Joe Wright, director of The Soloist, has a good piece up on The Huffington Post about his decision to use actual homeless people in the movie. His piece comes in response to another piece that was up on The Huffington Post entitled “Joe Wright’s The Soloist Exploits the Skid Row Community” that suggests Wright took advantage of the real life homeless people he cast in The Soloist.

Wright’s point is simple and I think a good one:

Central to the film was an attempt to understand and reach out to those that are so often ignored. This was my reason for wanting to make a film not only about, but with the participation of, members of the Skid Row community.

He goes on to say that it was important to him to give  the community he would be portraying a chance to be heard - and in my opinion upon seeing the film - that is exactly what he did.

Read Wright’s entire post HERE and then be sure to go to the action section of this post to learn how you can make a difference in the lives of Skid Row residents.