#OscarsSoWhite
Even Lupita Nyong’o boycotted the Oscars this year.
Spike Lee, George Clooney, Will Smith, and Jada Pinkett Smith are among those people who have been vocal about the Oscars’ lack of diversity this year, calling it a real problem.
For the second consecutive year, the Academy failed to nominate any minorities in the acting categories, and box-office hits led by black stars, such as “Straight Outta Compton,” were snubbed from major categories.
While the Smiths and Lee are showing their objections by not attending the awards ceremony, Clooney and David Oyelowo have decided to make pointed critiques of the Academy.
Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs announced that “dramatic steps” would be taken to increase diversity among members in a Twitter statement.
Following Jada Pinkett Smith’s call for a boycott of the Academy Awards over diversity concerns, her husband announced he’s following her lead.
Responding to Jada’s call for an Oscars boycott in a video on her Facebook this week, Smith praised his wife for taking a stand on the issue. “She’s deeply passionate and when she is moved, she has to go,” he said. “And I heard her words and I was knocked over, I was happy to be married to that woman but I appreciated the push.”
“There’s a position that we hold in this community and if we’re not a part of the solution we’re part of the problem,” he continued. “And it was her call to action for herself and for me and for our family to be a part of the solution.”
“I think that diversity is the American superpower,” Smith said, praising the “beautiful American gumbo” before arguing that Hollywood should reflect the country’s diverse makeup. “I think that I have to protect and fight for the ideals that make our country and make our Hollywood community great.”
According to Smith, the lack of diverse Oscar nominations are a microcosm of systemic inequalities impacting America as a whole.
When I look at it, the nominations reflect the Academy. The Academy reflects the industry, reflects Hollywood and then the industry reflects America. It reflects a series of challenges that we are having in our country at the moment.
There’s a regressive slide towards separatism, towards racial and religious disharmony and that’s not the Hollywood that I want to leave behind. That’s not the industry, that’s not the America I want to leave behind.
Smith claimed that his and Jada’s boycott goes beyond his personal Oscars snub.
“There’s probably a part of that in there but, for Jada, had I been nominated and no other people of color were, she would have made the video anyway,” he said. “We’d still be here having this conversation. This is so deeply not about me.”
Joining the many voices speaking out about #OscarsSoWhite is Spike Lee, who also announced he won’t be attending this year’s awards — though he claimed he’s not calling for a boycott. “But, how is it possible for the second consecutive year all 20 contenders under the acting category are white?” he wrote in a post on Instagram.
ACTORS WHO SUPPORTED THE OSCARS BOYCOTT THIS YEAR
Jada Pinkett Smith
On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the actress and singer announced on Twitter and in a video that went viral that she would not be attending the awards ceremony, and suggested other celebrities of color do the same.
“The Academy has the right to acknowledge [and] invite whomever they choose,” she said in the video. “Begging for acknowledgment … diminishes dignity [and] power. … So, let’s let the Academy do them with all grace and love, and let’s do us differently.”
She and her husband, Will Smith, who was not nominated for his role in the critically acclaimed Concussion despite the Oscar buzz, were both invited to the awards this year.
Spike Lee
Also on MLK’s birthday, director Spike Lee announced in two posts on Instagram that he would not be attending the Oscars this year.
“How is it possible for the 2nd consecutive year all 20 contenders under the actor category are white?” Lee wrote.
He added that the “real battle” was not with the Academy, but with Hollywood executives.
Lee, in the style of most Oscar acceptance speeches, began by thanking the Academy for the honorary Oscar he received in November. But he added that, with no disrespect to Oscars host Chris Rock and other friends involved in the awards, he and his wife are declining their invitation to the ceremony in February.
But, how is it possible for the 2nd consecutive year all 20 contenders under the actor category are white? And let’s not even get into the other branches. 40 White Actors In 2 Years And No Flava At All. We Can’t Act?! WTF!!
It’s no coincidence I’m writing this as we celebrate the 30th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s Birthday. Dr. King Said “There Comes A Time When One Must Take A Position That Is Neither Safe, Nor Politic, Nor Popular But He Must Take It Because Conscience Tells Him It’s Right”. …
As I See It, The Academy Awards Is Not Where The “Real” Battle Is. It’s In The Executive Office Of The Hollywood Studios And TV And Cable Networks. This Is Where The Gate Keepers Decide What Gets Made And What Gets Jettisoned To “Turnaround” Or Scrap Heap. This Is What’s Important. The Gate Keepers. Those With “The Green Light” Vote.
