Mads Mikkelsen Mocks Diversity Question
Even some in the entertainment industry have had enough of wokeness. During a press conference at the Venice Film Festival a week and a half ago, actor Mads Mikkelsen and director Nikolaj Arcel were discussing their new film The Promised Land – a Danish historical drama that takes place in the 1750s – when a reporter asked them about the lack of diversity in the movie and whether or not it concerned them that it would not be eligible for a Best Picture nomination at the Academy Awards under the new diversity requirements. Mikkelsen immediately got annoyed, and the exchange he and Arcel had with the reporter demonstrates how over this nonsense a lot of people are now. You can see the clip below:
In fairness to the reporter, the way the segment goes makes it sound like he disagrees with the Academy’s regulations, mentioning how recent Best Picture winner Parasite wouldn’t be eligible because it was a South Korean production. (That’s not true, of course; we know what the Academy means by “diversity,” and it’s not “too many Asians.”) It’s also possible he got more pushback than he expected and pivoted rather than be completely humiliated. But the bigger point is that Mads Mikkelsen was disgusted before the question was even finished because he knew what was coming. (“From the get-go!”) Arcel was more diplomatic – and, frankly, defensive – but Mikkelsen threw it right back at the guy. And good for him; it’s insincere to act like you’re just innocently asking a question, even if you are trying to elicit an indictment of the Academy’s ridiculous rules (that are so important they’ve been dropped for every category except Best Picture starting with next year’s ceremony). These guys are at a film festival promoting their new movie, hoping for good word of mouth and international distribution; questioning whether it will be eligible for an Oscar is not exactly helping them, no matter your intentions. Arcel even pointed out that The Promised Land has a subplot about a “girl of color” who faces racism, which the reporter either knew and chose to ignore or didn’t know because he didn’t bother to look into the film. I don’t know if it was shoe-horned in for diversity points – although, given Arcel’s statement that this character was likely the only woman of color in Denmark in the 1750s, it’s certainly possible – and he still gets questions like this. It’s better to be like Mads Mikkelsen and outright mock this garbage.
