Richard Dreyfuss isn’t a fan of the diversity requirements for award eligibility soon to be implemented at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, saying bluntly, “They make me gag.”
“It’s an art. No one should tell me as an artist that I have to give in to the latest and greatest idea of what morality is,” Dreyfuss told Margaret Hoover on PBS’s “The Firing Line With Margaret Hoover.” “What do we risk? Do we really run the risk of 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 a majority in the country that has to be treated like this.”
The standards Dreyfuss is referring to were first announced by the Academy in 2020. Starting in 2024, to be eligible for an Academy Award for Best Picture, a film will be required to have a certain percentage of actors or racial and ethnic underrepresentation team. groups
Studios wishing to submit a 2023 film for entry will need to submit a Representation and Inclusion (RAISE) Entry Form demonstrating that they met inclusion and diversity standards in two of four areas: on-screen representation, themes, and narratives; Creative Leadership and Project Team; Industry Access and Opportunities; and audience development.
Dreyfuss, an Academy Award winner, did not mince words about his thoughts on the new standards. He pointed to Laurence Olivier’s 1965 rendition of “Othello,” in which the white actor played the title character in blackface.
“He brilliantly played a black man,” Dreyfuss said. “Are you telling me that I will never get the chance to play a black man? Is anyone else told that if he’s not a Jew, he shouldn’t play? [in] ‘The merchant of Venice?’ We are crazy? Don’t we know that art is art? This is so condescending. It’s so inconsiderate and treating people like children.”
When Hoover asked if there should be a difference in sensitivity regarding black representation given America’s history of slavery, Dreyfuss doubled down.
“There shouldn’t be,” he said. “He says we are so fragile that we can’t hurt our feelings.”
The Academy announced its standards change following criticism from #OscarsSoWhite, stating The changes are “designed to encourage equitable representation on and off the screen to better reflect the diversity of the moviegoing audience.”
You can watch the full interview at the top. The diversity conversation starts around 19:40.
