(CNN) — Actor Richard Dreyfuss disagrees with the new Oscars diversity guidelines.
In 2020, the Academy announced that, starting in 2024, films must meet certain performance criteria to be eligible for the Best Picture Oscar.
Films have to meet at least two of the four benchmarks, which include, among other things, whether the lead actors are from underrepresented groups or whether at least 30% of the cast and crew come from these groups.
Dreyfuss told Margaret Hoover during an interview last Friday for the PBS series “Firing Line” that those rules “make me throw up.”
When Hoover asked why, the actor replied, “Because this is an art form.”
“It’s also a form of commerce and it makes money,” the actor said. “But it’s an art. And no one should tell me as an artist that I have to give in to the latest and greatest idea of what morality is,” he continued.
The inclusion standards were enacted in an attempt to address inequality in the industry, which gave rise to the #OscarsSoWhite movement in 2015.
“I don’t think there is a minority or a majority in this country that has to be treated like this,” Dreyfuss went on to say during the interview.
He then cited a bit of history about Laurence Olivier being “the last white actor to play Othello,” referring to the 1965 film, in which the British actor performed in blackface.
Dreyfuss praised the performance, saying that Olivier played the role “brilliantly”.
“Are you telling me I’ll never get a chance to play a black man?” Dreyfuss said. “Is another person being told that if she’s not Jewish she shouldn’t play the Merchant of Venice? Are we crazy? Don’t we know that art is art?” he insisted.
Hoover retorted, asking if there is “a difference between the question of representation and who is allowed to represent other groups…and the case of blackface, given the history of slavery and sensitivities around black racism.” .
Dreyfuss said, “There shouldn’t be.”
“Because it’s condescending,” he said. “Because it says we’re so fragile that they can’t hurt our feelings.”
CNN has reached out to representatives for Dreyfuss for further comment but has not yet heard back.
