HE WENT THERE

Richard Dreyfuss: Oscars Diversity Rules ‘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.”

Veteran actor Richard Dreyfuss didn’t mince words when asked in a recent interview about diversity rules for movies to be eligible for the Oscar for Best Picture. “They make me vomit,” the Jaws star said on PBS’ Firing Line. “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 went on to say he didn’t have a problem with an actor wearing blackface. “There shouldn’t be because it’s patronizing—Because it says we’re so fragile that we can’t have our feelings hurt,” he said. “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.”