Academy Award nominee Charlotte Rampling is the latest actor to state her opinion about the Oscars diversity controversy, saying that she thought the boycott of the ceremony was "racist against whites."
The British actress opened up to the French Radio network Europe 1 Friday morning, where she said that she disagreed about all the outrage that has been surrounding this year's Oscars.
"[It is] racist to whites," she said in the interview, which was given in French, according to People. "You can never know if it's truly the case, but maybe black actors did not deserve to make the final stretch."
Many prominent African American celebrities have voiced their distaste for the fact that zero minorities were nominated in the best acting categories for the second year in a row. Director Spike Lee, Jada Pinkett Smith and husband Will Smith all announced that they would not be attending the 2016 Academy Awards, as HNGN previously reported.
"Why classify people?" Rampling later asked in the interview. "These days everyone is more or less accepted ... People will always say: 'Him, he's less handsome'; 'Him, he's too black'; 'He is too white' ... someone will always be saying 'You are too' [this or that] ... But do we have to take from this that there should be lots of minorities everywhere?"
When asked what she thought about that fact that a lot of performers still feel that they lack the recognition they deserve, Rampling simply replied "no comment."
This year was the first time in which Rampling has ever been nominated for an Oscar thanks to her performance in "45 Years," according to The New York Times.
