As the #OscarsSoWhite controversy continues to add baffling new wrinkles with each passing day, President Barack Obama has decided to make his own feelings on the film industry's diversity crisis known. Speaking with KABC's David Ono earlier this week, Obama urged the industry to take the task of creating "one American family" seriously. "I think that when everybody's story is told," Obama said, "then that makes for better art."
Obama also echoed the sentiments of Mark Ruffalo, who recently made the argument that #OscarsSoWhite is actually just indicative of a far larger problem in both the United States and elsewhere. "As a whole, the industry should do what every other industry should do, which is to look for talent and provide opportunity to everybody," Obama said. "I think the Oscar debate is really just an expression of this broader issue of 'Are we making sure that everybody is getting a fair shot?'"
Though the Academy recently unveiled internal measures aimed at putting an end to this diversity crisis, just days later another damning bit of information was revealed: the cast of the widely praised N.W.A. biopic, Straight Outta Compton, wasn't even invited to the Oscars. Instead, the film's two white screenwriters will represent the film at the awards ceremony.
