This article was written in 2017, while I was a student working for Shifter Magazine in Ottawa as one of their film contributors and editors. It's been edited for grammar and flow but the message is still the same. The original article can be found here.
Over the past week, I’ve been sitting and monitoring social media gauging the reactions to the Oscar nominations, because really it’s just free entertainment seeing people argue over who they subjectively believe should win a prestigious award in their respective category. But recently I began to come across more and more people and articles saying that they’re going to boycott the awards or that the awards are racist or pointless. It’s gotten so far that big Hollywood names such as Will and Jada Smith and even the nominated Mark Ruffalo have considered not attending the event. All of a sudden, the free entertainment and playful arguments have turned into something really serious that could potentially harm the film industry.
At the time of writing this article, I’ve seen about 98% of the films nominated for the major categories, I have my own opinions on who deserved nominations and who didn't. But this piece isn’t one arguing whether or not certain actors do or do not deserve a nomination. I'd be happy to sit and debate about each of the major categories but in the end, film is an art form and it quite frankly caters to different tastes. So, if you’re here expecting an in depth analysis on the performances and why one actor deserves a nomination over the other, you’ll have to look somewhere else. What I do want to address is the outrage that the Academy has received regarding their nominations, from the #OscarsSoWhite campaign, to the aforementioned boycotts to the heated racially fueled war that is tearing the Internet apart and why they’re all misplaced.
Let’s start in the Best Supporting Actor category. You have Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Mark Rylance, Mark Ruffalo and Sylvester Stallone. Yes, they’re all white. Now you have incredible performances for many other actors that have been left out, including those from people of colour such as Idris Elba. Does this mean that the Academy hates any actor that isn’t white? Absolutely not, because putting the past two years aside, there historically has almost always been a person of colour (rightfully) nominated for the Best Actor award. There is also no argument to be made that the actors who are currently nominated don’t deserve to be recognized. Every single one of these actors are extremely talented and showcased it this year in their respective films; this is generally agreed upon by critics and audiences alike. While a person of colour like Elba was spectacular in his film, so was everyone else in the category (Stallone especially). Because the acting category nominations are limited to only 5 performances, there is always going to be someone cut off and this year this is no one on the last that you can point to and say “he definitely does not deserve the nominations” and majority of the general public agree. But that still doesn’t take away from the fact that they’re all white. They’re still a problem here, its just doesn’t lie with the Academy.
Let’s start in the Best Supporting Actor category. You have Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Mark Rylance, Mark Ruffalo and Sylvester Stallone. Yes, they’re all white. Now you have insane performances for many other actors that have been left out, including those from people of colour such as Idris Elba. Does this mean that the Academy hates any actor that isn’t white? Absolutely not, because putting the past two years aside, there historically has almost always neem a person of colour (rightfully) nominated for the Best Actor award. There is also no argument to be made that the actors who are currently nominated don’t deserve to be recognized. Every single one of these actors are extremely talented and showcased it this year in their respective films and this is fully agreed upon by critics and audiences alike. While a person of colour like Elba was spectacular in his film, Stallone was just as spectacular and so was everyone else in the category. Because the acting category nominations are limited to only 5 performances, there is always going to be someone cut off and this year this is no one on the last that you can point to and say “he definitely does not deserve the nominations” and also majority of the general public agree. But that still doesn’t take away from the fact that they’re all white. They’re still a problem here, its just doesn’t lie with the Academy.
I’ll admit it. When I first saw the nominations and their entire white cast, I had a kneejerk reaction. I was angry. As someone who is not white, I’d love to see different races being represented and nominated for awards, just like how in Canada and America there are many different races who represent many different cultures. But after a few days I sat and really thought about it. Over the next few days I began to read some solutions people had for the problem. “We’ll just segregate and make our own awards!” or “There should be a mandatory number of minorities for each category!” are two that really bothered me. How does removing people of colour from the equation all together, or even worse, forcing a person of colour into a category when they don’t belong solving the problem? In my opinion, it just makes things a whole lot worse. At this point I began to think to myself, I don’t see any way that the Academy can improve on their system that they aren’t already trying to do (i.e. bringing in less old, white men as their members and bringing in younger, more diverse members). In fact, they just recently announced that they overhauling the voting system for next year’s Oscars to try and diversify the voting body and improve on their system. They’re not perfect, but they’re doing the best they can at the moment. I looked back at the year in film and immediately saw the problem:
I can count on one hand the number of high profile non-white performances this year.
Conversely, I can easily list off the number of roles in Hollywood that should’ve gone to people of colour and instead were played by white actors. Aloha, Pan, Exodus: Gods and Kings. These are three films that have come out in the past year that have had high profile minority character roles go to white actors. I have absolutely nothing against the actors that took these roles (Emma Stone, Rooney Mara, Christian Bale) they’re all fantastic actors. But when you’re casting Emma Stone to play an Asian character named Allison Ng, there’s something wrong with the studio or the people behind the casting. These examples are just the tip of the iceberg and the whitewashed Oscar nominees are symptom of this problem. Hollywood and the six major studios needs to get their act together and start 1) Casting more minorities in roles created for them and 2) Write more roles that are cater to these actors. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I want all minority casts for every film out there, that’s a great disservice to the incredible white actors out there. I cannot stress enough that this is not a call for studios to only take minority actors for the sake of diversity thereby removing white actors from the system. This is about making new roles and opportunities, not taking them away from others.
So how do we go about this? Fixing this problem isn’t going to be easy. Hollywood has a long history and the way they do things doesn’t just change instantaneously. I also don’t think that any third party (i.e. government) should force them into anything; this change has to come from within their own ranks. Something like the NFL’s Rooney Rule would really help here, where franchises are mandated (by the organization) to see minorities and people of colour in the application process. They don’t necessarily have to hire them, but giving them the opportunity and opening those doors goes a long way. Same thing could happen with the major studios. But hey, what do I know? I’m just a 19 year old film “journalist/critic” who writes instead of studying like I’m supposed to.