Cheryl said in a statement: “The Academy is going to lead and not wait for the industry to catch up”.
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Smith said he didn’t know that his wife was going to post a Facebook video announcing her own boycott of the Oscars.
After wife Jada Pinkett-Smith vowed not to attend the upcoming Academy Awards ceremony due to the show’s lack of ethnically diverse nominees, actor and two-time Oscar nominee Will Smith has vowed to do the very same. “We’ve discussed it, but at this current time, we’re uncomfortable to stand there and say this is OK”.
He insisted Jada spoke out “to be a part of the solution” on the diversity issue, not simply because he did not score a nomination. The video, he said, “was her call to action – for herself and for me and for our family to be a part of the solution”.
Gil Robertson, the President of the African American Film Critics Association, said there was a lack of diversity in the studio system.
Actor Mark Ruffalo, nominated for his supporting actor role in “Spotlight”, told the BBC he’s torn about whether or not to attend the Academy Awards.
It’s a fair question to ask whether Smith would still go through with the boycott if Concussion hadn’t been ignored.
Other actors including George Clooney, David Oyelowo, Lupita Nyong’o and Idris Elba have also been critical of the Academy’s nominations, without pledging a boycott.
The proposed boycott has gained momentum and media attention in the few weeks since the Oscar nominations were announced-nominations that didn’t include a single actor of color. For me, at it’s best, Hollywood represents and then creates the imagery for that beauty.
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Will Smith himself has been nominated two times for the Academy Awards: Ali (2002), and The Pursuit of Happyness (2006). Smith, who makes sure to state he’s not against the actors nominated in this dilemma, believes the nominations are a reflection of the Academy and they’re moving in the wrong direction in their manner of thinking. To this he added, “There’s a disharmony that is brewing in our country and in our industry that I want no part to that”.
