*Oscar-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss is catching heat for shading the Academy’s new diversity rules for the Best Picture award.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced an initiative in 2020 that outlines significant requirements to be eligible for Best Picture at the Oscars. For a film to be considered in this category, the lead or supporting actor role must be played by an “Asian, Hispanic/Latinx, Black/African American, Indigenous/Native American/Alaskan Native, Middle Eastern/North African, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander or unspecified other underrepresented race or ethnicity,” per Deadline.
According to the new guidelines, the crew must also be inclusive of women, LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and people with cognitive or physical disabilities.
When asked about the Oscars shake-up on PBS’ “Firing Line,” Dreyfuss said, “They make me vomit.”
“They make me vomit,” says @RichardDreyfuss of new cast and crew diversity standards for Best Picture #Oscar eligibility.
Plus he praises Laurence Olivier’s 1965 performance of Othello in blackface.
“Am I being told that I will never have a chance to play a Black man?” (1/2) pic.twitter.com/NcmpZoXe1c
— Firing Line with Margaret Hoover (@FiringLineShow) May 5, 2023
“This is an art form. It’s also a form of commerce, and it makes money, but it’s an art. No one should be telling me as an artist that I have to give in to the latest, most current idea of what morality is,” Dreyfuss continued, Deadline reports.
The new Oscars rules will take effect in 2024.
“Starting in 2024, films will be required to meet new inclusion standards to be eligible for the Academy Awards for Best Picture. They’ll have to have a certain percentage of actors or crew from under-represented racial or ethnic groups,” “Firing Line” host Margaret Hoover said to Dreyfuss. He added, “And what are we risking? Are we really risking hurting people’s feelings? You can’t legislate that. And you have to let life be life.”
Dreyfuss noted that “there’s a minority or a majority in the country that has to be catered to like that.”
He continued, “Am I being told that I will never have a chance to play a Black man?” Dreyfuss continued. “Is someone else being told that if they’re not Jewish, they shouldn’t play the ‘Merchant of Venice?’ Are we crazy? Do we not know that art is art?”
Hoover asked Dreyfuss, “Do you think there’s a difference between the question of…who is allowed to represent other groups…and the case of blackface explicitly in this country given the history of slavery and the sensitivities around Black racism?”
“There shouldn’t be because it’s patronizing,” he replied. “Because it says we’re so fragile that we can’t have our feelings hurt. We have to anticipate having our feelings hurt, our children’s feelings hurt. We don’t know how to stand up and bop the bully in the face.”
Watch the full interview below.
READ MORE: LA Activist Wants Oscars to Promote Diversity in Off Camera Positions
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