A Hero Like Me

Culture
A Hero Like Me
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Why do we need heroes on the big screen? From the cowboys of the Old West, to the superheroes of today, one person standing up for what’s right has always captured our collective imagination. These heroes represent us as we’d like to be, but historically, not everyone has been able to see themselves reflected in such stories. Fortunately, that’s getting better in the realm of TV and film, with the remake of Disney’s The Little Mermaid as the latest example of a familiar tale being told in a way that better reflects the world today. As Hollywood slowly but surely makes progress with representation in blockbuster films, we want to celebrate the people of colour who blazed the trail for those to come, taking a look at the actors who became the change they wanted to see – in genres that, until then, hadn’t let their voices be heard.

By Victoria Luxford

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Chadwick Boseman (Black Panther, 2018) – We begin with someone who was a hero both on the screen and off. Chadwick Boseman built a stellar career portraying real-life icons like James Brown and Jackie Robinson before becoming the first Black lead in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2018’s Black Panther. It was a smash hit, with Black cinemagoers feeling, for the first time, represented in what is one of the world’s biggest movie franchises. The world was at Boseman’s feet, but, tragically, just when he had reached his highest point, he was privately fighting a life-threatening illness that would take his life in 2020. The murals and tributes for Boseman were unlike anything previously seen for a modern superhero, revealing just what the character of T’Challa had meant to millions.

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Anika Noni Rose (The Princess and the Frog, 2009) – Already a theatre and TV star, Rose has appeared in hit Hollywood films like Dreamgirls alongside Beyoncé and Jennifer Hudson. However, it was as the voice of Tiana, the lead character of Disney’s The Princess and the Frog, where she made history: Tiana was the first Black Disney princess in 72 years of the company’s animated feature films. The magical tale endures to this day, even with a Tiana-themed ride – Tiana’s Bayou Adventure – set to open in Disney theme parks in 2024. The actor has spoken of her pride at breaking barriers and giving children a new hero to emulate.

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Wesley Snipes (Blade, 1998) – As any true comic book fan will tell you, there were Marvel films before the MCU! While not part of the connected universe, Wesley Snipes’ Blade films were based on the Marvel character of the same name, and were a groundbreaking hit long before Iron Man created a new world. Snipes himself was an outlier as an action hero in the ‘90s, finding success in a musclebound genre populated mainly by white stars. His take on Blade remains a cult favourite, depicting a superhero who dared to be different.

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Iman Vellani (Ms. Marvel, 2022) – The ongoing problem of finding someone to connect to in the vast world of superheroes was addressed in MCU TV show Ms. Marvel, where superhero-loving Pakistani-American teenager Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) develops her own powers, much like her idols. Vellani brings some personal experience to her role, as a Marvel superfan herself: “I didn’t have any real role models that looked like me,” she told Sirius XM. She goes on to say that she believes a successful representation is grounded in the character’s particularities: “As soon as you start generalising people, you’re not representing anyone, so I think it’s great that we have Kamala as such a specific character.”

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Halle Berry (Catwoman, 2004) – While we’re here to celebrate representation, it is important to be honest. Catwoman was neither a critical nor commercial success, but rather remembered as something of a Hollywood disaster. However, it remains a groundbreaking film for many reasons; for one thing, it was another door that opened for the actor after she became the first woman of colour to win Best Actress at the Academy Awards with 2001’s Monster’s Ball. Until Wakanda Forever in 2022, Catwoman was the only superhero film to feature a Black female lead, and one of very few superhero films in general to feature a lone Black protagonist. While the film may never be celebrated on its artistic merits, it serves as a reminder of the work still to be done.

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Richard Roundtree (Shaft, 1971) – Away from spaceships and superpowers, the detective genre has birthed many modern-day heroes throughout the decades, as they go about the tough business of cleaning up the streets and dishing out justice. An icon of the 1970s, John Shaft was perhaps the first Black franchise character to achieve mainstream box office success. With a hard-as-nails lead performance from Richard Roundtree, as well as an award-winning score, Shaft was an icon of the so-called Blaxploitation genre – compared to the James Bond franchise, among others – and was revived in both 2000 and 2019 for big-budget sequels.

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John Boyega (Star Wars: The Force Awakens, 2015) – The Star Wars Universe has often been cited as one of the more diverse sci-fi franchises, with characters like Lando Calrissian and Mace Windu being popular supporting players in the various films. However, British actor John Boyega became a significant lead in The Force Awakens, the first non-white actor to have such an involved role in a Star Wars film. As Finn, a Stormtrooper who breaks away from his indoctrination, Boyega plays a significant role in this galaxy far, far away, while still using his platform to fight for greater inclusion in the industry.

