Richard Dreyfuss has been branded a ‘twat’ and a ‘bigot’ for saying the Academy Awards’ new diversity rules ‘make him vomit’.
Speaking in a new interview, Jaws star Dreyfuss, 75, also defended Laurence Olivier wearing blackface in the 1965 film adaption of Shakespeare’s Othello.
Backlash over Dreyfuss’s remarks was swift, with some social media users calling him ‘racist’ while one person penned: ‘He’s a bigot and doesn’t know it,’ and another simply said: ‘#Twat.’
‘This just in Richard Dreyfuss has lost his mind,’ tweeted someone else, while another Twitter user fumed that ‘seriously cannot believe’ what he was saying
‘Complaining he’ll now never be given the chance to play a black man may not be the knockout argument Richard Dreyfuss thinks it is,’ one person quipped.
‘Well Richard Dreyfus, your trash take on inclusion and diversity is terrible,’ pointed out someone else.
Dreyfus, who is an Oscar winner himself, was speaking on PBS’s Firing Line to host Margaret Hoover on Friday when she pointed out: ‘Starting in 2024, films will be required to meet new inclusion standards to be eligible for the Academy Awards for best picture.’
Hoover added: ‘They’ll have to have a certain percentage of actors or crew from underrepresented racial or ethnic groups.’
She then asked Dreyfuss: ‘What do you think of these new inclusion standards for films?’ to which he quickly replied, ‘they make me vomit’.
Dreyfuss went on: ‘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 came for ADR and saw the film, and was like, “Oh, my God, the bear looks so good!’”
The film’s writer, Jimmy Warden, was also full of praise for the star and his ‘contagious energy’.
‘Since he’s passed away, those are the memories that keep flooding back. It was so fun working with him, and such a dream of mine. Definitely a career highlight for sure,’ he told Metro.co.uk
Just the energy that he brought to the set and how it made waves throughout the crew and everybody was just so excited.
‘Like, if Ray Liotta is pumped about this movie, everybody should be too and it was just contagious. That was a great experience with him
