Helen Mirren defends Oscars amid diversity backlash: 'It's unfair to attack the Academy'
Actress claims focus should be on what happens before films reach Academy
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Your support makes all the difference.Helen Mirren has defended the Academy amid a backlash over the lack of diversity in the Oscar nominations, claiming “it just so happened this year that it went that way”.
Calls for a boycott have been led by the actress Jada Pinkett Smith after it was announced that all 20 nominees were white for a second year running.
Speaking to the Channel 4 presenter Jon Snow, the Trumbo actress said the types of films made and the process behind filmmaking are more influential than the people who win Oscars.
When Snow described the Oscars system as “extraordinarily behind the times”, Mirren said it is “unfair” to attack the Academy, adding: “It just so happened this year it went that way.”
She claimed Idris Elba should have been nominated for an award for his role in Beasts Of No Nation but missed out because of a reluctance to watch a film about child soldiers, meaning not enough people saw it.
Insisting she was not excusing the lack of diversity, Mirren said the focus should be on improving diversity within all aspects of filmmaking, the industry and Hollywood.
Mirren continued: “I’m saying the issues we need to be looking at is what happens before the film gets to the Oscars. What kind of films are made, and the way in which they are cast, and the scripts, and go all the way back to the writing of the scripts. So, it’s those things that are much more influential ultimately than who stands there with an Oscar.”
Her comments follow those made by the actress Charlotte Rampling, who provoked outrage for claiming that the planned boycott by black celebrities is “racist to white people”.
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