“Maybe this time, no black actor or actress deserved to make it to the final selection”, she said during an interview on French radio station Europe 1. She will compete against Saoirse Ronan, Jennifer Lawrence, Cate Blanchett and Brie Larson for the film industry’s top honour next month. In a statement to CBS News’ “Sunday Morning” on Friday, Rampling said she wished every performance were given equal opportunity for consideration.
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For the second year in a row, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) did not nominate a person of color in any of the four coveted acting categories, prompting boycotts of the February 28 ceremony and telecast by many prominent Hollywood celebrities and rebukes by countless others.
Speaking at a screening of his new movie Miles Ahead at Sundance Film Festival, he said the problem went beyond the Academy and was a broader issue in the film industry. The board said its goal was to double the number of female and minority members by 2020.
The Academy’s president, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, has already promised to attempt to address the issue, by re-examining how it could find better diversity among its voting members. “There’s loads of black actors”, he said.
She also disagreed with the idea of introducing quotas to awards shows, saying, “Why classify people?” On feminism she said: “One of the reasons I don’t see eye to eye with Women’s Lib is that women have it all on a plate if only they knew it. They don’t have to be pretty either”.
British actor Michael Caine was also asked about the diversity controversy this week by the BBC and urged black actors to “be patient”, saying recognition would come.
While we love to agree to this opinion, we wonder what Rampling meant by the phrase “racist to whites”!
“There will always be someone who is told “you are too something”. As early as next week, they are expected to roll out potential revisions to their nomination process and categories.
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“You have to give a good performance and I’m sure people have”. He praised Idris Elba’s “wonderful” work in Beasts of No Nation, which did not receive an Oscar nod. Did he not get a nomination? I think nowadays we are living in easily offended societies.
