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Beauty Involvement: A Conversation with America the Beautiful director Darryl Roberts
Expanded Edition of 5-7-08 Windy City Times Interview
by Richard Knight, Jr.
Expanded Edition of 5-7-08 Windy City Times Interview
by Richard Knight, Jr.
Roberts checking himself out in the mirror, Eve Ensler and Red Hot Chili Peppers' Anthony Kiedis offer their opinions on beauty
Filmmaker Darryl Roberts takes his time when making a movie – over the last 20 years there have been just three: The Perfect Model
his debut feature in 1988 which was followed by a drama called How U Like Me Now in 1993 and now America the Beautiful, his first
documentary. Roberts, a native Chicagoan and African American who performed with Second City, created the film over a five year
period. It’s a film that tackles the obsession with beauty that seems to have reached epidemic proportions in this country and
speaks to audiences of all ethnic and cultural persuasions. Though the movie is hard hitting as it delves into everything from plastic
surgery to the toxic chemicals in cosmetics it’s also enormously entertaining and Roberts’ style is gentle and winning. America the
Beautiful has played dozens of film festivals and won tremendous critical and audience support. It plays an exclusive engagement
in Chicago at the Landmark Century Centre Cinema beginning Friday, May 9. www.americathebeautifuldoc.com
WINDY CITY TIMES (WCT): This idea about America’s obsession with beauty has been ruminating inside your head for a long time,
I take it?
DARRYL ROBERTS (DR): Not in reference to a documentary but I think for a lot of my life I was a victim of falling only for beautiful
women without realizing I was a victim. I think that kind of ruminated under the surface and came out in this documentary.
WCT: I imagine the reaction at festivals where the movie has screened must be very strong. Are people constantly saying, “This
really resonated with me” and sharing their beauty horror stories with you?
DR: Yes. That’s what makes it really worthwhile. I’ve been to like 20 film festivals from Maui to South Africa and it’s the same no
matter where we are. It’s not just women, it’s men also coming up saying how it resonated with them. If they’re older they want to
have their kids see it. The entire eating disorders community across the United States has embraced the film. It’s been screened
at eating disorders clinics and I’ve been doing talks afterwards and the YWCA has also come on board as a promotional partner. It’s
been amazing how people and groups have come on board.
WCT: This resonated with me because this obsession with beauty and perfect physique is a long standing issue in the gay
community.
DR: Funny you mention that. Last November I did a screening at a film festival and fashion stylist Michael Holdaway was there with
his best friend Ted Casablanca from the E! Channel and they’re big in the gay community. I was thinking, “I wonder what they’re
going to think?” Afterwards they said that they loved it and Ted went on the E! Channel the next day and told everyone they needed
to see the film and that was awesome.
WCT: And Ted is also in the film.
DR: Yes he is which is great.
WCT: He’s so flip about the subject.
DR: (laughs) He is!
WCT: I was thinking, “Wouldn’t you know it – the one gay person, the one representation of My People, and he’s flip about the
subject”—
DR: No, there’s another gay person in the movie – do you remember the black guy? The fashion producer?
WCT: Oh right, right.
DR: That guy was awesome. But I love Ted because he’s just hilarious.
WCT: I was surprised to see the film open with two black teenagers and one saying point blank without any problem, “I’m ugly.”
That stunned me because I remember reading a lot of articles over the last ten years claiming that young black girls did not go
through the same body image problems that young white girls did.
DR: For decades this was absolutely true. There was a very distinct difference between young white and black girls and their concept
of beauty. For young black girls through necessity because they’re just naturally heavier and thicker and the black guys liked it.
Being thicker was a source of pride and to be really skinny was really thought of as negative. It wasn’t until recently – and they say
this is happening within the last six years – black girls started getting plastic surgery and they’ve started having body image
problems. The advertising industry is so pervasive that they’ve just broken down that wall. The lines have blurred between them
now.
WCT: That was sad to learn. I grew up with four sisters and was surrounded by women fussing with cosmetics and fretting over body
image but the toxic chemicals in the make-up was another eye opener.
DR: I found that out by doing research on the internet. A woman named Erin Weber was a DJ for a radio station in Detroit and she
sued for $5 million dollars because one of the co-anchors wore a perfume that caused her to break out in hives and they wouldn’t do
anything about it. So she sued and won and that made me wonder, “What the heck is in perfume that would make somebody break
out in hives?” and that’s when I started studying and found out about all these toxic chemicals in perfume and make-up.
WCT: I feel bad for women. There seems to be nowhere they can turn to get away from this. Have the big guns from the beauty
industry come after you yet?
