The Brad Pitt led story F1: The Movie is premiering in theaters today (June 27th). And Simone Ashley deserved better than being cut from the final product. Even worse, she deserved better than just appearing on camera in the final cut and not having any actual lines after weeks of promoting the movie.
When asked about why Ashley was ultimately cut from the movie, Director Joseph Kosinski exclusively told People, “It happens on every film, where you have to shoot more than you can use. There were two or three storylines that ultimately didn’t make it into the final cut.”
On the surface, I get it. A movie always has so many moving parts. And a lot of stuff gets left on the cutting floor. My problem comes from the fact that Ashley being cut from the movie comes after she promoted it and talked about how this role had been in the works for years.
“I met for this movie, I think, before Bridgerton even came out. It’s been a long time and you know, it’s Damson and Brad’s movie. I’m just so grateful that I can be part of it,” Ashley told Who What Wear. To give context, season 2 of Bridgerton, which Ashley starred in, was released in March 2022. That’s 3 years ago.
For a director, Ashley is simply another moving part. But for Ashley, F1 was years of her life. And to have your role be reduced to just an on camera appearance is shameful, hurtful, and disrespectful to the time that she put into this role and the work that she did.
To give you more context, I’ve been on film sets where they have spent 2 hours on a scene that is less than a minute. They do multiple takes from multiple angles and there are dozens of variables. So Ashley appearing on screen with no lines could have taken 2 hours. Now imagine how long it must have taken for her to have actual speaking lines? That’s days of filming.
And now, thanks to F1, this movie is just a cliff note in Ashley’s IMDb that doesn’t even deserve to be there because we’re never going to see the time she spent on that movie unless it’s released in a director’s cut. And even then, we’re still going to be bothered for Ashley, because this is part of the continued erasure of actors of color in film. They’re the ones that are disproportionately on the chopping block.
In 2002, Top Gun: Maverick debuted in theaters. And it was literally yesterday (June 26) that I came to find out that Manny Jacinto from The Good Place and The Acolyte was in the film. All his lines were cut and he only appeared in the background. And according to an interview with GQ, Jacinto said, “It’s flattering that there was a little bit of an outcry, but it wasn’t shocking to me.” He also added, “Tom Cruise is writing stories for Tom Cruise.”
Back to F1, this isn’t the first film that Pitt’s worked on where a woman of color has been on the chopping block when it comes to her scenes. In the 2005 film Mr. & Mrs. Smith, the iconic Angela Bassett was cut from the film despite filming scenes. She played Pitt’s character’s boss. And though she filmed scenes that were pivotal, it was deemed too serious for the movie according to Director Doug Liman. Instead she was just a faceless voice in the film.
Ashley being in F1 was going to be a great moment of visibility for her as an actress but also for those watching who want to see people that look like them in big blockbuster movies. Because even though there has been an evolution of South Asian representation in the media, there’s still a continued disparity plagued with stereotypes. And Hollywood seemingly doesn’t care to bridge that gap. Because for them, it’s just business. And people like Simone Ashley are expendable.
F1: The Movie is now in theaters.
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