Posts: 5490 Location: just behind you!
|
im always amazed at your naivety. If she and/or her publicist didnt want it out we would never now.
_________________Finally joined Flickr
|
Thu Feb 14, 2013 10:54 pm |
|
 |
timark_uk
Moderator
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 6:11 pm Posts: 12144 Location: Belfast
|
Who said otherwise? Certainly nobody in this thread. Also, saying the word is "offensive to blacks" is wrong. Yes, it may be offensive to some - in context, but simply blanket saying it's offensive is just as offensive. Mark
|
Thu Feb 14, 2013 10:57 pm |
|
 |
big_D
What's a life?
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 8:25 pm Posts: 10691 Location: Bramsche
|
Exactly. This was a historical piece, so the character would have probably said it. I can understand that she would be uncomfortable with it, but looking at the character she was playing, that would probably be what she had said. Not all Germans were members of the National Socialist party, the same as not all Brits are members of the Conservative Party, even though they are in power. Likewise, not all NS members were voluntarily members, they had to be members or were pushed into the party by parents and peer pressure. I can't. It would raise awareness / keep awareness alive of how bad it was back then. As George Santayana said, "those that cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
_________________ "Do you know what this is? Hmm? No, I can see you do not. You have that vacant look in your eyes, which says hold my head to your ear, you will hear the sea!" - Londo Molari
Executive Producer No Agenda Show 246
|
Fri Feb 15, 2013 5:11 am |
|
|
|
Page 1 of 1
|
[ 11 posts ] |
|
Who is online |
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 9 guests |
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum
|
|