Will Smith: 'Almost Criminal' If Academy Awards Don't Diversify
Will Smith made headlines when he announced that he would be joining his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, in her boycott of this year’s Academy Awards. Will, like Jada, was troubled by the absence of diversity in many of the major nomination categories. While in the United Kingdom, Smith elaborated on his thoughts to the BBC’s Charlie Stayt.
“This is far beyond me,” Smith said. “This has nothing to do with me. This has nothing to do with awards. You know? Awards, that’s really a frivolous reason for me to put my hand up and make a statement. This is much more about diversity and inclusion.”
On Jan. 27, Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs and CEO Dawn Hudson told The Hollywood Reporter their plans for diversification. As it stands now, the academy, with its 6,261 members is 93 percent white and 76 percent male. Smith thinks the academy should reflect the direction the country at large is taking. “The images that come out of Hollywood are supposed to be painting the pictures of a rainbow future,” he told ITV. “So if the images coming out of Hollywood narrows, it’s almost criminal. It’s like we’re narrowing the collective American imagination, and that to me is the issue.”
The Hollywood icon made it a point to accept responsibility himself. “It’s not ‘us’ and ‘them,’” he told the BBC. “It’s ‘we.’ I’m a member of the academy. So it’s much more a domestic family issue than it is a civil rights issue. So it’s a problem that we all have to solve.”
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