Oscar winner Michael Caine is the latest celebrity to weigh in on the expanding diversity issue with the Oscar nominations this year.
Caine was speaking with Nick Robinson from BBC Radio 4 and talked openly about the issue. He was asked about the ongoing argument that is taking place in Hollywood and the fact that not enough black actors have been nominated.
“Yeah, but there’s loads of black actors. You can’t vote for an actor because he’s black," he said. "You can’t just say, ‘I’m going to vote for him. He’s not very good, but he’s black. I’ll vote for him.’ You have to give a good performance."
Quickly after the nominations were announced, #OscarsSoWhite started to trend across social media. It is the second consecutive year that the Oscars failed to nominate any minority actors.
The Dark Knight star did add that he felt like Idris Elba of Beasts of No Nation was a surprising Oscar snub.
"I saw Idris, and I thought he was wonderful," Caine said. "I thought he would get [nominated]. Did he not get nominated?"
Caine will not be attending the awards this year because of the amount of time and energy it takes to travel. He then joked that he didn't want to go all that way just to cheer on Leonardo DiCaprio.
“I love Leonardo, he played my [son-in-law] in a movie, but I don’t want to travel that far,” said Caine. “I’m too old to travel that far to sit in an audience and clap for someone else.”
The esteemed actor added that it took him years to win an Oscar and everyone has to be patient.
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