Latest / The Daytime Emmys Specials / Why It's Important That Many Soap Writers of Color Are Nominated This Year

Transcript

Why It's Important That Many Soap Writers of Color Are Nominated This Year · The Daytime Emmys Specials

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: If you're watching this, I'm going to bend down. Oh,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: that's not going to work. I hate that I'm covering
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: my friend. It's Lynn. I'm covering people. I'll go this way.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Can I do that? There you go. Now you can
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: see all the Black, or the 10 Black writers nominated
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: for Daytime Emmys this year. It's a record. It's history.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: It's the most made ever. Now, some folks may go, why?
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: You bring up race again. I always bring up race.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: I don't care. I'm going to. Especially when something positive happens.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: This is a positive thing. This is something positive. And
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: I want to tell you why it matters. This is
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: why it matters to me and why it matters to
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: anybody who's black or of color. We already have the
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: record of people of color running the writing teams of
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: the soaps. But this is the one, these are all,
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: and some of these writers are nominated for several shows,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: like Jamie Giddens is nominated for several shows. For the
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: people at home who are listening, I'm going to say
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: the names. We do our ancestry, we say the names.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: So my girl, Michelle Valjean, Beyond the Gates. Jamie Giddens,
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: Beyond the Gates, End Days of Our Lives. If you remember,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: I did a whole story on him and how it's important.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Susan Dansby, Beyond the Gates. Nigel Campbell, General Hospital. My boy,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Lauren St. Victor, Bold and Beautiful. Cheryl Davis, Beyond the Gates.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Excuse me, Cheryl L. Davis, Beyond the Gates. Jasmine Darnell Brown,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: Beyond the Gates. My girl, Lynn Martin, Beyond the Gates.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Daniel Page, Beyond the Gates. And Ginny Tate, Beyond the Gates. So...
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: One of the reasons why this is, I feel it's important,
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: it's important on several levels. Just one, it's diversity in
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: just ourselves, in self-righting. That black folks can write stories
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: for everybody. And just as an example is that we just,
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: we write stories for everybody. And it's no big deal. Two,
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: black African-Americans and other people of color, but African-Americans especially,
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: are a large percentage of soap viewers and have been
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: for years. That's just why it's so important. Now, Beyond
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: the Gates coming into play, it's helped with the history
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: because it is a soap that features a large African-American cast.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: So we're finally actually seeing Black writers writing for Black
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: characters or characters who are Black, I should say that,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: on a soap opera, a daytime network soap opera. Very important.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: And I won't mention these because that's Peacock. It's streaming.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: But that's very cool. We show up for our soap operas.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: We love our characters. No matter what race the character is,
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: we love our characters. I.e., a Victor Newman. I.e., a
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Jeannie Francis who plays Laura Spencer Collins. There are certain characters,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: we love them. It doesn't matter what race they are.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Amora West, you know, who's just amazing, played several amazing
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: characters over the years. You know, like, just they're people
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: who are universally loved. And I know for us, we
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: have tuned in our aunties and grandmas and great-grandmas have
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: tuned into their stories to watch them regardless of who's
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: on there. Now, we have always hoped to see ourselves
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: represented on there, on TV, in our soaps. And over
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: the years, it's been spotty and things has been off
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: and on and things like that. And so this, for me,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: for behind the scenes, because things can't change unless the
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: behind the scenes, the back office changes. So that's producers,
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: that's writers, that's directors, that's network executives. These are all
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: making decisions to what we see on screens. I'm very
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: happy to see all these folks employed. And some of
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: them worked on other shows. And I already mentioned Jamie
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: Giddens because he was like one of me. He was
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: a host. He was a producer at Daytime Confidential. We've
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: watched him literally ascend and work his way into the
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: soap world. Lawrence, an actor, who's also a writer and producer.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: I know he has other projects, but now he's a
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: writer on Bold and Beautiful, and we're watching him ascend acting,
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: twin strands of acting and writing. You know, as much
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: as we do complain, I do opinion shows. We may
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: not always like the writing of everything and stuff. That's
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: neither here or there. We're not debating that. Whether they're
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: good writers or bad writers, that's not even the point.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: I just like seeing that the shows that I invest
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: in do employ writers of all colors and that the Emmys,
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: because they're looking at the daytime dramas, when they nominate it,
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: these people are on the staffs. So it's history. It's history.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: And for those who think, you know, why are we
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: mentioning this and why make a big deal about it?
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: It just, it's in a world, in a world In
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: a world of utopia, we wouldn't have to mention this stuff.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: And I think that's the point. Hopefully, we won't have
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: to mention this again. Hopefully, after this happens, it'll just be,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: just be. If we can have people who are good
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: at what they do, regardless of race, that's the best thing.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: That's what we need. We just need people just to go,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: I'll hire you because you wrote a good storyline. I'm
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: going to hire you because you wrote a good breakdown.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: I'm going to hire you because you're good. That's all
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: that matters. If they happen to be black or Hispanic
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: or Asian or white, great. I would love to have
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: to not have to mention the first this and the
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: first that anymore. We just, I mean, we love that.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: I love that. But remember, soaps were made by white
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: women for white women. That's what they were made for
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: back when they first started. And this is when women
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: were second-class citizens. They may still be in some people's eyes.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: So they created something for them that now, all these
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: years later, is paying forward in other ways for other
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: groups of people. So I am celebrating this. I think
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: it's historic. I am celebrating it. Congratulations to all of
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: them and whoever wins. You're all winners already because you're
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: working in your field that you want to work in.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: That's the win right there. This is just a cherry
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: on the cake of, you know, you could say you
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: were nominated for an Emmy. And I'm sure that's a very...
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't be nominated for one one day, but that's
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: a nice thing. I've been nominated for some awards and
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: it really is nice to be nominated because there's a
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: huge field out there. And also I want to give
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: a shout out to the Black writers who aren't actively
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: working on a show. I mean, like actually hired, employed
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: on a show. This gives you some promise, you know,
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: some encouragement. There are a lot of writers who are writing,
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: and to me, you're still a writer, whether you're employed
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: or not, you're a writer, that aren't getting employed and
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: have great ideas and have great talent. I write audio dramas,
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: and I do my best on those, and I have
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: writers with me on those, and Um, it's just, it's
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: our industry has a lot of talented people out there
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: who want work. So I just want to make sure
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: I say that also. And that's everybody. There's like, that's
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: just like, it's across the board. Uh, and I believe
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: in hiring just whoever, you know, the talented one is. Um,
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: and that's what I do. So congratulations to our record
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: 10 black writers that are nominated for daytime Emmys. Daytime Emmys.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: I'm James R. Jr. We'll talk to you next time.