Charlotte Rampling Walks Back Oscar Comments

Oscar-nominated acting legend Charlotte Rampling made quite a few people angry on Friday when she declared that all of the controversy surrounding the extreme whiteness of this year’s Academy Awards was “racist” towards white people.

“I regret that my comments could have been misinterpreted this week in my interview with Europe 1 Radio”, said Rampling, who is nominated for a Best Acting award for the film “45 Years“.

Today the Academy announced major plans to combat the problem, including the decision to appoint three new members to the 51-person board of governors and review each member’s voting rights every ten years, dependent on how active they are in the film industry over that decade. When asked her opinion on the current drama over the all-white lists of nominees on French Radio network Europe 1 Friday morning, Rampling did not mince her words. For this obscure, sometimes clandestine group to neglect to nominate a single black artist for the second year in a row is – despite what we’d like to tell ourselves – a very big deal.

Charlotte Rampling needs to learn how to check her privilege.

I’ve been a fan of Charlotte Rampling ever since I saw “Georgie Girl” almost 50 years ago.

Clooney went so far as to say the industry appears to be moving backward rather than forward. People will always say: “Him, he’s less handsome”; “Him, he’s too black”; “He is too white”… someone will always be saying “You are too” (this or that)…

It also prompted the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to announce changes to the organization this week with the goal of doubling female and diverse membership by the year 2020. “And so we’re going to classify everything to make thousands of little minorities everywhere?”

Veteran British actor Michael Caine, meanwhile, urged black actors to “be patient” and said recognition would come.

The above comments could be viewed as Rampling being opposed to a quota of black actors or as a call to do away with racial categories all together.

Spike Lee, Jada Pinkett Smith and husband Will Smith have all since confirmed they will not be attending the February 28th ceremony because of the nominations’ lack of diversity. He praised Idris Elba’s “wonderful” work in Beasts of No Nation, which did not receive an Oscar nod.