DR: Not really – other than a Mary Kay rep who was in the audience the night we premiered in Texas. The women in the audience
attacked him so hard – verbally of course – when his first position was to defend his company and not address the subject of the
toxins in the products. He actually ran out of the theatre before I could even address him. The film hasn’t run in New York yet and I’
m figuring that Revlon won’t get a big kick out of the tie-in between their phthalates (a toxin found in many cosmetics) and the
breast cancer walk they sponsor but I figure it’s bound to come. One of the first things I did when I started to film was I interviewed
200 women – and men, too – and one of the questions I asked was, “Do you feel beautiful or attractive?” and only two people out of
200 said “Yes.” Most of the people blamed the images in magazines as being responsible. So I called these magazine editors – all
women – and told them about this and they said, “Talking to you could be bad for business but I’ll do it because as a woman I
applaud what you’re doing” and they gave me these interviews. It was amazing to have the actual industry reps in the film like that.
WCT: It was powerful to see this – women actually doing this to other women – it was astonishing (laughs, astonished).
DR: (laughing) Right!
WCT: Do women come up after seeing the film and say, “Okay, no more plastic surgery?”
DR: I had a case like this in Dallas. My associate producer was told by his cab driver that two women he’d just driven to the airport
were talking about the movie and one said when she got home she was cancelling her plastic surgery appointment. Another guy
called me to tell me that he was scheduled to have liposuction but after seeing the movie it was out of the question and he wasn’t
going to do it. That made me feel good.
WCT: That is good to hear. Now, do you see any remedies? How do people combat this pervasive wall? It’s not just fashion
magazines and commercials, now our TV and movie stars are willfully disfiguring their faces.
DR: Right. I tell people that the bottom line is that the advertising industry is not going to stop doing what they’re doing. It’s a
capitalist society we’re in and that’s just a given. All we can do is empower ourselves and take back our power that advertisers have
over us and that’s basically by starting to believe that we’re beautiful in the way that we are. I think on a real individual level we can
work on this as well. I’ll be honest with you, when Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers told me that I have a beautiful
handshake for the next two weeks I was just running around just shaking people’s hands (laughs hard).
WCT: Now is that because he’s a celebrity validating you?
DR: Well, I’ve never heard that before but that’s an interesting question – whether that same response would have had the same
effect on me coming from a non-celebrity saying it. I really don’t know the answer to that but I do know that it made me feel
beautiful and that’s something that Tom Cruise may not have. So when you throw him and Brad Pitt in a magazine all of a sudden I
don’t care that I don’t look like them. I have my own beauty. I think we have to discover what our own beauty is and make that our
value system and in that way not listen to what the advertisers are selling us.
WCT: That’s going to be a tough road but this film is a great beginning. What’s going to happen with the movie beyond this week
at the Landmark Century?
DR: In June we open in New York and Los Angeles and then after that we’re going to 30 cities.
WCT: This has got to feel great after all this work and all these years. It sounds like it was a real labor of love.
DR: It does and it was.
his debut feature in 1988 which was followed by a drama called How U Like Me Now in 1993 and now America the Beautiful, his first
documentary. Roberts, a native Chicagoan and African American who performed with Second City, created the film over a five year
period. It’s a film that tackles the obsession with beauty that seems to have reached epidemic proportions in this country and
speaks to audiences of all ethnic and cultural persuasions. Though the movie is hard hitting as it delves into everything from plastic
surgery to the toxic chemicals in cosmetics it’s also enormously entertaining and Roberts’ style is gentle and winning. America the
Beautiful has played dozens of film festivals and won tremendous critical and audience support. It plays an exclusive engagement
in Chicago at the Landmark Century Centre Cinema beginning Friday, May 9. www.americathebeautifuldoc.com
WINDY CITY TIMES (WCT): This idea about America’s obsession with beauty has been ruminating inside your head for a long time,
I take it?
DARRYL ROBERTS (DR): Not in reference to a documentary but I think for a lot of my life I was a victim of falling only for beautiful
women without realizing I was a victim. I think that kind of ruminated under the surface and came out in this documentary.
WCT: I imagine the reaction at festivals where the movie has screened must be very strong. Are people constantly saying, “This
really resonated with me” and sharing their beauty horror stories with you?
DR: Yes. That’s what makes it really worthwhile. I’ve been to like 20 film festivals from Maui to South Africa and it’s the same no
matter where we are. It’s not just women, it’s men also coming up saying how it resonated with them. If they’re older they want to
have their kids see it. The entire eating disorders community across the United States has embraced the film. It’s been screened
at eating disorders clinics and I’ve been doing talks afterwards and the YWCA has also come on board as a promotional partner. It’s
been amazing how people and groups have come on board.
WCT: This resonated with me because this obsession with beauty and perfect physique is a long standing issue in the gay
community.
DR: Funny you mention that. Last November I did a screening at a film festival and fashion stylist Michael Holdaway was there with
his best friend Ted Casablanca from the E! Channel and they’re big in the gay community. I was thinking, “I wonder what they’re
going to think?” Afterwards they said that they loved it and Ted went on the E! Channel the next day and told everyone they needed
to see the film and that was awesome.
