Black women are front and center in most cultural arenas – except when it comes to our representation on the big screen. As Chris Rock observed in his brilliant Hollywood Reporter essay on race and Hollywood “I go to the movies almost every week, and I can go a month and not see a Black woman having an actual speaking part in a movie.” As far as most major studios are concerned, Black women are rarely visible and certainly not magical.
The hotel scene was one of the first scenes Sciamma wrote, but getting the rights to “Diamonds” proved to be a bit of a challenge. While in the post-production process, Sciamma found out that they needed the consent of the iconic pop singer and her manager for the sing to be featured in the film. Sciamma sent the hotel scene to Rihanna and her team, and they loved the clip so much, they signed off on the rights for Sciamma to keep the song in the film.
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