By Eisa Nefertari Ulen, originally published on TheDefendersOnline.com
As we digest and debate the results of the 82nd Annual Academy Awards—including the racial aspects of various wins and nominations—Hollywood insider Valerie Joyner’s debut novel, Hollyhood, has special resonance and relevance.
In this page-turner, Joyner rolls back the artificial sets to reveal real life in Black Hollywood. She gives a behind-the-scenes tour through a drama in which important television producers have to hustle the Hollywood system as hard as brothers work the street corner, the most successful stars are so insecure they can be hazardous to themselves and others, and anyone hoping to make it better be willing to let at least one good friend tumble down as they claw their way to the top.
Her lead character, Tyrone Hart, is one of the most powerful television producers in the business. His successful sit-com, Same Day Service, stars one of the biggest names in comedy and an up-and-coming co-star with implants perky enough to just maybe get their own show. Ty’s success has gotten him from the streets of Chocolate City to two LA homes—one for him and the other for his girlfriend, Sasha, with whom he won’t live so that, if (or when) they ever break up, she won’t get half.
Ty seems to have it all, but he has to contend with numbers-crunching suits more interested in the bottom-line impact of his show on their own careers—and too clueless about black life—to do anything but threaten Ty’s power. Same Day Service has plenty of black talent on set and behind the scenes, but Ty can’t trust any of them to truly have his back. Half the time, he can’t even rely on Leede, the star, to show up to work on time.
Meanwhile, Ty’s girlfriend, Sasha, has no job, no real interests, and nothing but time on her hands. Their occasional ménage-a-trois hook-ups with stunning LA model-types have given Sasha an “alternative” to nights at home alone whenever Ty works late at the studio.
With rappers-turned-actors running wild at work and more women than he’ll ever know running wild through his sheets, Ty’s life in La La Land isn’t so bling bling after all. With the stage makeup scrubbed away, Joyner’ s characters look more like the rest of us, ordinary, flawed, imperfect. Trouble is, they all live in a town that demands extraordinary, polished perfection. Will Ty, or any of the other characters Joyner explores with graceful authority, really make it in Tinseltown?
Hollyhood also considers the impact of race, gender, and class on Black Hollywood without letting these heavier themes ruin the fun. A former L.A. resident with seven years behind-the-scenes on shows like The Wayans Brothers, Joyner has dished a delightful scoop of Hollyhood life worth turning the television off to read and enjoy.
Q: More happens to your characters in one week of production than happens to most folk in one year. You worked in Hollywood on shows like In Living Color and The Jamie Foxx Show. Does all this drama, pressure, sex, and the blurred lines between people’s professional and personal lives really happen at this frenetic pace? Is that why characters become addicted to everything from alcohol to cocaine to cult-like meditation?
A: I doubt anyone in Tinsel Town has a week like the one I wrote about. Hollyhood is commercial fiction. The fast pace of events keeps it interesting and entertaining. I’m taking the reader on, what I hope, is a thrilling ride. If you examine Maxwell and Leede closely, it’s apparent their use of alcohol and cocaine has little to do with their jobs. It’s more about their lifestyle and personal choices, not stress. Ty Hart is the most challenged and pressured character in the book, yet he is drug-free.
Q: Many readers of your novel are still angry that Girlfriends is no longer on the air . Likewise, The Game was prematurely cancelled with a less-than-satisfying last season. Is this mistreatment of black TV shows really about slight dips in the ratings, like the numbers your character Russ Tobin obsesses over? Why does a successful black show like the one in your book have to struggle when so many mediocre white TV programs are given time to build their audiences?
A: Ratings are just as important to TV as circulation is to a magazine. Look at what Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien are going through. Their late night battle is about nothing more than ratings.
There are many reasons why some shows are given more time than others to build an audience. It’s all circumstantial. It depends on the current TV climate, the ratings, the advertisers and the executives. But Girlfriends, which I think was a very mediocre show, had nine years to build an audience. No one should be dismayed over its cancellation because that’s a damn decent run for any sitcom.
When my character Al West speaks of racism, he and Ty are having a conversation about marketing, not the ratings. Black shows, like books written by blacks, are only marketed to blacks. No one at the studios has taken the time to develop a new formula to market outside of a given demographic.
Q: On HBO’s Entourage, all of the male characters form a tight core group bound by integrity and mutual dependence. In Hollyhood, even old friends who swore to support each other throughout their careers begin to compete more then they collaborate. Is this crabs in a barrel pulling each other down?
A: I don’t think the crabs-in-a-barrel theory can be fairly drawn from works of fiction. There is conflict among my characters to help create a compelling story. Nobody is pulling anyone down. They are all just trying to pull themselves up. Even Maxwell is not willing to sell Ty out to achieve his goals, and these two men never cease to collaborate. There was some distance and differences between them over the years, but there was no love lost. And in real life, I don’t think there is some organized conspiracy to divide and conquer. Studios are only focused on what will make them money.
Q: Somehow you managed to write a fun book with deep themes. How did you manage to create a light read that is strong in heavy ideas?
A: Hollyhood is pretty much a satire. While there were some serious issues addressed, poking fun kept it light. I started not knowing much about where the story was going. The only thing I knew for sure was Ty Hart and Maxwell were my leading men and the story would take place over a five-day production week. After I had determined who the characters were, they pretty much determined the direction of the story. There were a couple of moments when I panicked thinking, how on earth is all of this going to come together? 🙂 I relied on instinct and the characters and it all fell together. It was an arduous yet thrilling task.
Q: You thank the Frederick Douglass Creative Arts Center on your acknowledgments page. What was your experience at this important New York City center for black writers?
A: At the Frederick Douglas Creative Arts Center I met a group of talented writers who had studied the craft. We signed up for a novel writing class but when it ended we formed a writing workshop. That group was an integral part of my writing development. It was in this workshop that I started Hollyhood and got the support and motivation I’d needed to start a new project.