As The Great Actor Leslie Odom Jr. Sings And Dances In The Game Changing Broadway Musical HAMILTON, “I WANNA BE IN THE ROOM WHERE IT HAPPENS”. People, The Truth Is We Ain’t In Those Rooms And Until Minorities Are, The Oscar Nominees Will Remain Lilly White.
The following day, the twice-nominated writer-director posted a continuation of his first statement, asking the Academy why they don’t think it’s a “wise business decision” to have their “product” reflect the diversity of its consumers — moviegoers.
As I Said In My Honorary Oscar Acceptance Speech, It’s Easier For An African-American To Be President Of The United States Than Be President Of A Hollywood Studio.
Also The United States Census Bureau Released A Report Stating White Americans Will Be A Minority In America By The Year 2044. Don’t You Think It’s A Wise Business Decision To Have Your Product And Workforce Reflect The Diversity Of The Greatest Country On This God’s Earth?
I Ask, What’s The Hold Up? And Please… Don’t Go To The Well And Say There Are No Qualified Minority Candidates For These Green Light Gate Keeping Positions. It’s Amazing How Far Sports And Music Have Moved Ahead Of Hollywood And Television. … Why Can’t Hollywood Do The Same?
It’s Worth The Effort Or It Will Be The Same Old Hi-Jinks. I Do Hope In My Children’s Lifetime Things Will Change For The Betterment Of All Americans. A Great Diverse America.
Will Smith
Days after his wife’s announcement, Smith announced on Good Morning America that he would join her in the boycott.
Smith said that he and his wife’s decision had nothing to do with him not being nominated, and everything to do with the issue of representation and influence.
Mark Ruffalo
In an interview with the BBC Thursday morning. Ruffalo, who is nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Spotlight, said he was “weighing” whether to attend the Oscars.
“I woke up in the morning thinking, ‘What is the right way to do this?’” Ruffalo said. “Because if you look at Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy, what he was saying is the good people who don’t act are much worse than the wrongdoers who are purposely not acting and don’t know the right way.”
He added that he agreed with Spike Lee that the problem is bigger than the Academy Awards.
“The entire American system is rife with white privilege racism,” he said. “It goes into our justice system.
He later tweeted that he would attend the ceremony to support victims of clergy sexual abuse — the subject of the film for which he was nominated — but added that he is sympathetic with the “ban.”
After encouraging this year’s Oscars host Chris Rock to “make a statement” about the lack of diversity, the Furious 7 star posted a series of statements on Instagram calling on everyone invited to the Oscars to join the boycott.
George Clooney
George Clooney told Variety that he believes the Academy is “moving in the wrong direction.”
He explained that the issue extends to the roles available to minorities in Hollywood.
“I would also make the argument, I don’t think it’s a problem of who you’re picking as much as it is: How many options are available to minorities in film, particularly in quality films?”
He later added:
There should be 20 or 30 or 40 films of the quality that people would consider for the Oscars. By the way, we’re talking about African Americans. For Hispanics, it’s even worse. We need to get better at this. We used to be better at it.
David Oyelowo
“Selma” star David Oyelowo took the opportunity to critique the Academy while presenting Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs with an award at the King Legacy Awards earlier this week.
“For 20 opportunities to celebrate actors of color, actresses of color, to be missed last year is one thing; for that to happen again this year is unforgivable,” he said.
He added: “This institution doesn’t reflect its president and it doesn’t reflect this room. I am an Academy member and it doesn’t reflect me, and it doesn’t reflect this nation.”
Lupita Nyong’o
The Oscar-winning actress — for “12 Years a Slave” — posted a message on Instagram about her disappointment over the Oscar nominations this year.
“It has me thinking about unconscious prejudice and what merits prestige in our culture,” she said. “I stand with my peers who are calling for change in expanding the stories that are told and recognition of the people who tell them.”
Rev Al Sharpton
Sharpton announced a boycott of the Oscars telecast and is launching a campaign through his National Action Network for people to join him.
