With the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announcing new diversity rules for films to qualify for the coveted Best Picture award, not everyone seems to approve, including one well-known actor.
Academy Award-winning actor and co-star of the thriller “Jaws,” Richard Dreyfuss, shared his thoughts on the Oscars’ diversity and inclusion standards during an interview with PBS’s Firing Line.
The new rules will now be in effect for the 2024 award season, as the Academy shared that all films looking to be eligible to win Best Picture must meet two of four new standards.
The first standard focuses on the onscreen talent, requiring films to have either a lead actor come from an “underrepresented racial or ethnic group,” at least 30% of all actors coming from at least two “underrepresented groups,” or the film’s “theme or narrative of the film... centered on an underrepresented group.”
The other three standards focus on the diversity of the crew in creative leadership and department head positions; creating opportunities to help those from underrepresented groups enter the industry; and diversifying a film’s marketing staff.
When asked about the new rules during the interview with PBS, Dreyfuss said, “They make me vomit.”
“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 said. “What are we risking? Are we really risking hurting people’s feelings? You can’t legislate that. You have to let life be life, and I’m sorry, I don’t think there is a minority or majority in the country that has to be catered to like that.”
During the interview, Dreyfuss even went on to defend the use of blackface by Laurence Olivier, who did so in the 1965 film adaptation of Shakespeare’s play Othello.
“Laurence Olivier was the last white actor to play Othello, and he did it in 1965,” Dreyfuss said. “And he did it in blackface. And he played a black man brilliantly.”
He then continued in his train of thought, questioning whether or not he would be able to “play a black man.”
“Am I being told that I will never have a chance to play a black man? Is someone else being told that if they’re not Jewish, they shouldn’t play the Merchant of Venice?” he asked. “Are we crazy? Do we not know that art is art?”
Overall, Dreyfuss said the new rules were “patronizing” and “thoughtless,” adding that he felt the Academy was “treating people like children.”
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