WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama has weighed in on the outcry over two straight years of all-white acting nominees for the Academy Awards.
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“I really was disappointed”, she said after the January 14 nominations.
The current Oscar “whiteout”, as some are calling it, is particularly disappointing because it follows more than a decade of encouraging racial breakthroughs at the annual ceremonies. Among these changes announced on Thursday, Jan. 21, three new governor seats have been added, which will be elected by the president, with major committees restructured to support that.
“And we had no reason to be silent”, she adds. “However, life has changed. That’s the boycott you want”, she said. “Should people of color refrain from participating all together?”
Black actors Jada Pinkett Smith and husband Will Smith, wouldn’t have become worldwide celebrities and multi-millionaires if Hollywood – and America – was racist as a whole.
Boone Isaacs and Academy CEO Dawn Hudson further discuss the diversity issue in the new issue of The Hollywood Reporter. “This is Chris. We know who he is”. There’s a lot of conversation out there. “Are we making sure that everybody is getting a fair shot?” “So that is what we did”.
Last week, the academy said it was doubling its diversity push and ending guaranteed lifelong voting rights.
In 2005, for example, black actors including Morgan Freeman (“Million Dollar Baby”), Don Cheadle (“Hotel Rwanda”) and Sophie Okonedo (also “Hotel Rwanda”) earned a record five of the 20 nominations. You have to go where this occurs: “inside a room of producers, and the number of movies that get greenlit”, she explains. More steps are needed, they say, to make the Oscars and the industry more inclusive. “That makes for better entertainment. Deaf ears. Closed minds”.
In 2012, the Los Angeles Times conducted a landmark study into the membership of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (which hands out the Oscars each year).
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UCLA also surveyed film and TV executives and found that 96 percent are white. Concerned about the back-to-back all-white acting nominations, Obama spoke on pushing the country towards a better understanding of its differences with a theme of tolerance and inclusion. Ratings dipped to a six-year low for ABC. Despite calls for him to quit, Rock will host the event, although he has reportedly rewritten his opening monologue to address the controversy.
