“I am very honored to be included in this year’s wonderful group of nominated actors and actresses”.
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Actress Charlotte Rampling isn’t one to shy away from controversy.
On Friday, veteran Oscar-winning Schindler’s List producer and Academy member Gerald Molen told The Hollywood Reporter that the Academy is not a racist organization and said the #OscarsSoWhite crowd should “stop acting like spoiled brats”.
I don’t know, but I would hardly be surprised if the unexpected outcome was the opposite: the average active movie career of actresses is shorter than the average movie career of actors, at least if they don’t have the bone structure of Charlotte Rampling.
“People will always say, “him, he’s less handsome”; “him, he’s too black”; “he is too white” … someone will always be saying ‘you are too [this or that],’ Rampling said”.
Asked if the black community in the film industry felt like a minority, she replied: “No comment”.
Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs, an African-American woman, responded to the controversy over the nominations on Monday night.
Reese Witherspoon posted a message of support to the campaign for Oscars diversity, writing: ‘I really appreciated this article in TIME on the lack of racial and gender diversity in this year’s Oscar nominations.
British Rampling, who stars in 45 Years, has now explained herself in a statement to CBS News’ Sunday Morning, claiming that her interview had been misinterpreted.
“The nominations reflect the Academy, the Academy reflects the industry, and the industry reflects America”, said Smith, a two-time Academy Award nominee for “Ali” and “The Pursuit of Happyness”. “So what we really need is people in positions to greenlight those stories, not a hunk of metal”, he said.
In an interview on BBC Radio 4, he was asked about “the argument going on in Hollywood at the moment, that not enough black actors – in fact, none – have been nominated for this year’s Oscars”. I saw Idris Elba (in Beasts Of No Nation).
“Of course it will come”, he said.
There are no non-white acting nominees at this year’s Oscars. Spike Lee, Jada Pinkett Smith were some of the first to say they’d be boycotting this year’s Oscars, and were later joined by Will Smith, Rashida Jones, Don Cheadle, Mark Ruffalo, and Lupita Nyong’o. That is the worst kind.
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The Academy has implemented emergency changes to membership to ensure there is a wider representation of ethnic diversities.
