Former US Secretary and First Lady Hillary Clinton responded to the Academy Awards snubbing the Barbie movie, sparking conversations regarding diversity and the lack of support for Lily Gladstone.
Just as the 96th Academy Awards announced its nominations on Tuesday (January 23), the highest-grossing film of 2023, Barbie was infamously snubbed.
Although the hit movie did end up getting eight nods, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor for Ryan Gosling, and Best Supporting Actress for America Ferrera, some argued that Barbie suffered the biggest snubs of this year’s nominations, as its director Greta Gerwig was not nominated for Best Director and its protagonist, Margot Robbie, was not nominated for Best Actress.
Hillary Clinton responded to the Oscars snubbing the Barbie movie, sparking conversations regarding diversity and the lack of support for Lily Gladstone
Image credits: Sonja Flemming/CBS
People couldn’t help but point to the irony upon noticing that Barbie’s male actor was nominated, but its female director and the main character weren’t, seeing as the movie’s entire plot revolved around the negative impacts of patriarchy and sexism.
In a statement, Ryan Gosling, who played Ken, responded to the snub and wrote: “But there is no Ken without Barbie, and there is no Barbie movie without Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie, the two people most responsible for this history-making, globally celebrated film.”
The Oscar controversy sparked further outrage, as even Hillary Clinton expressed her disapproval. Taking to her X page (formerly known as Twitter) on Wednesday (January 24), she wrote: “Greta & Margot, While it can sting to win the box office but not take home the gold, your millions of fans love you.”
Margot Robbie was not nominated for the Best Actress category at the Academy Awards
Image credits: Warner Bros. Pictures
She signed off the post, which has been viewed 33.8 million times, writing: “You’re both so much more than Kenough. #HillaryBarbie.”
Other celebrities who responded to the Oscar snub included John Cena, who briefly appeared in the movie as Merman Ken alongside Dua Lipa, who played Mermaid Barbie.
Speaking to People on Wednesday while at the premiere of his upcoming film Argylle, the 46-year-old actor said: “I can let my friend Margot and I can certainly let Greta know that awards aren’t the only metric to success, and they have made a movie that has done tremendous business and changed a lot of lives in the process.
“And I think that’s one hell of an achievement.”
“While it can sting to win the box office but not take home the gold, your millions of fans love you,” Hillary wrote on X
Image credits: Paolo Blocco/WireImage
Greta & Margot,
While it can sting to win the box office but not take home the gold, your millions of fans love you.
You’re both so much more than Kenough.#HillaryBarbie
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) January 24, 2024
Michelle Yeoh also weighed in on Barbie’s surprising snubs, as she told Today on Wednesday: “The only take is like, it’s so competitive out there, and there is no guarantee because you’re not the only voter, you know? It’s widespread.
“Thank God the movie got nominated for Best Picture. But you do think, ’How do you get nominated for Best Picture but not Best Director and not Best Actress?’”
Amidst all the Barbie disappointment, many seem to have forgotten one positive bit of Oscar news: the fact that the very first Native American woman has been nominated for the Best Actress category at the Academy Awards.
Hillary signed off the post, which has been viewed 33.8 million times, writing: “You’re both so much more than Kenough. #HillaryBarbie”
Image credits: hillaryclinton
Lily Gladstone portrayed Mollie Kyle in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon. In the film, which is based on a true story, Lily falls in love with Leonardo DiCaprio’s character, Ernest Burkhart, and the two become suspicious of the murders of Osage Nation members who became wealthy after striking oil.
Other Indigenous actresses have been nominated before, but as a member of the Blackfeet Nation, Lily is the first Native American nominated. She lived on reservations until she was 11 years old, as per CBS News.
“It’s undoubtedly a phenomenal year for diversity, so why are we focusing our concern on the fact that two cis white women, who carry an enormous amount of privilege as is, aren’t nominated for an award?” Refinery29 writer Alexandra Koster questioned.
Lily Gladstone made history as the first Native American woman to be nominated for the Best Actress category at the Academy Awards
Image credits: Amy Sussman/WireImage
Alexandra further stated: “When a white woman isn’t nominated, people lose it. But when people of color defy the odds, they’re ambivalent.” The writer then asked: “Where is the celebration for the first Native American woman to be nominated?”
Mashable echoed Alexandra’s sentiment, as it highlighted how people’s outrage for the Barbie snubs “distracted from Lily Gladstone’s historic Best Actress nomination” as well as from “Justine Triet’s place on the Best Director list for Anatomy of a Fall and the lack of spots for women of color.”
Lily portrayed Mollie Kyle in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, which is based on a true story
Image credits: Apple TV
The publication also highlighted America Ferrera’s Academy Awards recognition, as it stated: “To be upset at a single woman’s dismissal in the grand scheme of things, within a race packed with history-making nominations and a year of great women-led films, is plain weird.
“It’s also doing a disservice to Ferrera, who received her first Oscar nomination (adding to the small 1.7 percent of Hispanic and Latino nominees) over a long career defined by telling women’s stories.”
“Thank you for supporting women,” a person praised Hillary Clinton
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