Will Smith Breaks Silence On The Oscars Brouhaha And Blasts Them For Lack Of Diversity

Will Smith broke his silence this morning about the controversy surrounding his wife’s proposed Oscar boycott, saying that he also won’t be attending this year’s ceremony because he believes that Hollywood is ‘going in the wrong direction’ when it comes to diversity.

The 47-year-old star of Concussion sat down with ABC’s Robin Roberts on Good Morning America to share his thoughts on this year’s overwhelmingly white Academy Award nominations, and his wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s videotaped call to action.

‘I think that diversity is the American superpower. That's why we're great,’ he told Roberts in the exclusive interview.
‘So many different people from so many different places adding their ideas, their inspirations, their influences to this beautiful American gumbo. … so when I look at the series of nominations of the Academy, it is not reflecting that beauty.’

A growing number of Hollywood heavyweights, including Spike Lee, Michael Moore and George Clooney, have publicly criticized the Academy for failing to nominate people of color in any of the major acting categories this year.

In an interview with Variety this week, Clooney, himself a two-time Oscar winner, said Hollywood has been moving in the wrong direction on diversity over the past decade.
On Thursday, Smith seemed to echo that sentiment, recalling his personal experiences as an Oscar nominee in 2001, for the film Ali, and in 2006 for his role in The Pursuit of Happyness.

‘I've been nominated twice for Academy Awards, and I’ve never lost to a white person,’ he said with a laugh. ‘The first time I lost to Denzel [Washington], and the second time I lost to Forrest Whitaker.I see this list and series of nominations to come out, and everyone is fantastic... but it feels like it's going in the wrong direction,' he added.

‘There was a regressive slide towards separatism, towards racial and religious disharmony, and that's not the Hollywood that I want to leave behind.'

Dailymail.co.uk.