Sylvester Stallone: I nearly joined Oscars boycott

The Creed star spoke to director Ryan Coogler and offered to boycott the ceremony
Robert Dex @RobDexES9 February 2016
The Weekender

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Sylvester Stallone has revealed he almost joined the Oscars boycott over the race row engulfing this year’s awards.

At the annual celebratory lunch for nominees, Stallone, who is in the running for best supporting actor for Rocky spin-off Creed, said he spoke to the film’s director Ryan Coogler and offered to boycott the ceremony.

Coogler and leading actor Michael B Jordan, who are both black, missed out on nods. No black, Asian or Hispanic performers received a nomination in any of the acting categories.

Stallone said: “I remember I spoke with Ryan Coogler when this happened and I said, ‘How do you want to handle this? Because I feel like you are responsible for me being here.’

“I said, ‘If you don’t want me to go, I won’t.’ He said, ‘I want you to go’, that’s the kind of guy he is. He wanted me to stand up for the film.”

Oscar nominations 2016

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The controversy began shortly after the nominations were announced on January 14. Actress Jada Pinkett Smith announced her plan to boycott the ceremony four days later, on Martin Luther King day. In a video posted online she said: “I ask the question — have we now come to a new time and place, where we recognise that we can no longer beg for the love, acknowledgement or respect of any group.”

Critics of the Academy Awards have used the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite. Pinkett Smith was backed by her husband, Will Smith, and other stars including director Spike Lee. The Academy has since announced it will double the number of women and people from ethnic minorities in its membership by 2020.

At the Beverly Hills lunch, which was attended by stars including Alicia Vikander, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence and Eddie Redmayne, the Academy’s president Cheryl Boone Isaacs told the nominees she was aware of the problem, saying: “This year, we all know there’s an elephant in the room. I have asked the elephant to leave.”

Redmayne won the best actor Oscar last year for his portrayal of Professor Stephen Hawking in The Theory Of Everything and is nominated for the same award this year, for The Danish Girl. He addressed the row when asked if it was something the chosen actors had discussed, saying: “We haven’t all met together until this occasion but it’s on everyone’s minds and the way it has been handled seems to be a positive step.”

Redmayne attended the lunch with his wife Hannah Bagshawe, who is pregnant. He said they would both try to take it easy before the ceremony, on February 28. “I promise Hannah whenever we come to LA that the sun will be shining, but it rained last year,” he said. “We will have a gentle day and relax and enjoy it. Last year I was such a frenzy of nerves.”

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