As far as Finn and Rey's feelings for each other seeming out of whack, one thing I notice is that movies seem really bad at portraying mutual attraction specifically between white women and black men. It's either stereotypical or something along the lines of Get Out. TV does it better. Kara and James Olsen, while short lived, was a good example, and now with Cloak and Dagger, Tandy Bowen is shown unashamedly attracted to Ty Johnson. Movies get this so bad for some reason.
That’s an interesting–and disheartening–dichotomy. In fact I can’t think of a lot of Black men/white women romances on the big screen in general. There was a discourse about John as a romantic lead a little while back and I’ve been thinking since then, do even undisputed superstars like Denzel Washington and Will Smith count as romantic leads? Will had Mr. Hitch and Denzel had… The Preacher’s Wife? They both have amazing filmographies and commercial success that few actors of any race could rival and yet I don’t think they could be called romantic leading men like Leonardo Dicaprio or Brad Pitt. It seems to be a combination of Hollywood’s distaste for both interracial romances and Black leading women.
There have been several films that Denzel should have had a romance with the co-lead, but because she was white they nixed it because test audiences didn’t like it.
Will, among many other black actors, has had the love interest changed from the original casting call (black) to someone more racially ambiguous to appeal to audiences (usually mixed with light skin or non-black Latina) by studios.
Hollywood is a mess and it’s still in so many ways operating on the 80s & 90s scale of what sales and what won’t, even though a lot of people want better. All I can say is I hope John is able to break that mold. Or at the very least put some more dents in it. He’s on the right track with starting his own production company to make an impact.
Evidently it wasn’t his own preference, according to the Washington Post (link). He would have been okay with playing interracial romance on screen with white leads, but he knew white men wouldn’t like it.
I love Will and Denzel, but they got to where they are by not rocking the boat. Even in Hancock, where Will was opposite Charlize, it was a relationship of pure destruction. Will was white America’s favorite actor (at least until he started playing roles considered to be white like in iRobot and I Am Legend), but he was kept in his place.
But going back to Finnrey, it’s rarely the fault of the actors or the writing when people don’t see a romantic connection between a white character and a character of color. If it makes someone uncomfortable to see a white person romantically involved with a Black person, it will never read as truly romantic to them.
It’s like how many of us saw a developing love story between Michonne and Rick on The Walking Dead going back to the second season, and when they finally got together most of the fans were totally blindsided.
