Cool merchandise, glamorous stars and fashionable events. Being green has become sexy, and that has everything to do with Hollywood going eco. When you’ve got Neil Young promoting biodiesel fuel and George Clooney driving around town in an electric car, people take notice. At this year’s Oscars, Naomi Watts, Jennifer Aniston, Joaquin Phoenix and Felicity Huffman were just a few of the celebrities who shunned arriving in gas-guzzling limos in favour of hybrid cars. Stars participating in the fourth annual “Red Carpet, Green Cars” initiative, sponsored by the environmental groups Global Green USA and the Environmental Media Agency, were given SWAGG (Sustainability, Wellness and Green Gifts) bags containing green products.
Celebrities often endorse environmentally friendly products where some of the money from sales goes towards a green cause. Recently, for example, the organic beauty company, Aveda, teamed up with American eco-chic design label Project Alabama to create Handbags for the Earth. Five hundred custom-made handbags were shipped off to celebs across North America, who then decorated their bag. The handbags are due to be auctioned off between June 5 to 15 on eBay, with the Canadian proceeds going to Environmental Defence Canada and Evergreen.
Lisa Ray, star of Deepa Mehta’s critically acclaimed Water, took part in the project. “The Aveda bag was a great thing to do. I was happy to be involved in a great cause. We are starting to experience our years of abuse of the planet with strong and dramatically awful weather, and we need to get involved,” says Ray. “We all need to be aware, to tune in to what’s around us, stop being oblivious and rewire our perceptions. This needs to be a priority, and I think having celebrities involved will create a trickle-down effect in North America.”
Ray first shot to fame in India, where she worked as a model and then as an actress in Bollywood, the nickname given to India’s enormous film industry located in Bombay (now Mumbai). “India is such a complex country,” she says. “The traditional Indian lifestyle is in harmony with nature. There is divinity in everything you see. But what has happened in huge urban centres is different. There is overcrowding, greed, poverty, and environmental disasters waiting to happen. The environment is not a priority, and sometimes I am frightened for India.”
When Ray decided to leave Bollywood, she went to Europe and England before coming back home to Canada. Her work overseas has left her with a profound appreciation of Canada. “My family are immigrants. They chose Canada because they loved the environment here, the wide open spaces, the lakes, the clean air. These things are luxuries, and Canadian don’t realize what they have. I think because I have been travelling since I was 16, I see it through different eyes. We should treasure what we have.”
Getting the public to pay attention is probably one of the biggest obstacles in the eco-movement. Dr. David Suzuki has spent 30 years patiently explaining why we should respect the environment, but even the Suzki Foundation director, Morag Carter, acknowledged the oversimplified, error-ridden Hollywood blockbuster film, The Day After Tomorrow — in which melting polar ice caps lead to mass environmental disaster — did more for promoting the effects of global warming than any scientific research paper.
However, not all Hollywood attempts at handling green issues are so frivolous (or inaccurate). Matt Damon and Edward Norton each narrated highly respected PBS documentary series about the environmental problems of the 21st century, and Leonardo DiCaprio has begun production on his third eco film project, a documentary called The 11th Hour (his previous two short films can be seen on his website, www.leonardodicaprio.org). And green activists were celebrating after Oprah did a show on global warming (DiCaprio was one of the guests).
Ray just finished a film in Nova Scotia about an eco-terrorist on the run who takes refuge in a small community on Mahone Bay, near Halifax. “It was an incredible experience, especially seeing the way the environment manifests itself in the art that is produced there,” she says. “I played a Waldorf kindergarten teacher, a method of teaching designed to teach people to revere life. I found that interesting, because I believe it’s when we do that mind-body separation that we disconnect, and that’s when we start abusing what is around us.”
What appears to be a sudden wave of green in Hollywood is actually years of lobbying by some high-powered producers coming to fruition. The TBS November 2005 global-warming comedy special, Earth to America!, was the behind-the-scenes work of Laurie David, a Hollywood producer high up in the food chain. She used her connections to bring stars like Martin Short, Will Ferrell, Jack Black, Steve Martin and Ben Stiller on board for the show. Offshoots of the green movement include specialty firms like Environmental Media Association (EMA), which will hook environmental causes up with a celebrity and plan a campaign. EMA also uses its contacts in the entertainment business to pitch eco-friendly scripts.
But not everyone is thrilled to have Hollywood involved. There has been a four-year feud between Alberta’s former Environment Minister Lorne Taylor and Robert Kennedy Jr. over the latter’s Waterkeeper Alliance campaign to protect the Bow River. Each year, Waterkeeper arranges a star-studded fundraiser in Alberta to get support for the Bow River campaign to protect the river from contamination and over-development in Banff (Waterkeeper believes development and contamination threaten the river, and Alberta politicians aren’t taking the problem seriously). The fundraiser has attracted veteran environmentalists such as Dan Aykroyd, Woody Harrelson and Alec Baldwin. Meanwhile, Taylor has accused them of fear-mongering and told them to stay home, since Albertans don’t need to be told what to do by a bunch of Hollywood stars.
While many believe an infusion of star power is just the boost the environmental movement needs, others worry that Hollywood might end up doing more harm than good. Can you really have someone who is living the life of the rich and famous talk to us about preserving the environment?
Ray thinks we need to keep an open mind. “I don’t think it’s a dichotomy to see Hollywood supporting these causes. My dad was in R and D for the oil industry, so he ended up helping to clean up oil spills. I grew up very aware of what was going on in the environment, but I can still dress up and be glamorous in order to promote my film,” she says. “You can be concerned about the environment without having to wear Birkenstocks. We need to get out of that box and keep challenging these projections. It’s about not creating these divisions. Fame does bring a certain amount of responsibility. Why not use your celebrity status to promote something really important?”
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