Joaquin Phoenix is a good egg. He’s had a particularly good run lately, scooping up a lot of awards for his performance in Joker, with the most recent being the BAFTAs award for Leading Actor. In his acceptance speech, Joaquin Phoenix has decided to address the controversy about the lack of diversity in the BAFTAs head on.
Opening by admitting that he felt conflicted about the award “because so many of my fellow actors who are deserving don’t have that same privilege,” Joaquin only went in harder from there.
“We send a very clear message to people of colour that ‘you’re not welcome here.’”
“I don’t think anybody wants a handout or preferential treatment, although that’s what we give ourselves every year. People just want to be acknowledged and appreciated and respected for their work.”
Want more Joaquin Phoenix? Listen to the GOAT Team chat about what he got up to at that Golden Globes…
It’s a particularly painful point for the BAFTAs, who were concerned about boycotts when the nominations were announced. #BAFTASSoWhite began trending when the sheer lack of people of colour nominated became apparent. The BAFTAs Leading Actor category, which Joaquin Phoenix won, was all white.
In fact, all 20 people nominated for a BAFTA across all the acting categories were white.
The fact that he was up on that stage as a white man wasn’t lost on Joaquin. “I’m ashamed to say that I’m part of the problem, because I’ve not done everything in my power to ensure that the sets I’ve worked on are inclusive.”
“But I think it’s more than just having sets that are multicultural, we have to do the hard work to truly understand systemic racism. It is the obligation of the people who have created and benefit from the system of oppression to be the ones to dismantle it. So that’s on us.”
Awards season is always a touchy time when it comes to diversity, or lack thereof. The most recent Golden Globes had an all-male Best Director category, The Oscars had yet another wave of #OscarsSoWhite and #OscarsSoMale criticism, and now this.
Look, Joaquin Phoenix hasn’t single handedly ended racism in the movie industry with his BAFTAs speech, but the awkward silence and the look on everybody’s faces were something to cling to until we have to go on this crazy awards season ride all over again.
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