Spike Lee: Oscars Don't Matter, Why Actors Are F*cked Up

Spike Lee, it seems, has little regard for Hollywood. Not film, mind you -- as one of America's most celebrated auteurs, he clearly has a grasp for the form that few can match. But when it comes to the business side of things, he's got a few bones to pick.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter recently, Lee sounded off on the way the industry's awards process works, as well as the way actors and actresses are treated. It's no wonder so many have personal problems, whether it's with marriage, drugs, depression or otherwise.

“You’re out there buck-naked and that is hard," Lee said. "The reason why actors are f*cked up; can you imagine having a job where someone is, ‘No, no, no. Your butt’s too big. Your heads to big. You’re too skinny. Your nose is too big?'”

Having famously not gotten a Best Picture nomination for "Do The Right Thing," perhaps his most famous film, in 1989, Lee explained that it was just one example of the flawed Oscar process.

“In 1989, 'Do the Right Thing' was not even nominated,” he said. “What film won best picture in 1989? 'Driving Miss Mother F*cking Daisy!' That’s why [Oscars] don’t matter. Because 20 years later, who’s watching 'Driving Miss Daisy'?... There are many times in history where the best work does not get awarded. And I’m not even talking about my own work. So that’s why [the Oscars] don’t matter.”

Lee hasn't made a traditional motion picture feature film since 2008's World War II film, "Miracle at St. Anna," but he's been busy in other fields; the second part of his HBO New Orleans post-Katrina documentary, "If God Is Willing and da Creek Don't Rise," won a Peabody Award earlier in the year, and he's working on a TV series loosely based on Mike Tyson for HBO, titled, "Da Brick."

For more, click over to The Hollywood Reporter.

Comments

[YourFaceOrYourKneecaps]

09:05 PM on 07/11/2011

I admire his drive for depicting social issues, but for me, he can come off as a little conceited and headstrong with his beliefs. He's made some good movies though; Malcom X, He Got Game, Inside Man come to mind. Of course, Do the Right Thing got robbed; a truly monumental film that surely deserved Best Picture over "Driving Miss Daisy". Who the hell even remembers that film?

But, for me, he brings up race issues a little too much. In that way, his movies can become incredibly predictable and trite. On a more general note, his style irks me the wrong way sometimes, and I get frustrated at some of his awkwardly stylized scenes.

Ultimately, though, he'll go down as a very good director of his time. I agree somewhat on the Oscars comment. Back in 2006, Brokeback Mountain should've definitely won, and the chemistry between Jake Gyllenhall and Heath Miller alone drove that movie. But they gave it to Crash, while not a terrible film, certainly undeserved when compared to Brokeback. Many people online suggested it was because of a Hollywood bias against gays.

I don't think its so much a bias against a particular group of people, blacks, gays, whatever, but a preference for white actors/actresses. Movies rely heavily on their ability to relate to their audience, and because the Oscar crowd is predominantly white, they are more likely to be emotionally involved with characters that are similar to them. Aesthetics definitely come into play.

[kinogod]

05:16 AM on 07/05/2011

Do The Right Thing was the best picture of '89. Driving miss daisy was another in a long line of white wish fulfillment/white guilt pictures. But Do remains a stellar achievement from Spike regardless of the voting of a few hundred people. And Driving remains what it is; hopelessly anachronistic with good performances, but hardly best picture. I just wish spike had continued to make feature films as lively funny sexy political and colorful as Do -- His Katrina films are brilliant docs, but seeing him do the heist drama with foster and washington was a really low ebb. And his Malcom X was just a big huge slow missed opportunity to do something wild and revolutionary. Instead it seemed like another studio bio pic by a white director. I still continue to believe he has a big swing big screen home run in him

[Michelle427]

10:18 AM on 07/04/2011

Sorry, Spike but the Oscars still matter. Do the Academy voters always choose the "best" film of the year? No, in 85 years (that's right Spike they're older than just about everything) they have made some choices that years later you go "huh?", but only two have ever turned down.
When a prominent actor or film maker dies, whether they one an Oscar or not is the first thing written. No one says how many critical awards you got. I love the Oscars for what it means to those who are nominated and win, the looks on their face priceless, carrying that statuette.

[aseyeseeit]

08:16 AM on 07/04/2011

I still love watching "Driving Miss Daisy" one of the few modern era films that I will stop and watch when I come across it- to take the ride with them once more. Sorry Spike, but I have never revisited one of yours.
That is what defines a great film to me-like a favorite piece of art-you can look at it many times and still enjoy it. A good film can be seen once and appreciated but does not leave one needing to take that ride again.

[Margo Arrowsmith]

06:10 AM on 07/04/2011

He does point out something that has got to get to all of them.  The idea that being skinny or changing your nose affects your talent in any way, well except that that kind of obsession can diminish it, is silly. 

