Julie Delpy has apologised for saying she'd rather be African American than a woman in Hollywood
"All I was trying to do is to address the issues of inequality of opportunity in the industry for women as well"
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Your support makes all the difference.Actress-director Julie Delpy has apologised following a controversial outburst regarding the #OscarsSoWhite campaign at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah.
Speaking during a panel discussion with The Wrap alongside Kieran Culkin and Danny DeVito, the Before Sunrise actress said: "Two years ago, I said something about the Academy being very white male, which is the reality, and I was slashed to pieces by the media. It's funny - women can't talk. I sometimes wish I were African American because people don't bash them afterwards."
Despite her fellow panel members' discomfort, Delpy continued: "It's the hardest to be a woman. Feminism is something people hate above all. Nothing worse than being a woman in this business. I really believe that."
Delpy has since clarified her comments in a statement to Entertainment Weekly.
"I'm very sorry for how I expressed myself," it reads. "It was never meant to diminish the injustice done to African American artists or to any other people that struggle for equal opportunities and rights; on the contrary. All I was trying to do is to address the issues of inequality of opportunity in the industry for women as well (as I am a woman)."
I never intended to underestimate anyone else's struggle! We should stay alert and united and support each other to change this unfair reality and don't let anyone sabotage our common efforts by distorting the truth."
Both Charlotte Rampling and Sir Michael Caine made controversial comments about the furore surrounding the lack of diversity in this year's Oscar nominations with the former since claiming her remarks were "misinterpreted."
Delpy, Culkin and DeVito all star together in the Todd Solondz-directed comedy Wiener-Dog which received its premiere at the Festival.
The other big talking point to emerge from Utah is that of critics walking out of new Daniel Radcliffe film Swiss Army Man in which he plays a farting corpse.
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