Sir Michael Caine on Oscars race row: 'You can't vote for an actor just because he's black'
 

SNAPPA
22 January 2016
 
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Looking to the silver lining of an Oscars snub, Sir Michael said you don’t have to “sit there clapping Leonardo DiCaprio”.
 
 
Sir Michael Caine said black actors should not be nominated just to add diversity, as he weighed in on the Oscars race row.

Hollywood heavyweights Spike Lee and Will Smith are boycotting the Academy Awards after no actors from ethnic minorities were nominated in the top four categories, but Sir Michael told Nick Robinson on Radio 4′s Today show it should not become a box-ticking exercise.

 
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Sir Michael Caine has spoken out amid the Oscars race row (Ian West/PA)
 
 
He said: “There’s loads of black actors. In the end you can’t vote for an actor because he’s black. You can’t say ‘I’m going to vote for him, he’s not very good, but he’s black, I’ll vote for him’.”

He continued: “You have to give a good performance and I’m sure people have. I saw Idris Elba (in Beasts Of No Nation)… I thought he was wonderful.”

The two-time Academy Award-winner also offered some advice to black actors to “be patient”.

 
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Will Smith is boycotting the Oscars (Jordan Strauss/Invision)
 
 
“Of course it will come. It took me years to get an Oscar, years,” he added.

Sir Michael also pointed out the bright side of an Oscars snub.

“The best thing about it is you don’t have to go. Especially the Oscars, 24 hours on an aeroplane and I’ve got to sit there clapping Leonardo DiCaprio.

“I love Leonardo, he played my son in a movie, but I’m too old to travel that far and sit in an audience and clap someone else,” he said.

 
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Sir Michael said not being nominated means he doesn’t have to sit at the Oscars and applaud Leonardo DiCaprio (Vianney Le Caer/AP)