Fans are frustrated that Michelle Yeoh, the Oscar’s first Asian Best Actress winner, was asked to give her opinion on the Academy snubbing Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie for their work on Barbie.
Many fans of the movie Barbie were upset when Robbie was not nominated for Best Actress and Gerwig was not nominated for Best Director. They felt the lack of nominations ironically reflected the movie’s feminist themes.
During an interview with The Today Show to promote her new series The Brothers Sun, Yeoh was asked about the lack of nominations.
“For us, it’s like, it’s not enough nominations to go around,” she said. “The only take is that it’s so competitive out there and there’s no guarantee because you’re not the only voter. It’s widespread.
“Thank God the movie got nominated for best picture,” she said of “Barbie.” “But, you do think, how do you get nominated for best picture but not best director and best actress? But it happens.”
Many film lovers and fans of Yeoh were frustrated she was forced to address the snubbing of two white women, especially when other Asian actors and directors lost out on roles.
“Y’all asked the first Asian best actress winner about some random white women who got 8 nominations fo their movie when you could have asked about Celine Song, Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, and Charles Melton? Can y’all do your damn jobs?” one Twitter user wrote.
Others pondered why they didn’t ask Yeoh, who made history as a “first,” about the first Native American to be nominated for Best Actress.
A column by Rebecca Sun for The Hollywood Reporter similarly reflected on the white feminist lens the Barbie Oscars controversy has taken.
“Furthermore, an increasing chorus online is pointing out a second irony: Despite Barbie’s own onscreen diversity and inclusiveness, the obsession over its awards snubs is an example of white feminism at its worst, in which slights toward two white women are centered at the expense of acknowledging women of color both nominated (such as Gladstone and Ferrera) and not (such as Past Lives star Greta Lee),” Sun wrote.
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