The “Concussion” actor echoed the concerns of his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, over the lack of racial diversity among this year’s Academy Award nominees – and confirmed that he’d be sitting out the ceremony along with her.
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He said: “No, my wife’s not going. It would be awkward for me to show up with Charlize [Theron]”, Smith joked during an interview with Good Morning America on Thursday. We’ve discussed it. We’re part of this community.
Awards host Chris Rock, actress Jada Pinkett Smith and Straight Outta Compton producer Will Packer took to social media shortly after the nominations were announced last week (ends17Jan16) to denounce the exclusion of black stars from the main acting categories for the second consecutive year.
McQueen, who was nominated for the Best Achievement in Directing award for 12 Years A Slave, said: “I think racism has a lot to do with it, but also the whole idea of people not being adventurous enough in thinking outside of the box as such”. He said that Jada is very passionate about this issue and when she is this passionate about something, she has to go. The Academy reflects the industry, reflects Hollywood, and then the industry reflects America. “The Awards should not dictate the terms of art in our modern society, but rather be a diverse reflection of the best of what our art has to offer today”, she wrote. We’d still be here having this conversation.
Famed director Spike Lee is one of those who are calling to boycott the ceremony. I never used the word ‘boycott’. “And we are a dignified people”, Pinkett Smith said.
Nyong’o joins a growing list of African-American actors and filmmakers boycotting the awards. More nominees means more moviegoers, from more walks of life, would see their favorite films represented at the Oscars, and tune-in to watch.
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Still, Tulloss said, the group is planning to protest the ceremony and is urging people to tune out from the broadcast on ABC, a network that has made diversity a lynchpin of its programming strategy through shows such as “Fresh off the Boat” and “black-ish”. However, and I only bring this up because the left loves to bring up how few blacks in Major League Baseball are American-born, the majority of white players in the National Basketball Association are not American-born but are in fact either European, Canadian, or from New Zealand or Australia.
