The Story Behind The Girls Trip Golden Globes Snub

On Tuesday, Jada Pinkett Smith tweeted that Girls Trip was purposefully neglected by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and the Golden Globes. Both the movie and the actresses are absent from the list of nominees, and the snub shocked the many people who flocked to see the blockbuster over the summer. Earlier this week, Pinkett Smith said its omission was because they "couldn't get eyes on the film or a press conference," and on Thursday she elaborated on their struggle in an interview with Vanity Fair.

"My publicist and I decided to reach out to H.F.P.A. members ourselves to at least see the movie," she told the outlet. "Only two members showed up for the screening. Out of that two, one left. They got up and left."

Can you imagine? Watching Girls Trip? And leaving? If anything, the movie wasn't long enough, and most of us would have sat in a theater for hours if it meant more screen time for Tiffany Haddish.

Pinkett Smith says they were told the committee had "low interest" in the film. She pointed out that similar films like Bridesmaids were given two Golden Globe nominations. Plus, it ran laps around Rough Night, a similar female-led comedy that came out around the same time that earned just $47.3 million compared to Girls Trip's earning $137 million.

(In response to Pinkett Smith's claims, a source close to the situation told Refinery29 that the aforementioned screening was only one of the instances during which members of H.F.P.A. saw the film. They were also provided screeners, invited to the premiere, and some members paid to see the film in theaters.)

"I feel as though African-American women have to achieve five times as much as anyone else to get even a little bit of something," she continued. It's not just one instance, but rather a larger issue of race and gender in Hollywood (as if the industry's recent reckoning with sexual assault wasn't enough to be mad about).

As for Pinkett Smith, the decision to speak out is the only way things will change, saying "These are the moments where we decide if we’re going to push the culture, or remain part of the problem."