Richard Dreyfuss Slams ‘Patronizing’ New Oscar Diversity Requirements: ‘Makes Me Vomit’

Richard Dreyfuss has criticized the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ new diversity and inclusion requirements, stating that the new standards for Best Picture nominees “make me vomit.”

The four diversity and inclusion guidelines were announced in 2020 and will be applied for the first time to the upcoming 2024 Academy Awards ceremony. Two of the four standards need to be met to receive a nomination for best picture. They include expanding on-screen representation, themes or narrative; increasing representation among creative leadership; providing industry access to underrepresented people and expanding representation in audiences.

The Oscar-winning actor’s remarks came during an interview on the PBS show Firing Line With Margaret Hoover. During the conversation, Dreyfuss talked about civics education in the U.S., politics and the Academy’s diversity policy.

“It’s an art. 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… Are we really risking hurting people’s feelings? You can’t legislate that,” Dreyfuss said. “You have to let life be life. I’m sorry, I don’t think there is a minority or majority in the country that has to be catered to like that.”

Dreyfuss then defended Laurence Olivier’s performance in Othello (1965) where the actor portrayed the Shakespeare character in blackface. He questioned, “Am I being told that I will never have a chance to play a black man?” He called the idea “patronizing,” “thoughtless” and “treating people like children.”

Dreyfuss is best known for his roles in Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Stand by Me and American Graffiti. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1978 for his role in The Goodbye Girl.