When you weren’t gawking at how fabulous Jennifer Hudson looked at the Oscars, you may have noticed the absence of Black actors on the broadcast. It definitely didn’t get by Samuel Jackson, Anthony Mackie or Idris Elba who all called out the Oscar committee for not showcasing Black talent. Get the deets inside…
When TMZ caught up with Samuel Jackson yesterday, they asked him about the 2011 Oscars and the veteran actor had a lot to say.
He aimed a critique directly at the Oscar committee asking, “Where were the Black actors?”
While the absence of Black nominees was a huge blight on the award show, Samuel was further enraged that no Black actors were asked to be presenters.
“I guess they didn’t think we were available to read teleprompters that night … not a big deal, hopefully it’ll get better … it won’t happen again,” he said.
Then he added,
“We work in town … they know who we are, they know we’re available to be on that show to represent the people of color who are in the business in town.”
But Samuel does have hope that the Oscar committee will see their error and correct it next year saying, “Hopefully they wont make that mistake again.”
Idris Elba echoed Samuel’s thoughts on the Oscar “White-out” saying,
“Halle Berry and I were the only two Black actors nominated for this year’s Golden Globes. The Oscars aren’t designed for us… let’s focus on making more films.”
And taking that point a bit further, Anthony Mackie added,
“I think right now [Blacks] are being kinda lazy on our game. There are enough brothers with distribution deals and productions deals where we should be making our own movies.”
But even if Black Hollywood increases its output, will that affect its representation at the Oscars?
What do you think? Did you take issue with the lack of diversity during the broadcast?
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Samuel Jackson, Anthony Mackie And Idris Elba Blast The Oscar’s "White-Out"