Danny DeVito on Oscars diversity issues: 'The entire country is a racist country'
This weekend, Danny DeVito was at the Sundance Film Festival, and while he was there, he weighed in on the ongoing controversy that is the #OscarsSoWhite...
This weekend, Danny DeVito was at the Sundance Film Festival, and while he was there, he weighed in on the ongoing controversy that is the #OscarsSoWhite.
“It’s unfortunate that the entire country is a racist country,” DeVito said of the continuing outrage over the fact that the Oscar nominations for all major acting categories belong entirely to white people.
“Even though some people have given really great performances in movies, they weren’t even thought about. We’re living in a country that discriminates, and has certain racist tendencies,” DeVito continued in his comments, largely attributing the Oscars controversy to a systemic racism in the industry itself and in the country at large.
Don Cheadle and Sam Neill also weighed in on the controversy, with Cheadle saying, “I applaud [The Academy’s] attempt to do something about it, which is great, but again, this is dealing with the symptom and not starting at the root cause, how we even get to results like this.”
Neill also said that he was “baffled” when the nominees were announced, citing specific names that he felt were overlooked by the Academy. “I would have thought that Idris Elba and Sam Jackson would have been a shoo-in for nominations,” he said.
