Richard Dreyfuss on New Oscar Diversity Rules: “They Make Me Barf”
Actor Richard Dreyfuss is not a fan of the Oscars’ new diversity guidelines.
Officials announced in 2020 that, starting in 2024, films must meet certain representation criteria to be eligible for a best picture Oscar.
Films must meet at least two of the four benchmarks, which include – among other things – whether the main actors are from underrepresented groups or whether at least 30% of the cast and crew come from these groups.
Dreyfuss told Margaret Hoover during a Friday interview on the PBS series “Firing Line” that such rules “make me puke.”
When Hoover asked why, the actor said, “Because this is an art form.”
“It is also a form of commerce and it generates money,” said the actor. “But it is an art. And no one should be telling me, as an artist, that I have to give in to the latest and most current idea of what morality is.”
Inclusion standards were enacted in an attempt to tackle inequality in the industry, which gave rise to the #OscarsSoWhite movement in 2015.
“I don’t think there’s a minority or a majority in this country that should be served that way,” Dreyfuss went on to say during the interview.
He then quoted some of the history about Laurence Olivier being “the last white actor to play Othello”, referring to the 1965 film in which the British actor played in blackface.
Dreyfuss praised the performance, saying that Olivier played the role “brilliantly”.
“Am I hearing I will never get a chance to play a black man?” said Dreyfuss. “Is anyone hearing that if you’re not a Jew, you shouldn’t play the merchant of Venice? We’re crazy? Don’t we know that art is art?”
Hoover backtracked, asking if there is “a difference between the issue of representation and who can represent other groups… and the case for blackface, given the history of slavery and the sensitivities around black racism?”
Dreyfuss said, “There shouldn’t be.”
“Because it’s paternalistic,” he said. “Because it says we are so fragile that we cannot hurt our feelings.”
A CNN reached out to Dreyfuss representatives for further comment, but has yet to receive a response.
Source: CNN Brasil
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