WCT: And Ted is also in the film.
DR: Yes he is which is great.
WCT: He’s so flip about the subject.
DR: (laughs) He is!
WCT: I was thinking, “Wouldn’t you know it – the one gay person, the one representation of My People, and he’s flip about the
subject”—
DR: No, there’s another gay person in the movie – do you remember the black guy? The fashion producer?
WCT: Oh right, right.
DR: That guy was awesome. But I love Ted because he’s just hilarious.
WCT: I was surprised to see the film open with two black teenagers and one saying point blank without any problem, “I’m ugly.”
That stunned me because I remember reading a lot of articles over the last ten years claiming that young black girls did not go
through the same body image problems that young white girls did.
DR: For decades this was absolutely true. There was a very distinct difference between young white and black girls and their concept
of beauty. For young black girls through necessity because they’re just naturally heavier and thicker and the black guys liked it.
Being thicker was a source of pride and to be really skinny was really thought of as negative. It wasn’t until recently – and they say
this is happening within the last six years – black girls started getting plastic surgery and they’ve started having body image
problems. The advertising industry is so pervasive that they’ve just broken down that wall. The lines have blurred between them
now.
WCT: That was sad to learn. I grew up with four sisters and was surrounded by women fussing with cosmetics and fretting over body
image but the toxic chemicals in the make-up was another eye opener.
DR: I found that out by doing research on the internet. A woman named Erin Weber was a DJ for a radio station in Detroit and she
sued for $5 million dollars because one of the co-anchors wore a perfume that caused her to break out in hives and they wouldn’t do
anything about it. So she sued and won and that made me wonder, “What the heck is in perfume that would make somebody break
out in hives?” and that’s when I started studying and found out about all these toxic chemicals in perfume and make-up.
WCT: I feel bad for women. There seems to be nowhere they can turn to get away from this. Have the big guns from the beauty
industry come after you yet?
DR: Not really – other than a Mary Kay rep who was in the audience the night we premiered in Texas. The women in the audience
attacked him so hard – verbally of course – when his first position was to defend his company and not address the subject of the
toxins in the products. He actually ran out of the theatre before I could even address him. The film hasn’t run in New York yet and I’
m figuring that Revlon won’t get a big kick out of the tie-in between their phthalates (a toxin found in many cosmetics) and the
breast cancer walk they sponsor but I figure it’s bound to come. One of the first things I did when I started to film was I interviewed
200 women – and men, too – and one of the questions I asked was, “Do you feel beautiful or attractive?” and only two people out of
200 said “Yes.” Most of the people blamed the images in magazines as being responsible. So I called these magazine editors – all
women – and told them about this and they said, “Talking to you could be bad for business but I’ll do it because as a woman I
applaud what you’re doing” and they gave me these interviews. It was amazing to have the actual industry reps in the film like that.
WCT: It was powerful to see this – women actually doing this to other women – it was astonishing (laughs, astonished).
DR: (laughing) Right!
WCT: Do women come up after seeing the film and say, “Okay, no more plastic surgery?”
DR: I had a case like this in Dallas. My associate producer was told by his cab driver that two women he’d just driven to the airport
were talking about the movie and one said when she got home she was cancelling her plastic surgery appointment. Another guy
called me to tell me that he was scheduled to have liposuction but after seeing the movie it was out of the question and he wasn’t
going to do it. That made me feel good.
WCT: That is good to hear. Now, do you see any remedies? How do people combat this pervasive wall? It’s not just fashion
magazines and commercials, now our TV and movie stars are willfully disfiguring their faces.
DR: Right. I tell people that the bottom line is that the advertising industry is not going to stop doing what they’re doing. It’s a
capitalist society we’re in and that’s just a given. All we can do is empower ourselves and take back our power that advertisers have
over us and that’s basically by starting to believe that we’re beautiful in the way that we are. I think on a real individual level we can
work on this as well. I’ll be honest with you, when Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers told me that I have a beautiful
handshake for the next two weeks I was just running around just shaking people’s hands (laughs hard).
WCT: Now is that because he’s a celebrity validating you?
DR: Well, I’ve never heard that before but that’s an interesting question – whether that same response would have had the same
effect on me coming from a non-celebrity saying it. I really don’t know the answer to that but I do know that it made me feel
beautiful and that’s something that Tom Cruise may not have. So when you throw him and Brad Pitt in a magazine all of a sudden I
don’t care that I don’t look like them. I have my own beauty. I think we have to discover what our own beauty is and make that our
value system and in that way not listen to what the advertisers are selling us.
WCT: That’s going to be a tough road but this film is a great beginning. What’s going to happen with the movie beyond this week
at the Landmark Century?
DR: In June we open in New York and Los Angeles and then after that we’re going to 30 cities.
WCT: This has got to feel great after all this work and all these years. It sounds like it was a real labor of love.
DR: It does and it was.
