Julie Delpy Apologizes For Hollywood Diversity Comment
Julie Delpy has apologized after making comments to The Wrap about the lack of diversity in Hollywood.
The writer and actress attended the Sundance Film Festival on Friday, January 22, and spoke about how few women were in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She had previously mentioned how very “white male” the Academy was, and went even further on Friday saying she wished she were African American “because people don’t bash them afterward.”
“Two years ago, I said something about the Academy being very white male, which is the reality, and I was slashed to pieces by the media,” she told Jeff Sneider with The Wrap. “It’s funny — women can’t talk. I sometimes wish I were African American because people don’t bash them afterward.”
“It’s the hardest to be a woman,” she added. “Feminists is something people hate above all. Nothing worse than being a woman in this business. I really believe that.”
Why did Julie Delpy say she sometimes wishes she were black instead of a woman in Hollywood? https://t.co/3Koz7NMESM
— Us Weekly (@usweekly) January 24, 2016
Julie Delpy, who was Oscar-nominated for her writing and acting work in the Before Sunset trilogy, is one of many celebrities who are speaking out about the lack of diversity in Hollywood after every 2016 acting nominee was white for the second consecutive year. In addition, all of the directing nominees were white men except Alejandro G. Iñárritu, who is Mexican.
Despite this, Delpy later apologized for her comments she made on Friday, and clarified to Entertainment Weekly that she wasn’t trying to “diminish the injustice done to African American artists,” and was just trying to “address the issues of inequality.”
“I’m very sorry for how I expressed myself,” Delpy said in a statement to ET on Saturday, January 23. “It was never meant to diminish the injustice done to African American artists or to any other people that struggle for equal opportunities and rights, on the contrary. All I was trying to do is to address the issues of inequality of opportunity in the industry for women as well (as I am a woman). I never intended to underestimate anyone else’s struggle! We should stay alert and united and support each other to change this unfair reality and don’t let anyone sabotage our common efforts by distorting the truth.”
Julie Delpy apologizes for saying “I wish I were African American” https://t.co/ApUPG0L9o8
— Jezebel (@Jezebel) January 24, 2016
“Again I’m so sorry for this unfortunate misunderstanding, people who know me, know very well that I can’t stand inequality and injustice of any kind,” Delpy added.
Delpy’s comments came not long after Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Cheryl Boone Isaacs announced “dramatic changes” coming to diversify the Academy membership. While the demographic information about the members is not released, the Los Angeles Times did a study in 2012 and found that the members were 94 percent white and 77 percent male. The median Oscar voter age was 62-years-old, with only 14 percent being younger than 50-years-old. Blacks members only make up about two percent, while Latinos are less than two percent.
“This isn’t unprecedented for the Academy,” Boone Isaacs said in a statement on Friday. “In the ’60s and ’70s it was about recruiting younger members to stay vital and relevant. In 2016, the mandate is inclusion in all of its facets: gender, race, ethnicity and sexual orientation. We recognize the very real concerns of our community, and I so appreciate all of you who have reached out to me in our effort to move forward together.”
Do you think Julie Delpy went too far with her Hollywood diversity comments? Leave your thoughts below.
[Photo by Danny Moloshok/Invision/AP]
