George Lucas Weighs in on Lack of Diversity in Hollywood

The issue of diversity in Hollywood has been hot button topic for the past few days after the academy award nominations were released and Selma star David Oyelowo (who also happens to play Agent Kallus on Star Wars Rebels) and director Ava DuVernay were passed over for nominations in the Best Actor and Best Director categories.  Star Wars creator George Lucas shared his thoughts on the matter while out promoting his new film Strange Magic which opens in theaters on January 23rd.  Lucas appeared on CBS This Morning and talked about the issue.

He praised the work that Oyelowo and DuVernay did on Selma and spoke about his own experience making a film with a predominantly black cast, Red Tails, which David Oyelowo actually appeared in.  He then went on to say, "The Academy is a political campaign. It has nothing to do with artistic endeavor, at all… It hurts everybody."

You can watch the entire interview with Lucas below,

I was quite pleased to hear Lucas weigh in this matter.  It was disappointing to see the lack of diversity in the nominees this year, especially given how well Selma has been received and the fact that there seemed to be some progress last year with Star Wars Episode VII star Lupita Nyong'o winning Best Supporting Actress for 12 Years Slave.