Spike Lee to Oscar Snubbee Ava DuVernay: ‘F*ck Em’

Leave it to Spike Lee to put the Selma Oscar snub in perfect perspective. The director sat down with The Daily Beast this week to blast the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for pulling its usual antics: plucking a white-washed crop of filmmakers and crowning them the best in the business, while egregiously ignoring the achievements of black artists.

Ava DuVernay, who was snubbed in the Best Director category for her film Selma, is in good company. Lee himself was left out in the cold in the 1989 contest for his seminal film Do The Right Thing. Still, it’s beyond disheartening to think that 25 years later, nothing’s really changed. This year’s Oscar nominations are the whitest since 1998. Lee’s advice to DuVernay, whose film he called one of the two best of the year? “Fuck ‘em.” Read more of his words of wisdom below:

“Join the club!” Lee chuckled, before getting serious. “But that doesn’t diminish the film. Nobody’s talking about motherfuckin’ Driving Miss Daisy. That film is not being taught in film schools all across the world like Do the Right Thing is. Nobody’s discussing Driving Miss Motherfuckin’ Daisy. So if I saw Ava today I’d say, ‘You know what? Fuck ’em. You made a very good film, so feel good about that and start working on the next one.”

“Anyone who thinks this year was gonna be like last year is retarded,” said Lee. “There were a lot of black folks up there with 12 Years a Slave, Steve [McQueen], Lupita [Nyong’o], Pharrell. It’s in cycles of every 10 years. Once every 10 years or so I get calls from journalists about how people are finally accepting black films. Before last year, it was the year [in 2002] with Halle Berry, Denzel [Washington], and Sidney Poitier. It’s a 10-year cycle. So I don’t start doing backflips when it happens.”

“Let’s be honest. I know they’re trying to become more diverse, but when you look at the Academy and Do the Right Thing or Driving Miss Daisy, are they going to choose a film where you have the relatively passive black servant, or are they going to choose a film with a menacing ‘Radio Raheem?’” asked Lee. “A lot of times, people are going to vote for what they’re comfortable with, and anything that’s threatening to them they won’t.”

“With Selma, it’s not the first time it’s happened, and every time it does I say, ‘You can’t go to awards like the Oscars or the Grammys for validation. The validation is if your work still stands 25 years later.’”

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