Charlotte Rampling Addresses Oscar Racism Remarks

Charlotte Rampling is clarifying her comment about boycotting the Academy Awards because of the lack of non-white nominees.

In a statement to CBS News’s Sunday Morning, she said: “I regret that my comments could have been misinterpreted this week in my interview with Europe 1 Radio”.

After a half century career without an Oscar nomination of playing Mean Girls who don’t give a damn, 69-year-old Charlotte Rampling refuses to be White Guilted over her first ever nomination.

The interviewer then asked if the Academy should introduce quotas, to which she responded: “Why classify people?”

Film director Spike Lee, actress Jada Pinkett Smith and her husband Will Smith have already declared their intention to avoid the ceremony.

Although industry personnel were quick to praise the decision, others have said the issue of diversity goes beyond awards ceremonies. Jada Pinkett Smith announced this week she won’t attend the 2016 Academy Awards due to a lack of diversity in nominations. Frankly, they overlooked it because it wasn’t an exemplary achievement, not because he’s black. “Outrageous, ignorant & offensive comments from Rampling”, Clinton tweeted. “The Academy reflects the industry, reflects Hollywood, and the industry reflects America”.

David Oyelowo, the British star of Selma, a biopic of Martin Luther King said: “For 20 opportunities to celebrate actors of colour, actresses of colour, to be missed last year is one thing; for that to happen again this year is unforgivable”.

On Friday (22.01.16), Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs unveiled the organisation’s plans for the future, which includes a pledge to double the amount of female and minority members by 2020.

“In a unanimous vote Thursday night (1/21), the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences approved a sweeping series of substantive changes created to make the Academy’s membership, its governing bodies, and its voting members significantly more diverse”.

“I don’t know whether Idris got [nominated]”, he said. “Maybe black actors do not deserve to be in the final stretch”.

In the wide-ranging interview with Mason, Rampling talks about her career, her work on “45 Years“, and whether she’s been asked to star in a superhero movie.