Will Smith is joining the #OscarsSoWhite conversation.
Just days after Jada Pinkett-Smith posted a Facebook video announcing that she would not be attending this year’s Academy Awards because of the lack of diversity, her hubby appeared on Good Morning America and made a similar declaration.
“We’re part of this community, but at this current time, we’re uncomfortable to stand there and say that this is okay,” the Concussion star told Robin Roberts.
This is the second year in the row that not a single actor of color has been nominated for an award, which, Will said, is not representative of the United Sates as a whole.
Everything You Need to Know About #OscarsStillSoWhite 2016
“That’s why we are great,” he said of the “melting pot” that is America. “So many different people from so many different places adding their ideas, their inspiration and their influences to this beautiful American gumbo.”
Will, a two-time Academy Award nominee, said that it was important that children of all colors be able to sit down and see themselves reflected in the awards show. But because of the Whitewashing of the ceremony, that will be nearly impossible this year.
“The nominations reflect the Academy,” he said. “The Academy reflects the industry, and then the industry reflects America. There is a regressive slide towards separatism, towards racial and religious disharmony, and that’s not the Hollywood that I want to leave behind.”