Academy Award nominated actor Mark Ruffalo is stepping into the Oscars debate and is strongly considering boycotting the event.
Just days after George Clooney said that African Americans are right, Jada Pinkett and Will Smith’s boycott of the Oscars, Mark Ruffalo is considering boycotting the Oscars.
Spike Lee and Jada Pinkett Smith have already said that they won’t be attending the Oscars after a second straight year of all the acting nominees being white, and there’s been pressure on host Chris Rock to do the same.
Now Mark Ruffalo, who is actually among the nominees in the best supporting actor category for his role in Spotlight, has said he’s strongly considering whether or not to attend the Oscars.
“I woke up in the morning thinking, ‘what is the right way to do this?’ Because if you look at Martin Luther King’s legacy, what he was saying was that the good people who don’t act are much worse than the wrongdoers who are purposefully not acting and don’t know the right way.”
“I’m weighing it, that’s where I’m at right now,” he told BBC News on Thursday. “I woke up in the morning thinking, ‘what is the right way to do this?’ Because if you look at Martin Luther King’s legacy, what he was saying was that the good people who don’t act are much worse than the wrongdoers who are purposefully not acting and don’t know the right way.”
Ruffalo added that it was not just the Academy that has a diversity problem. “It’s the entire American system,” he said. “It’s rife with the kind of white privilege racism that goes into our justice system.”
The Oscars boycott is picking up steam and pretty soon, the Oscars will be an empty event.