Dear Richard Dreyfuss: Oscars Aren’t Ruining Your Dream of Wearing Blackface, You Just Can’t Win Best Picture For It
variety.comClayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Richard Dreyfuss doesn’t get it, but most grouchy, self-proclaimed keepers of the old Hollywood guard never do when it comes to creating an industry that gives a chance for everyone to thrive.
It was Sept. 8, 2020, and I was one week into my job as the awards editor for Variety when the Academy dropped its bombshell news that as part of its Aperture 2025 initiative, the organization was introducing new representation and inclusion requirements for submitting in the best picture category.
There are four standards a film must meet in order to be eligible. So naturally, the news designed to promote and encourage diversity in the Hollywood system was met with divisive reactions.
Some, such as Viggo Mortensen, said, “It’s about exclusion, which is discrimination.” Others like comedian and actor Andy Samberg pointed out the apparent loopholes in the Academy’s gesture: “The parameters if you look at them closely… you can have the ‘whitest’ cast in the history of cinema and still very easily meet them by just doing a few key roles behind the camera.
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