Stephen King is well-renowned for saying and/or writing things that horrify people all over the world -but usually it’s intentional. Today, however, Stephen King is causing a stir for something he said in real life, not horror fiction, and the reaction is one of anger more so than fear! The 2020 Oscar nominations were released this week, and as has become the trend, a lot of cinephiles and industry pundits weren’t happy with the lack of diversity in the pool of nominees. Well, Stephen King decided to brave the wild frontier of Twitter and weigh in on the Oscars diversity topic. Needless to say, that conversation didn’t go so well.
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Scroll below to see why Stephen King is now under fire for his tweets about diversity at the Oscars:
As a writer, I am allowed to nominate in just 3 categories: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Screenplay. For me, the diversity issue–as it applies to individual actors and directors, anyway–did not come up. That said…
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) January 14, 2020
…I would never consider diversity in matters of art. Only quality. It seems to me that to do otherwise would be wrong.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) January 14, 2020
The most important thing we can do as artists and creative people is make sure everyone has the same fair shot, regardless of sex, color, or orientation. Right now such people are badly under-represented, and not only in the arts.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) January 14, 2020
“As a writer, I am allowed to nominate in just 3 categories: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Screenplay. For me, the diversity issue–as it applies to individual actors and directors, anyway–did not come up. That said… I would never consider diversity in matters of art. Only quality. It seems to me that to do otherwise would be wrong. The most important thing we can do as artists and creative people is make sure everyone has the same fair shot, regardless of sex, color, or orientation.”
As a voting member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, Stephen King attempted to defend his choices for the categories of Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Screenplay at the 2020 Oscars. He claims that the issue of diversity didn’t come during this year’s voting, in which films like Knives Out, Joker, and Once Upon A Time In Hollywood all made the cut, particularly in the screenwriting categories. However, opinion likely turned against King when he made the suggesting that the process shouldn’t be based on any considerations except the material itself.
Clearly, King was making the point that art shouldn’t be influenced by social and/or racial politics, just the quality of the art. However, the counterpoint to that sentiment is that a movie industry which excludes minorities from positions like screenwriters, directors, producers, etc, inherently kills opportunity for more diverse works of art to ever see the light of day. King seemed to come to the same realization himself, as indicated by the final portion of his Twitter thread:
You can’t win awards if you’re shut out of the game.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) January 14, 2020
“…Right now such people are badly under-represented, and not only in the arts… You can’t win awards if you’re shut out of the game.”
The discussion about Hollywood and diversity hasn’t gotten any easier, and to be honest, fiery reactions from Film Twitter are often more a part of the problem than the soluiton.
The 2020 Oscars airs on February 9th @ 8pm EST.
