Just hours after declaring that she wishes she were “African American because people don’t bash them,” two-time Oscar Award winning actress Julie Delpy says she is “very sorry for how I expressed myself.”
“It was never meant to diminish the injustice done to African American artists or to any other people that struggle for equal opportunities and rights, on the contrary,” Delpy told Entertainment Weekly.
“All I was trying to do is to address the issues of inequality of opportunity in the industry for women as well (as I am a woman),” she continued. “I never intended to underestimate anyone else’s struggle! We should stay alert and united and support each other to change this unfair reality and don’t let anyone sabotage our common efforts by distorting the truth.”
Delpy was responding to the lack of nonwhite Oscar nominees and told The Wrap, “Two years ago, I said something about the Academy being very white male, which is the reality, and I was slashed to pieces by the media.
“It’s funny—women can’t talk. I sometimes wish I were African American because people don’t bash them afterward,” Delpy said Friday.
According to The Associated Press, Delpy’s “comments on Friday were viewed as inflammatory by many and came after the Academy announced plans to increase the diversity of its membership.”
Indeed, here is what one writer at the very liberal New Republic had to say:
Julie Delpy is seemingly unaware that black women exist. Today is the day for out-of-touch European actors to express their clueless racism, and Delpy, at Sundance to promote her new movie with Todd Solondz, has joined the fray.
Delpy’s comments came just as Straight Out of Compton producer Ice Cube called the Oscar boycott and backlash “ridiculous.”
Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson.
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