Actor Richard Dreyfuss has an enviable number of hit movies on his resume, classics like “Jaws,” the 1977 romance “The Goodbye Girl”–which won Oscars for Best Screenplay, Best Actor and Actress, and Best Picture–“Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” the hysterical comedy “What About Bob,” and many more. (If I skipped your favorite it’s because he has so many good movies to his name.)
Hollywood has been very, very good to Richard Dreyfuss–but he is not pleased with the Academy of Motion Pictures’ new diversity requirements that productions must meet in order to be considered for an Oscar. In a recent interview with PBS’s Firing Line , the star had a biting response when host Margaret Hoover asked if he agreed with the rules:
Hoover: 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: They make me vomit.
I’m guessing the PBS anchor almost had a coronary–a Hollywood star speaking out against progressive ideology? Unheard of.
But Dreyfuss wasn’t finished.
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.
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