'Stars like Richard Dreyfuss have been indulged. Egos let racism flourish'

08 May 2023 , 18:44

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Jaws actor Richard Dreyfuss (Image: AFP via Getty Images)

Alarm bells first started ringing when Jaws actor Richard Dreyfuss claimed Hollywood’s new Oscar rules for diversity and inclusion “make me vomit”.

That turned out to be the hors d’oeuvre in his viral ­interview with US outlet PBS.

In the main course, Dreyfuss raged at not being able to play a Black man in 2023.

Blackface, as it is known, is an insulting darkening of the skin using make-up to portray a caricature of a Black person.

It became popular in the US after the Civil War as white performers played characters that demeaned and dehumanised African Americans.

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Ignoring the fact that US News host Megyn Kelly, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Katy Perry have been involved in blackface scandals in recent years, Dreyfuss soldiered on.

Katy Perry has been involved in a blackface scandal (Getty Images for SHEIN)

“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 thoughtless and treating people like children.”

Actually, like consumers. And reviewers, one of whom described ­Dreyfuss’s 1988 film Krippendorf’s Tribe, in which he does “black up”, as “one of the most racist films ever made”.

It is remarkable we are still having to push back against his entitlement but here goes.

In theory yes, anyone should be allowed to play anyone else. But there is a difference when offence is caused. Added to that, supremely talented, non-white actors have been marginalised for years, precisely because “stars” like Dreyfuss have been indulged to such an extent that they receive roles for which they should never have been first choice.

Colonising the arts allowed stars like Dreyfuss to make arguments suggesting morality and human decency didn’t apply to them, as he does in his interview.

Not only is there more awareness now among casting directors and media organisations, audiences don’t want to see blacking up any more. They know what it represents. They understand the offence it causes.

And anyway, what role does ­Dreyfuss, 75, want to play? Black Panther in the third instalment? Marcus Burnett alongside Will Smith in Bad Boys 4? We can intellectualise the racism embedded in such nonsense all we like. But it seems he is laying bare the ego-driven entitlement and privilege that allowed racism to flourish and deserving actors to miss out on work they should have had.

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