Richard Dreyfuss Defends Blackface And Says The Oscars’ New Diversity Standards Make Him Want To “Vomit”

May 8, 2023 / Posted by:

Oscar-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss–also known as “Who?” to anyone born after the year 1993–had an interview with PBS where he revealed that he absolutely abhors diversity measures in Hollywood films, specifically the ones that the Oscars have put in place for a film to be nominated for Best Picture. During his tirade, he also defended blackface–but elegant, high-brow blackface, and laments, “Am I being told I will never have a chance to play a Black man?” And I mean… what else is there to say after that? Actually, I will say: he would make a horrible Black man–not believable at all.

Back in 2020, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences tried to cover up years of #OscarsSoWhite controversies announced new diversity standards for Best Picture nominees. During Firing Line, host Margaret Hoover explained the standards to Richard, saying that now at least 30% of the cast and 30% of the crew working on a production must be from an under-represented group. But Richard hates it so much that it makes him want to vomit, and he’s sad he won’t ever be able to do blackface like Laurence Olivier in Othello. via Deadline:

“They make me vomit… This is an art form. It’s also a form of commerce, and it makes money, but it’s an art. 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…

And what are we risking? Are we really risking hurting people’s feelings? You can’t legislate that. And you have to let life be life.”

The Jaws actor said that he doesn’t “think there’s a minority or a majority in the country that has to be catered to like that.”

Dreyfuss, who won an Oscar in 1977 in the Best Actor category for The Goodbye Girl, praised Laurence Olivier’s blackface performance of Othello.

“Am I being told that I will never have a chance to play a Black man?” Dreyfuss continued. “Is someone else being told that if they’re not Jewish, they shouldn’t play the Merchant of Venice? Are we crazy? Do we not know that art is art?”

Hoover followed up with, “Do you think there’s a difference between the question of…who is allowed to represent other groups…and the case of blackface explicitly in this country given the history of slavery and the sensitivities around Black racism?”

“There shouldn’t be because it’s patronizing,” Dreyfuss replied. “Because it says we’re so fragile that we can’t have our feelings hurt. We have to anticipate having our feelings hurt, our children’s feelings hurt. We don’t know how to stand up and bop the bully in the face.”

He is the bully, by the way. Here’s Richard’s full interview he physically leans in to get ready to defend blackface at about 19:40:

Well, you know what, it was only four years back Richard was whining about how Bill Murray got drunk and mean to him on the set of What About Bob. And when Bill Murray thinks you’re an asshole… Also, remember when writer Jessica Teich claimed that Richard sexually harassed her for years before exposing himself to her once in the 1980s? But Richard said he was “horrified and bewildered” to learn that his “seduction ritual” with her was not consensual and denied exposing himself to her. So I’m sure he’ll be equally bewildered once his publicist clarifies that Richard does not want to do blackface. Uh-huh…

Pic: YouTube

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