After the nominations were announced, he compared Hollywood to the Rocky Mountains, saying, “the higher up you get the whiter it gets. And this year’s Academy Awards will be yet another Rocky Mountain Oscars.”
50 Cent
Rapper 50 Cent begged Chris Rock to “please” drop out as host of the Oscars, saying that “he means a lot” in an Instagram post.
Snoop Dogg
Snoop Dogg was vocal about his disdain for the Oscars in an Instagram video.
“Somebody was actually like, ‘Am I gonna watch the motherf—— Oscars?’ F— no,” he said.
Whoopi Goldberg
The View cohost Whoopi Goldberg — who won her own Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1990’s Ghost — took time on the talk show to slam the Oscars boycott.
“You wanna boycott something? Don’t go see the movies that don’t have your representation. That’s the boycott you want,” she said. “To me, we have this conversation every year. It pisses me off.”
Steven Spielberg
The director, 69, weighed in on the controversy in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “I’m a huge supporter of the Academy Awards,” he said. “I was surprised at some of the individuals who were not nominated. I was surprised at [the exclusion of] Idris [Elba] — I was surprised at that. I think that was one of the best performances in the supporting actor and the actor category, was Idris. I’ve seen Straight Outta Compton — my wife and I saw it when it first opened, the first weekend, and it just rocked our world. It was incredible. I was very surprised to see that omission.”
Matt Damon
Matt Damon shared his take on the ongoing 2016 Oscars boycott while speaking to Us Weekly and other reporters at the Sundance Film Festival. “You know, it’s shameful and embarrassing,” Damon, 45, told Us. “There’s two years in a row that there are no people of color nominated. That’s insane.” Damon, a member of the Academy, praised president Cheryl Boone Isaacs for taking action as the scandal blew up. “It’s a strong first step but that is all that it is, it’s a first step,” he told Us of the Board of Governors’ proposal to double minority membership by 2020. “This is going to be a very long road . . . I was very happy that they did that.”
President Barack Obama
offered his two cents on the controversy in January, and noted that it was just one part of an underlying societal issue. “I think when everybody’s story is told, then that makes for better art,” he said. “It makes for better entertainment. It makes everybody feel part of one American family. So I think, as a whole, the industry should do what every other industry should do, which is to look for talent, provide opportunity to everybody.”
Halle Berry
The Oscar-winning actress, 49, commented on the scandal at the AOL MAKERS Conference in Rancho Palos Verde, California, in early February. Berry won a Best Actress Oscar in 2002 for her role in Monster’s Ball. “It’s heartbreaking, because I thought that moment was bigger than me. It’s heartbreaking to start to think maybe it wasn’t bigger than me. Maybe it wasn’t,” said Berry, who was the first African-American woman to win the honor. “And I so desperately felt like it was.”
Sylvester Stallone
The 2016 Academy Award nominee told reporters at a luncheon in early February that he thought about sitting out of the annual awards show to stand on behalf of his Creed director, Ryan Coogler, and costar Michael B. Jordan. “I remember I spoke with Ryan Coogler when this happened. I said, ‘Ryan, how do you want to handle this? Because I really believe you are responsible for me being here,'” Stallone, 69, recalled. “I said, ‘If you want me to go, I’ll go. If you don’t, I won’t.’ He said, ‘No, I want you to go.’ That’s the kind of guy he is. He wants us to go and represent the film.”
Anthony Anderson
Anderson joked about the controversy during his opening monologue at the 47th annual NAACP Image Awards in early February. “Listen, y’all, I don’t mean to sound cocky, but the movie’s called Creed, not Rocky,” Anderson, 45, rapped in the initial moments of his monologue. Later, the tone turned more serious. “Hollywood needs to know that this is what diversity is supposed to look like,” the evening’s host told his peers.
Donald Trump
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GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump weighed in on the issue in January, during a taping of Fox & Friends, calling it a “tough situation.”
“I saw somebody on your show today say, ‘What do we do with BET, Black Entertainment, right?'” Trump said, praising actress Stacey Dash’s earlier interview. “The whites don’t get any nominations. And I thought it was an amazing interview, actually. I’ve never even thought of it from that standpoint. But with all of that being said, it would certainly be nice if everybody could be represented properly. And hopefully that’s the case, but perhaps it’s not the case. It’s a difficult situation.”
