“Straight Outta Compton would have been nominated five times if they’d replaced the gangsta rap with spirituals like that”, Wood said, showing a re-cut clip from the movie, followed by a graphic reading “Straight Outta Cotton”. And neither was the film’s star, Will Smith, whose Oscar-bait performance as the Nigerian forensic neuropathologist who became the NFL’s worst nightmare was also snubbed. Cube dropped by The Wendy Williams Show, and he was asked about his group’s biopic getting snubbed by the Academy Awards.
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As expected, the lack of diversity sparked outrage, leading to another onslaught of 2015’s much-used Twitter hashtag #OscarsSoWhite and causing many to speak out publicly.
Kate Winslet takes on Rooney Mara, Rachel McAdams, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Alicia Vickander for best supporting actress.
The Oscar nominees for Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress are white all white. Not a single person of color among the 20 acting nominees.
Some have blamed the Oscars for the lack of diversity, but some are saying the blame should be passed to the executives who are making casting decisions in Hollywood.
If you think Ice Cube is upset about his co-produced film Straight Outta Compton only receiving one Academy Award nomination, surprisingly, you’d be wrong.
In fact, one of those people happens to be the Academy president herself, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, who addressed the issue with Deadline following the nominations on Thursday. And yet Sylvester Stallone, the only white actor with a major role in Creed, and the white screenwriters of Straight Outta Compton both got nods. For the last two years, viewership for the Oscars have dropped.
The academy’s failure to nominate a more diverse group of actors has been a sore spot for the institution’s public reputation.
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“The Hollywood Reporter writer Hilary Lewis said, up until last week, Sorkin was considered the frontrunner in the best adapted screenplay category for “Steve Jobs” but, in the end, the 2011 Academy Award-winner was not even nominated”.
