Legendary actor Richard Dreyfuss has some thoughts on Hollywood’s new diversity mandates

Via Not the Bee

Richard Dreyfuss is one of the great acting talents of the second half of the 20th century. He’s turned in some of the most iconic roles in cinema history: Roy Neary in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Matt Hooper in Jaws, Gordie Lachance in Stand By Me, many others.

He’s earned his stripes. When he speaks about acting, we should listen. Case in point: The new Academy Award guidelines which mandate that films “must meet certain [diversity] criteria for representation to be eligible for the Academy Award for best picture.”

Here’s what Dreyfuss thinks of them:

They make me vomit. … [T]his is an art form. It’s also a form of commerce, and it makes money. But it’s an art. And no one should be telling me as an artist that I have to give in to the latest, most current idea of what morality is. … I don’t think that there is a minority or a majority in this country that has to be catered to like that.

The veteran actor wasn’t kidding around. Host Margaret Hoover went on to ask him if there should be considerations of representation regarding, say, “the case of blackface, given the history of slavery and the sensitives around black racism.”

Dreyfus’s response:

There shouldn’t be. Because it’s patronizing. Because it says that we’re so fragile that we can’t have our feelings hurt.

We need more actors saying the obvious like this — especially if they’re actors with 60-year clout like Dreyfuss.

Thanks for speaking truth, Rich. Keep it up.

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