Helen Mirren is the latest star to speak out about the Oscars' lack of diversity, saying the Academy isn't solely to blame for the controversy.
In an interview with the U.K.'s Channel 4 News, posted online Wednesday, the award-winning actress said, "I think it’s unfair to attack the Academy. It just so happens this year, it went that way."
Mirren isn't excusing the Academy's failure to recognize people of color, but she does believe the issue of race in Hollywood goes much deeper than the Oscars. (For context, not one actor of color, male or female, has been nominated for an award for the past two years.)
"The issue we need to be looking at is what happens to the film before it gets to the Oscars," she explained. "What kind of films are made. And the way in which they are cast. And the scripts. And go all the way back to the writing of the scripts. It’s those things that are much more influential ultimately than who stands with an Oscar."
Mirren did note, however, that Idris Elba should have been nominated for his role in Netflix's "Beasts of No Nation." (Elba recently won a Screen Actors Guild Award for his performance.) In her opinion, "He wasn’t [nominated] because not enough people saw or wanted to see a film about child soldiers."
Other stars who've spoken out about the lack of diversity at the Oscars include Jada Pinkett Smith and Spike Lee, who both plan to skip the award show, as well as David Oyelowo, who was notably snubbed for his role as Martin Luther King Jr. in last year's "Selma."
"The Academy has a problem. It’s a problem that needs to be solved," Oyelowo said at an event honoring Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs in January. "For 20 opportunities to celebrate actors of color, actresses of color, to be missed last year is one thing; for that to happen again this year is unforgivable."
Oyelowo continued, "This institution doesn’t reflect its president and it doesn’t reflect this room. I am an Academy member and it doesn’t reflect me, and it doesn’t reflect this nation."
Since the controversy began at the beginning of this year, Boone Isaacs has also addressed the issue and announced plans to diversify the Academy's membership.
With a little over two weeks before the Oscars ceremony is set to take place, the conversation about diversity will likely continue and it'll be interesting to see how or if the issue comes up during the show. We'll be watching.
The 88th annual Academy Awards air Feb. 28 at 7 p.m. ET on ABC.
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