Richard Dreyfuss used to be a household-name kind of actor, given the success of Jaws, The Goodbye Girl, What About Bob, etc. He won an Oscar for the Goodbye Girl (that script is so good) and he still works, although his career definitely took a downturn in recent… decades. Part of that is because he’s always had a reputation as an a–hole among his colleagues, and he’s also treated women like sh-t for decades too. But still, he’s an Oscar winner and a member of the Academy, which means he has all kinds of thoughts about AMPAS’s diversity rules, which they’ve been rolling out in recent years, trying to make the Academy voter bloc more inclusive and tolerant. Well, Richard Dreyfuss hates all of the changes. He was interviewed on PBS and he basically threw a tantrum because he can’t wear blackface.
On the new diversity rules to be eligible for the Best Picture award at the Oscars. “They make me vomit. This is an art form. It’s also a form of commerce, and it makes money, but 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. 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.”
On Laurence Oliver’s blackface performance of Othello. “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 the ‘Merchant of Venice?’ Are we crazy? Do we not know that art is art? This is so patronizing. It’s so thoughtless and treating people like children.”
When asked if people should be careful about the history of blackface: “There shouldn’t be because it’s patronizing. Because it says we’re so fragile that we can’t have our feelings hurt. We have to anticipate having our feelings hurt, our children’s feelings hurt. We don’t know how to stand up and bop the bully in the face.”
On banning books in schools: “I think we’re cowards. Republicans send their children 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.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.”
[From Variety & Deadline]
In some ways, I’m glad that Dreyfuss is coming out and saying all of this with his full chest. Too many voters hide behind anonymity, but this is how a large Academy voting bloc actually feels: that people have gotten too “sensitive,” that “art” means white guys should be able to wear blackface whenever they want, that there’s no need to make an effort to pursue more inclusive policies because it’s “catering” to marginalized people. They’ll say all that and then treat Will Smith’s Oscar slap like it was the worst, most violent thing they’d ever seen, like they’re suddenly super-sensitive snowflakes. Anyway, Scarlett “Japanese Tree” Johansson should make a movie with him!
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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