Richard Dreyfuss slams Oscars diversity requirements: “They make me vomit”
Oscar-winner Richard Dreyfuss has criticised the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ new diversity and inclusion standards, claiming that the new requirements “make me vomit”. The actor’s comments came during his recent interview for Firing Line With Margaret Hoover, in which the actor discussed the Oscars’ diversity inclusion initiative.
“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 began. “What are we risking? Are we really risking hurting people’s feelings? You can’t legislate that. You have to let life be life. I’m sorry, I don’t think there is a minority or majority in the country that has to be catered to like that.”
First announced in 2020, the four new diversity and inclusion standards will be implemented for the forthcoming 2024 Academy Awards, with films needing to check off at least two of the four requirements to be deemed a valid submission for ‘Best Picture’. In his interview, Dreyfuss went on to defend Laurence Olivier’s 1965 performance in Othello, in which the white English actor played the lead in blackface.
“He played a Black man brilliantly. 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 [in] The Merchant of Venice? Are we crazy?” Dreyfuss stated. “This is so patronising. It’s so thoughtless and treating people like children. I think we’re cowards. Republicans send their children to schools hoping and praying that their children will come back. Republicans and Democrats send their children to school urgently praying that their children come back Democrats,” he continued. “The idea that a parent would walk into a public school and say, ‘I don’t want my children exposed to opposing views.’ That’s wrong.”
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