Bradley Whitford is calling out Stephen King for his color-blind approach to Oscar voting, saying it's ignorant and underestimates one HUGE advantage they both have: WHITE.
We talked to the 'West Wing' vet Wednesday at LAX about King's controversial tweet, reacting to movie fans and critics pissed about this year's Oscar nominees lacking diversity. In a nuthsell, King, who voted on the nominees, said he was only judging on quality ... not diversity.
As a writer, I am allowed to nominate in just 3 categories: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Screenplay. For me, the diversity issue--as it applies to individual actors and directors, anyway--did not come up. That said...
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) January 14, 2020
...I would never consider diversity in matters of art. Only quality. It seems to me that to do otherwise would be wrong.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) January 14, 2020
Brad didn't hesitate to challenge the legendary author, telling us King should consider the fact not everyone is afforded the same opportunities in Hollywood 'cause it matters. He didn't use the phrase, but read between the lines ... he's talking about white privilege.
He's not alone either. Remember, Tyler Perry was heated after the nominations came out Monday, and went off about a couple snubs of women of color -- namely, Jennifer Lopez and Awkwafina.
Now, in fairness to Stephen, who was skewered online after his initial tweets ... he seemed to get why fans were so pissed. Hours later, he tweeted about the importance of Hollywood telling stories about under-represented people -- AKA anyone but white men.
The most important thing we can do as artists and creative people is make sure everyone has the same fair shot, regardless of sex, color, or orientation. Right now such people are badly under-represented, and not only in the arts.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) January 14, 2020
To hit that point home, Brad says something pretty spot-on about the industry as a whole, and then offers a brief list of artists and films HE believes were snubbed.