We, the audience do not benefit from te superficiality of it all.  Yes some people get through.  Gabby Sibobe is talented and certainly not skinny and does not have a classic face.  Good for her, however, the ones who get through not being skinny are usually obese. 

People with normal bodies are good actors according to Hollywood.

[2fabulous]

05:28 AM on 07/04/2011

Spike Lee, you need to get over the fact that none of your movies won an oscar because your movies has never been viewed and accepted by all races. I understand your frustration and anger but personally I never thought any of your movies were that good to win Oscars. Its not about whether your movies were good in the movie industry its all about the ratings and the viewers who actually supported them. I felt that a lot of your movies were low rated and lame.

[Whoozthaboss]

12:50 PM on 07/05/2011

but I bet you're a Tyler Perry fan

[Whoozthaboss]

01:01 PM on 07/05/2011

U wilding b. Malcolm X was ill.

[bgofca]

02:15 AM on 07/04/2011

he just has sour grapes. he's a very bitter and hateful person.

[Chockolate]

02:14 AM on 07/04/2011

The only thing I wanna know from Spike is why he ever released She Hate Me.

[burtongrl]

12:51 AM on 07/04/2011

Spike who?

[bogey1]

11:45 PM on 07/03/2011

gotta admit that hollywood is really too full of itself

especially those very rich producer types that really don't do anything except write cheques and then try to take all the credit

[PrimaDiva]

11:00 PM on 07/03/2011

Spike is the man. Please make another movie soon!

[flippty flip]

10:51 PM on 07/03/2011

Sorry Spike but you had your time. I just rewatched Jungle Fever and it is cliche piled upon cliche. I know you were opinionated in the 90's, but come on....Do the right thing, good as in a cultural critique of the 90's, a film....Like your others; overly preachy and now with age seems condescending. You are out of your depths these days. Adapt and survive. I haven't seen that for years.

[JaneaneTheAcerbicGoblin]

12:29 AM on 07/04/2011

"Overly preachy and condescending"...

Kind of like Spike himself.

[Knothare1230]

01:12 AM on 07/04/2011

" I haven't seen that for years."
Then you haven't seen his films. But that cliched bull is exactly what his so-call critics would expect and present him as.

[savethecountry]

10:39 PM on 07/03/2011

I'm sure that by now Spike the Messenger is quite used to being executed for telling his truth. However, based on some of the posts here, Spike could state that the sun rises in the east and there would be those who would ascribe his statement to whining about race.

Spike Lee is a black man living in the US. For those of you who don't have first-hand experience with that state of being, including apparently many of those who post here, it means that everything that happens to you on a daily basis is tinged with the color of your skin. Having said that, I learned a long time ago that if I let that bother me, then personnel at the nearest mental institution would have to prepare a padded room for me. So I pick my battles carefully not because there isn't enough on which to remark but because I understand that there's a limit to what most of white America will digest before it refuses to listen anymore.

That's one of the chief reasons why racism persists in the US.

Having said THAT, Spike's quotes here aren't about race, they're about Hollywood. He speaks of the perfection we all too often expect of actors and the politics of the Academy Awards, topics that directors, actors, critics and others, both white and non-white, have remarked on before.

But Spike said it, so it must be more whining about race.

[jwald1]

02:41 AM on 07/04/2011

I think it is more about him still complaining about "Do The Right Thing" not being nominated. I have to say I thought it was good for a low budget movie, but it was not ready for prime time. I also think that white people feel the same kind of judgement coming from black people. There are good and bad in every race creed and color. I live in a very mixed neighborhood of Philadelphia, and I think that the kids that are growing up today seem to be color blind. Let's hope.

[Sunny California]

08:52 AM on 07/04/2011

Kids have always grown up color blind. It's the parents who poison their children with the race stuff.

[Pirate7X]

01:54 PM on 07/05/2011

What did you think of 'Crash'? Did that deserve all those awards & accolades and was that 'ready for prime time'?

I'm a Philadelphian raised up in mixed communites also. But I was never blind to what went on during the Rizzo years to now. Spike addresses what he knows, sees & experiences. Hope is cool but action (throught the arts as Spike does) is what is needed.

[Patty Roldan]

10:03 PM on 07/03/2011

Spike is right. Most of the movies that win Oscars suck and the perfomances are so so. It is all politically. I dont even see these movies.

[Mrs Bell3211]

07:48 PM on 07/03/2011

Good for him, voicing his opinion and calling people on BS. Alot of things in this world would not be so ridiculous, and have so much useless attention brought to it if people would just look at something and say, "No, I won't like that because someone told me to", more things need to be pointed out for what they are, BS. But can we stop replacing the word "the" with "da"?!