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Kelly Marie Tran (Star Wars: The Last Jedi, 2017) – Naturally, to be a trailblazer is to meet some resistance. Kelly Marie Tran was the first Asian-American actor to have a significant role in a Star Wars film, playing Rose Tico in The Last Jedi. The experience was not entirely positive, unfortunately, as the actor was subjected to racially charged abuse online. But heroes are defined by their strength. Tran leaned into the support from fans and co-stars, celebrating her performance as the passionate resistance mechanic, and she would go on to star in films like Disney animation Raya and the Last Dragon.

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Ming-Na Wen (Mulan, 1998) – Why be one hero when you can be three? Ming-Na Wen is part of the Star Wars Universe as a character in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett series, and spent over seven years as an agent of SHIELD in the Marvel TV show of the same name. However, it all started for her in the ‘90s when she became the first Asian Disney princess in Mulan, an adaptation of the Chinese legend. Playing a young woman who pretends to be a man in order to fight for her country, Wen’s performance was monumental not only for viewers from an Asian background, but also to young people who had longed for a more dynamic, independent and courageous portrayal of a Disney princess.

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Michael B Jordan (Creed, 2015) – When you think of classic boxing movies, very few feature a lead that isn’t white. The Rocky saga, the series that brought the boxing movie genre into the mainstream, remedied this in 2015 with Creed, the story of an older Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) training Adonis Creed (Michael B Jordan), the illegitimate son of his late rival Apollo. Reboots are rarely effective in Hollywood, but Jordan stepped out of the shadow of the Italian Stallion to reveal a hero who fights his own mental demons as well as his opponents in the ring. Just as Black athletes have achieved excellence in the sport of boxing for generations, Creed provides a different perspective on the legacy of the sport – an enduring icon for the genre.

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Ian Alexander (Star Trek: Discovery, 2017-2024) – LGBTQ+ people of colour are traditionally not celebrated in fiction, but Ian Alexander is taking steps to make sure they are seen. A non-binary actor of Vietnamese and American ancestry, they became a significant part of the Star Trek Universe as Gray Tal, a transgender character in the show Star Trek: Discovery – an important example of a transgender character played by an actor from that community. Given Star Trek’s history of representation on screen, it’s fitting that this new generation includes heroes who represent the vast galaxy that is human identity.

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Simu Liu (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, 2021) – Simu Liu, a Canadian actor of Chinese descent, foretold his own destiny in 2018 with a simple tweet: “Ok @Marvel, are we gonna talk or what #ShangChi”. A relative unknown at the time, Liu’s path almost felt like a superhero origin story: in 2012, an unhappy accountant is let go by his firm and decides to chase his dream of acting. Nine years later, he is Shang-Chi, the first Asian superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe – and a character who rewrites history. A more human portrayal than the outdated character from the comics, Shang-Chi stops running from his destiny and becomes the hero he is meant to be. It’s an apt role for an actor who is just as influential off-screen.

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Michelle Yeoh (Tomorrow Never Dies, 1997) – You could write a whole book on the many barriers broken by Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh, but in the 1990s, she shook up the movie establishment in Tomorrow Never Dies as the first Asian Bond girl. Far from being a damsel in distress, her character, Wai Lin, was very much an equal to Pierce Brosnan’s 007, incorporating martial arts in exciting action scenes. Fans of the Malaysian star’s work will tell you she played many more heroes before and after, but her impact on the rigid rules of the Bond film universe has been felt ever since, as she redefined what the series’ female leads are capable of.

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Denzel Washington (Malcolm X, 1992) – Real-life heroes are celebrated in historical biopics, but until the 1990s, very few American biopics were about people of colour, particularly in the realm of politics. While it would be a few more years before his contemporary, Dr Martin Luther King Jr, was portrayed on film, Denzel Washington won an Oscar for depicting civil rights hero Malcolm X with the same passion and energy that the late activist was known for. As the saying goes, “not all heroes wear capes” – and learning about history through film can be as influential as anything imagined.

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Bruce Lee (1940-1973) – We end with a star taken too soon, a figure described by Marvel visionary Stan Lee as a superhero without a costume. Bruce Lee was a Hong-Kong-American actor who popularised martial arts movies in the west, giving people of all backgrounds a hero to look up to. Like James Dean and Marilyn Monroe before him, his untimely death aged just 33 gave his body of work new meaning and transformed it into a genre of its own, with his incredible feats captured on camera giving him an almost superhuman aura that exists to this day.

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