Among the bigger surprises of the night was the Oscar that didn’t go to Sylvester Stallone, the presumptive supporting actor victor for his generous portrayal of the aging pugilist in the Rocky sequel/spinoff, Creed.
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Chris Rock once again hosted the Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday evening and tackled the issue we all knew he would in his hilarious 11-minute monologue.
“I counted at least 15 black people in that montage”, Rock said following an opening video segment of clips of films that were released in 2015. “We want opportunity. We want black actors to get the same opportunities as white actors”. “It’s like ‘we like you, Rhonda, but you’re not a Kappa.’ That’s how Hollywood is”. “But it’s not the racism you know”.
Rock also commented on the continuing controversy over police brutality during his monologue. Coming out of a commercial: “And we’re black – I mean ‘back'”.
Rock shocked everyone by bringing out actress Stacey Dash – who recently criticized the #OscarsSoWhite movement as well as Black History Month – to say a few words as the “director of diversity outreach”. After receiving the Oscar, I half expected him to make a joking remark about the, what some would call, pinnacle of his career. And he certainly made a big impression of Rebel, who later shared two pictures taken with the star, writing alongside: “Love you Leo”.
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Down the street from the Dolby Theatre, Rev. Al Sharpton led several dozen demonstrators in protest against a second straight year of all-white acting nominees. “They did nothing wrong”. This year, best original screenplay and best adapted screenplay were first up. “I want to take a moment to applaud all of my actors and actresses of colour that didn’t get nominated tonight”, he said. George Miller’s post-apocalyptic chase film, “Mad Max: Fury Road”, sped away with six awards in technical categories for editing, makeup, production design, sound editing, sound mixing and costume design. The actor, who took home the best actor Oscar for his stunning portrayal of Ray Charles in the 2004 American biopic about the rhythm and blues musician, branded Leo DiCaprio’s win as a small victory for the black community because he is a “honorary black dude”.
