Academy Award-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss has blasted the Oscars' new diversity and inclusion rules and said "they make me vomit".
Films will now need to fulfil requirements in relation to representation and inclusion to be eligible for the best picture award.
According to new rules, the Academy of Motion Picture will disqualify movies from Best Picture contention that do not have enough black, gay and disabled actors in the cast and crew from 2024.
Jaws star Dreyfuss has hit out at the requirements and claims the Academy are treating people like children.
The Jaws star has hit out at the requirements and claims the Academy are treating people like children
DreyfussCivic/ Wiki Common images
Appearing on US TV, the actor was asked by Firing Line host Margaret Hoover for his thoughts on the incoming inclusivity rules. He replied: "They make me vomit.
"No one should be telling me as an artist that I have to give in to the latest, most current idea of what morality is. What are we risking? Are we really risking hurting people’s feelings?
"You can’t legislate that. You have to let life be life and I’m sorry, I don’t think there is a minority or majority in the country that has to be catered to like that.
He added: 'This is an art form. It’s also a form of commerce, and it makes money, but it’s an art.
"And no one should be telling me as an artist that I have to give in to the latest, most current idea of what morality is."
Dreyfuss, who won the best actor Oscar in 1978 for his role for The Goodbye Girl also defended actor Laurence Olivier who wore blackface to portray Othello in the 1965 Shakespeare adaption.
"Laurence Olivier was the last white actor to play Othello, and he did it in 1965," he said.
"And he did it in blackface. And he played a black man brilliantly.
"Am I being told that I will never have a chance to play a Black man? Is someone else being told that if they’re not Jewish, they shouldn’t play The Merchant of Venice?
"Are we crazy? Do we not know that art is art? This is so patronising. It’s so, it’s so thoughtless, and treating people like children."
Dreyfuss defended actor Laurence Olivier who wore blackface to portray Othello in the 1965 Shakespeare adaption
Wiki Common images
Hoover asked him if "there’s a difference between the question of representation and who is allowed to represent other groups?"
And highlighted the case of blackface saying: "explicitly in this country, given the history of slavery and the sensitivities around black racism."
Dreyfuss responded: "There shouldn’t be. … Because it’s patronizing. Because it says we’re so fragile that we can’t have our feelings hurt.
"We have to anticipate having our feelings hurt, our children’s feelings hurt. We don’t know how to stand up and bop the bully in the face."