OTHER ACTORS WHO REFUSED TO ATTEND THE OSCARS IN THE PAST:
Most people in the movie industry are chomping at the bit to win an Academy Award. In fact, many strive their entire career to obtain the honor. But while many work toward the impressive achievement, a select few have actually rejected the Academy Awards, refusing to accept an award or attend the event. Who has snubbed the awards? Here’s a look at seven Hollywood stars who have refused the honor.
DUDLEY NICHOLS
Nichols was the very first person to refuse an Oscar. He had won best screenplay for The Informer (1935), a movie that he adapted from a book about the Irish War of Independence. However, despite receiving the honor, he ended up boycotting the Academy Awards ceremony because of an ongoing dispute between the Academy and the Writer’s Guild, per About.com. The Los Angeles Times writes that Nichols went so far as to return his award after the Academy sent it to him. Included with the returned statuette was a note from Nichols saying if he kept the award, “it would be to turn my back on nearly a thousand members who ventured everything in the long-drawn-out-fight for a genuine writers’ organization.”
KATHERINE HEPBURN
This well-known leading lady was nominated for 12 Oscars and won four awards over the span of her career. However, Hepburn was not a fan of the ceremony, and never attended an event. She wasn’t totally opposed to the awards though; she proudly displayed her statues at her Connecticut home. Finally, in 1974, she attended an awards ceremony to present producer Lawrence Weingarten with a Thalberg Award, per Mental Floss. During the ceremony, Hepburn said, “I’m very happy that I didn’t hear anyone call out ‘it’s about time.’ I am living proof that a person can wait forty-one years to be unselfish.”
GEORGE C. SCOTT
In 1970, George C. Scott rejected his award for best actor in Patton (1970), a World War II film where Scott played General George Patton. Not only did he refuse the award, but he went as far as to blatantly insult it, saying the ceremony was a “two-hour meat parade, a public display with contrived suspense for economic reasons.” Frank McCarthy, the producer of Patton, accepted the award for Scott at the 1971 Oscar ceremony. Despite his blatant insults, the organization nominated him again the following year for his role in The Hospital.
MARLON BRANDO
Brando turned down his Academy Award on March 5, 1973 for his performance as Vito Corleone in The Godfather. Here’s what happened: on the eve of the 45th Academy Awards, Brando made the announcement that he would not attend the ceremony and was sending Sacheen Littlefeather in his place. Littlefeather was a small-time actress and president (at the time) of the National Native American Affirmative Image Committee. The night of the ceremony, when Brando’s name was called, Littlefeather walked up the podium. Rather than take the award, she set down a letter on the podium and said, “I’m representing Marlon Brando this evening and he has asked me to tell you … that he very regretfully cannot accept this very generous award. And the reasons for this being are the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry.”
Brando believed Native Americans were completely disrespected in the film industry. By having Littlefeather speak that evening, Brando was giving the Native American community an opportunity to be heard and raise awareness on the issue, and it “remains one of the most powerful moments in Oscar history,” according to Business Insider.
WOODY ALLEN
Allen has never shown up on the night of any of his own nominations. Instead, he chose to make one appearance on the Oscar stage in 2002, several months after the September 11 attacks. He showed up that night to introduce some films that had been made in New York, recalling how wonderful the Big Apple was for making movies.
Mental Floss writes that when it comes to the actual awards, however, Allen just doesn’t see the point. “I have no regard for that kind of ceremony. I just don’t think they know what they’re doing. When you see who wins those things — or who doesn’t win them — you can see how meaningless this Oscar thing is,” Allen said.
JEAN LUC GODARD
In late 2010, the Academy awarded Godard an Honorary Oscar. However, for months they attempted to contact him by every means possible, never once being able to elicit a response. However, Godard made it perfectly clear why he wouldn’t return the Academy’s phone call. When asked what the honorary award meant to him during an interview, he responded, “Nothing. If the Academy likes to do it, let them do it. But I think it’s strange. I asked myself: Which of my films have they seen? Do they actually know my films? The award is called The Governor’s Award. Does this mean that Schwarzenegger gives me the award?”
In that same interview, Godard added that his reasons for not attending the award ceremony included not having a visa for the U.S. and not wanting to apply for one. “And I don’t want to fly for that long,” he added. Turns out, accepting an Academy Award can take a lot of work.
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