Although disappointed by the lack of female directors and Asian actors in the 2019 nominees' list, the 'Late Night' actress has high hopes that there will be more diversity in the next 10 years.
- Jan 26, 2019
AceShowbiz - Emma Thompson has criticised this year's Oscars nominations calling them 'particularly poor'.
The two-time Oscar winning actress and writer will next be seen in Mindy Kaling's feature screenwriting debut "Late Night", directed by Nisha Ganatra, which premieres Friday, January 25 at the Sundance Film Festival.
And in an interview with USA Today, the "Sense and Sensibility" star criticised the Academy after it received backlash for the lack of female directors and Asian actors nominated.
"Inclusion riders, as Frances McDormand said so famously and effectively at last year's Oscars," Emma answered when asked what she would say to those working in Hollywood. "But it's not a surprise that a year later, nothing much has changed. (The nominations were) particularly poor, actually, I thought this year.
"But the Oscars are not necessarily the defining yearly moment for our profession – that's reductive and you have to look at what else is out there."
Despite the disappointment, the movie veteran insisted she's confident there will be a flood of diverse voices in the next decade.
"In the next 10 years, there's going to be some amazing new writers – women, people of colour – which will be much more diverse, because I can feel those voices rising," she said. "There's a very exciting generation about to hit us with their new ideas."
In Mindy's movie, the 59-year-old plays acerbic late-night host Katherine Newbury, who's accused of being a "woman who hates women."
When it came to inspiration for the role, Emma didn't have any female late-night hosts to look to.
"I drew quite a lot from David Letterman, but there's no one to base it on and that's the great thing that (Mindy's) done," she mused. "She's created something that didn't exist. And we all go, ‘Oh, that's weird. Why doesn't it exist? Are women not as good at conversation?' No, it's just odd, isn't it? It's absolutely bizarre."
