Hot topic! Whoopi Goldberg completely disagrees with Jada Pinkett Smith‘s and Spike Lee‘s decision to boycott the 88th Academy Awards next month. The comedian-actress opened up about the situation and about how movie makers are really to blame for the lack of diversity in Hollywood, during The View on Tuesday, January 19.
“It’s not that the problem is that the people who are nominated are too white. They’re not looking at a movie and saying, ‘Oh, that’s very white. I’m not going to nominate that black movie.’ They’re not sitting there like that!” Goldberg, 60, said during the live show. “What the problem is, the people who can be helping to make movies that have blacks and Latinos and women and all that — that movie doesn’t come to you. Because the idea is that there’s no place for black movies.”
As previously reported, only white actors have been nominated for an Oscar over the past two years. Goldberg, who won a best supporting Oscar for her role in Ghost in 1990, hopes that a simple change will break the pattern.
“In the history of movies, there has not been a plethora of black movies made, because people think we don’t want to see movies with black people in them,” she explained. “So, until you start making movies like The Avengers with more than 70 white folks saving the earth — and I am mad about this, you know why? Because I would like to be one of those people saving the earth, but they’re not coming to me!”
Goldberg — who promised to “bitch” all awards season about the controversy — also talked about Chris Rock, who is hosting this year’s big show. She said that boycotting him would be a “slap in the face.”
“You wanna boycott something? Don’t go see the movies that don’t have your representation. That’s the boycott you want,” she said. “To me, we have this conversation every year. It pisses me off.”
The drama didn’t end there, however. During Tuesday’s episode, cohost Candace Cameron Bure walked off set following Goldberg’s rant and during a commercial break. Goldberg told the audience that her absence had nothing to do with the subject at hand and that the Fuller House star was actually sick.
I left the show today b/c I didnt feel well, not because of the discussion. Saw the Doctor- low blood sugar & tested positive for fluB. ?
— Candace Cameron Bure (@candacecbure) January 19, 2016
“I left the show today b/c I didn’t feel well, not because of the discussion,” Cameron Bure later tweeted. “Saw the Doctor- low blood sugar & tested positive for flu.”
Watch the video above!
