29 January, 2016 16:30
CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
More than two decades after his first Academy Award nomination, Leonardo DiCaprio has secured the best actor Oscar for his role in Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s survival and revenge odyssey The Revenant.
This Oscars award ends a string of Academy snubs – that made DiCaprio one of Hollywood’s most revered and bankable stars – but it also confirms that he is not black.
“I’ve been telling everyone that my whole career” DiCaprio told the press shortly after the final procession of the 88th Academy Awards.
“I am a white guy. There was no need to snub me so many times. I honestly thought that they thought I was African-American…”
The master of ceremonies for this year’s awards Oscars, Chris Rock, addressed Hollywood’s diversity controversy.
“I counted at least 15 black people on that montage,” Rock joked following clips from the year’s nominated films. “You realize if they nominated hosts I wouldn’t even get this job,”
Speaking to TMZ after the show, Chris Rock pointed that he was surprised DiCaprio took home the Best Actor award.
“We always thought he was black because they cast him as an African in Blood Diamond,”
“Most of Hollywood thought, that – I got the same shock when Charlize Theron won the Oscar in ’03…”
“If Hollywood has learnt one thing tonight, it’s apparently you don’t have to be black to to be African. But yes, you still need to be white to win the Oscar,”
