Coen Bros. on Diversity Quotas: ‘Idiotic’ to Demand Stories Have ‘Four Black People, Three Jews and a Dog’

by Daniel Nussbaum – 4 Feb 2016 – Breitbart

Four-time Oscar-winners Joel and Ethan Coen have weighed in on the renewed #OscarsSoWhite controversy, saying that while the issue of diversity in Hollywood is important, the Academy Awards itself are not.

In an interview with the Daily Beast, the filmmaking duo behind such classic films as The Big Lebowski, No Country for Old Men, and this month’s Hail, Caesar! said that the backlash against the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences over the lack of diversity among this year’s Oscar nominees, along with boycott pledges from stars such as Will Smith and Spike Lee, ascribes more importance to the awards show than it actually deserves.

“By making such a big deal, you’re assuming that these things really matter,” Joel Coen told the outlet, referring to the Oscars. “I don’t think they even matter much from an economic point of view. So yes, it’s true — and it’s also true that it’s escalating the whole subject to a level it doesn’t actually deserve.”

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