Spike Lee spoke to New York Magazine about #OscarsSoWhite at the Sundance Film Festival, where the director was waiting to debut his new documentary, Michael Jackson’s Journey from Motown to Off the Wall. He called the Motion Picture Academy’s recent announcement of membership rule changes “a first step” towards increasing diversity. “There’s a great song in Hamilton,” Lee told his interviewer. “‘[I Want to Be In] The Room Where It Happens,’ sung by the phenomenal Leslie Odom Jr. We’re not in the room! We’re not in the room! That’s how you fundamentally change stuff, because that’s going to directly impact the films, so therefore it’s going to impact who gets put up for the nominations.”
Lee also proposed an alternate method for increasing the number of minorities in positions of power in Hollywood. “I suggested that they have a Rooney rule,” the director explained. “Dan Rooney was owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was also chairman of the diversity committee of the NFL, so in 2006 the NFL implemented a Rooney rule, where if any team had an opening in the head coach or senior executive positions, they had to interview minority candidates before they hired anyone… This is not a quota. This is an opportunity where qualified people get to interview for a position, and that rule has directly impacted the NFL and the hiring of minority coaches... studios should do the same. Because that does not reflect what this country is.”
In addition, the director suggested that film studios have economic incentives to diversify their output. “I hope it appeals to people’s basic bottom line. Forty-three percent of the movie tickets purchased this year or last year were by minorities. So forget about it being the right thing to do. You’d make more money! You’re gonna make more money if your product is more diverse, and to make your product more diverse, you’ve got to have people in powerful positions to help tell you what stories you should be making.”
Lee said he will be watching the Knicks game at Madison Square Garden rather than attending the Oscar’s. Read the full interview here.