In 1973, Marlon Brando – along with the media and the rest of the move-watching world – was confident that he would win the Oscar for Best Actor for Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather. Even now, it’s a no-brainer.
Because he was so sure he would be taking home the statue, Brando decided to take advantage of the moment and place the spotlight somewhere that he felt needed it more.
Choosing to boycott the ceremony that year in protest of Hollywood’s treatment of Native Americans, Brando was nowhere to be seen the night of, despite it being considered his night to own. Instead, when Brando’s name was eventually called by presenter Roger Moore, it was Native American activist Sacheen Littlefeather, in traditional clothing, who walked through the throngs of diamond-adorned celebrities and approached the podium to present a speech – stunning the audience.
To a resounding chorus of boos, she explained that Brando “very regretfully cannot accept this generous award, the reasons for this being…are the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry and on television in movie reruns, and also with recent happenings at Wounded Knee.”
Later that year, in an interview with Dick Cavett, when asked if he regretted the way he handled the Oscars, Brando said, not batting an eye or moving a muscle, “I felt there was an opportunity. Since the American Indian hasn’t been able to have his voice heard anywhere in the history of the United States, I thought it was a marvellous opportunity to voice his opinion to 85 million people. I felt that he had a right to, in view of what Hollywood has done to him.”
It was a bold, divisive moment, and one of the first to shed a brighter light on the Hollywood divide in race, class and politics – still alive after all these years.
In fact, these days, if the Oscars have become known for anything, it’s #OscarsSoWhite, a critical online look at the ceremony’s consistent habit of overlooking filmmakers and actors of colour. It was a particularly vocal movement last year, when all of the nominees in the major acting categories were blindingly white. Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith and Spike Lee all announced plans to boycott the show.
But imagine if a white actor who had been nominated – and was the presumed frontrunner in his category – had decided not to appear in protest, much like Brando did nearly 45 years ago. It would speak volumes, just as Sacheen Littlefeather’s words did, given centre stage by an actor with enough gravitas and credibility in the industry that he could give his moment to someone he felt could use it more than him.
It’s that same impetus that pushes the celebrities who share their views and make bold political declarations now, and makes a healthy argument for why it really isn’t the worst thing when an actor or actress takes an outspoken pedestal of their own.
This year, it seems the Academy has listened, with four of the nine Best Picture nominees featuring casts of colour, recognizing stories that go beyond the racially stereotypical, and seven of the 20 acting nominees being of colour.
Denzel Washington earned his seventh nomination for Fences, extending his record as the most nominated black actor, while his co-star Viola Davis was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, making her the most nominated black actress. Meanwhile, Dev Patel picked up a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Lion, making him only the third Indian acting nominee in the history of the Oscars.
In a year that has seen the controversial election of U.S. President Donald Trump – inciting worldwide protests and marches, drawing celebrities out in droves to hold a microphone to the dissent – it’s become clear that while this year’s ceremony will certainly represent progress, it will also be an unavoidable platform for politics.
At the annual Oscar luncheon earlier this month, attended by all of the year’s nominees, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, recognized the absence of several nominees, including Asghar Farhadi, the Iranian director of Best Foreign Language Film nominee The Salesman, who announced that he would be boycotting the ceremony in protest of Trump’s immigration ban.
“Each and every one of us knows that there are some empty chairs in this room, which makes all of us activists,” Isaacs said. “Strong societies don’t censor art, they celebrate it. Borders cannot be allowed to stop any of us.”
This after Meryl Streep easily stole the show at January’s Golden Globes with an impassioned speech while accepting the Cecil B. DeMille Award, indirectly calling out Trump.
“Disrespect invites disrespect,” she said. “Violence incites violence. When the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose.”
While commending the diversity of America and the actors around her, Streep also noted the importance of freedom of the press, saying, “We need the principled press to hold power to account, to call them on the carpet for every outrage. That’s why our Founders enshrined the press and its freedoms in our Constitution.”
Although Trump tweeted soon after the festivities to denounce “liberal movie people” and label Streep a “Hillary lover,” a long list of celebrities responded with appreciation for Streep.
However, there were plenty of conservative voices who took issue with her sentiments, suggesting Streep’s “liberal” rhetoric is exactly what got Trump elected in the first place.
Also navigating these tricky waters recently was outspoken liberal and LGBT advocate Lady Gaga, whose Super Bowl halftime show this year was plagued with rumours beforehand as to whether she would make a statement on the Trump administration. When she ended up performing a medley of her catalogue, surrounded by drones and seemingly leaping off a stadium, The Guardian, among many, proclaimed that Gaga “played it safe.”
And although her halftime show was nowhere near as political as Beyoncé’s Black Panthers-inspired performance during 2016’s Super Bowl, Gaga did open with a subtle, heartfelt rendition of “God Bless America” and Woody Guthrie’s protest song “This Land is Our Land,” the latter having been adopted as an anthem by protesters at anti-Trump marches – which have been attended by such A-list celebrities as Katy Perry, Alicia Keys, Lena Dunham and Jessica Chastain.
All of which is to suggest that, when you’re a celebrity with a message, there is no way you can win. But given that the president just happens to be a celebrity and television star himself, perhaps the time to speak up as an actor with a voice beyond the screen is now.
While accepting the award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series at this year’s Screen Actors Guild Awards, Stranger Things actor David Harbour did just that, launching into a triumphant speech that quickly went viral.
“We are united, in that we are all human beings and we are all together on this horrible, painful, joyous, exciting and mysterious ride that is being alive,” he said. “Now, as we act in the continuing narrative of Stranger Things, we 1983 Midwesterners will repel bullies.”
“We will shelter freaks and outcasts, those who have no home,” he continued. “We will get past the lies. We will hunt monsters. And when we are lost amidst the hypocrisy and the casual violence of certain individuals and institutions, we will, as per Chief Jim Hopper, punch some people in the face when they seek to destroy the weak and the disenfranchised and the marginalized!”
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Theatrical as they may have been, Harbour’s words circulated around the room and across the internet, much like Streep’s, striking a powerful chord. It’s certain that this year’s Oscars will offer plenty more where that came from.
While speaking to Cavett all those years ago, Brando said, “I don’t think people realize what the motion picture industry has done to the American Indian, and a matter of fact, all ethnic groups. All minorities. All non-whites. People just simply don’t realize. They took it for granted that that’s the way people are going to be presented, and that these clichés were just going to be perpetuated.”
But if celebrities are willing to use the stage that has been given to them to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves, perhaps, another 50 years from now, the norm will change and those clichés will no longer exist. With a celebrity in the White House, it only seems fair.
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