Whatever Happened to Coronji Calhoun?
By Raphael Picaud

In all the drama and glamour of the Academy Awards last month, there was one face I didn't see at the show, and one question that remains unanswered: whatever happened to Coronji Calhoun?

Who is he, you ask? Well, he played the son of Leticia - Halle Berry's award-winning character in Monster's Ball. He was the 10-year-old who outweighed his mother by a few candy bars; and he made us all cry because the film magnificently portrayed the tragedy of obesity, and the powerlessness that parents can feel in that situation.

The movie was excellent, and Coronji was terrific. All the critics were dazzled by his breakthrough performance. So, I asked around, "Whatever happened to Coronji Calhoun?" No one knows. I asked actors, producers and directors… even a studio CEO, and no one knows. In fact, they don't really care, either. "It's the director that found him, the credit goes to the director for casting him," one person said.

That upset me. So, this kid, in fact, is not even considered by the industry as one with talent, but as just a fat boy, who was used to serve a purpose. "Well, at least he made a load of money for his college fund?" I asked. "Nope," the studio guy told me... he got paid the minimum."

So, this kid, whose character suffered from the plague of our modern era -- childhood obesity -- was used in an Oscar-winning movie that made plenty of money, was slapped around and humiliated for a little money and then is gone, back to his life, like nothing happened. I'm curious as to how that experience affected him.

I mean, for crying out loud… He didn't put on a fat suit to look like that -- he has a history. If not exactly similar to the character he portrayed, one that is clearly not healthy, for him to be so overweight at such a young age. And yet, Hollywood -- with all it's resources -- will not give his health a second thought.

I wonder, is our society only sympathetic to fictional, highly dramatized stories? What about the real life story of this child and the thousands others whose lives will be cut short by a disease that could have been prevented?

People are dying here in the states, not just in the mid-east. Obesity now causes more health problems than smoking, heavy drinking, or poverty. And the percentage of children and adolescents who are defined as overweight has more than doubled since the early 1970s, constituting a public health epidemic.

The studio that profited from Coronji's talents, and used his condition to make a point, ought to make sure that this child has every opportunity available to him, in order to regain his health. If that involves teaching him about nutrition, counseling his parents, and giving him better access to healthy food in schools and fitness facilities, then it needs to be done. To ignore his condition is a crime. By making the movie… the studio put their finger on the problem. So, now, something must be done about it.

Click here to read Fit4Free's letter to Lions Gate Films, and the artists involved in Monster's Ball...

Click here for the Press Release