Richard Dreyfuss has criticized the Academy Awards' new diversity and inclusion requirements.
According to the Oscars' new rules - which will come into effect for the 2025 Oscars - films seeking best picture nominations will have to meet two out of four requirements related to representation and inclusion.
The Academy of Motion Pictures expects movies to have at least one lead character to be from an "underrepresented racial or ethnic group," having at least 30% of the cast be from at least two underrepresented groups: ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+, women, or disabled actors, or the plot line to focus on one of those groups, per The Guardian.
These rules have left 75-year-old Dreyfuss - who starred in Steven Spielberg’s 1975 Jaws - outraged as he remarked during his interview with PBS’s Firing Line that it makes him "vomit".
Watch Dreyfuss speak about the new rules below (begins at the 19:42 mark):The host Margaret Hoover started off by saying: "Starting in 2024, films will be required to meet new inclusion standards to be eligible for the Academy Awards for best picture. They’ll have to have a certain percentage of actors or crew from underrepresented racial or ethnic groups. What do you think of these new inclusion standards for films?"
Dreyfuss bluntly responded: "They make me vomit," and explained: "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."
"What are we risking? Are we really risking hurting people’s feelings? You can’t legislate that. You have to let life be life and I’m sorry, I don’t think there is a minority or majority in the country that has to be catered to like that," he added.
The American Grafitti star then went on to defend English actor Laurence Olivier who wore blackface to depict Othello in the 1965 Shakespeare adaption.
Dreyfuss then said: "He played a Black man brilliantly. Am I being told that I will never have a chance to play a Black man?"
Blackface is distasteful because white performers first started using it to mimic enslaved Black people in racist minstrel shows across the US in the 19th century.
"Laurence Olivier was the last white actor to play Othello, and he did it in 1965," Dreyfuss continued. "And he did it in blackface. And he played a black man brilliantly. Am I being told that I will never have a chance to play a Black man?"
"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?" He said. "This is so patronizing. It’s so thoughtless and treating people like children."
After the #OscarsSoWhite controversy that blew up in 2015, the Academy has been under pressure to improve diversity in Hollywood.
The institution's president, Janet Yang, spoke to Sky News earlier this year and explained their decision to execute the new changes in two years.
"It’s finding the right balance. So, we want rules that make sense, that keep people kind of on your toes about it, but not telling people what to make," he said.
