The backlash against the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is showing no sign of ebbing. Mark Ruffalo, who won a Golden Globe Award this year, called out the international journalists group today.
Hours after Deadline broke the news about Netflix’s Ted Sarandos vowing to stop activities with HFPA until more extensive changes occur, Ruffalo and GLAAD issued their own statements.
Ruffalo, a three-time Oscar nominee, said that he “cannot feel proud or happy about being a recipient of this [Golden Globe] award,” which he won for his dual role in HBO’s I Know This Much Is True.
“It’s discouraging to see the HFPA, which has gained prominence and profited handsomely from their involvement with filmmakers and actors, resist the change that is being asked of them from many of the groups that have been most disenfranchised by their culture of secrecy and exclusion,” Ruffalo said in a statement to Deadline. “Now is the time to step up and right the wrongs of the past. Honestly, as a recent winner of a Golden Globe, I cannot feel proud or happy about being a recipient of this award.
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“Our industry is embracing the opportunity for greater equality in this beautiful moment,” he added. “It is not perfect and long overdue but it is clear what must happen and how. The Justice Movement is offering all of us, the HFPA, and every other entertainment entity, a good way forward. We should all follow suit. It is our audiences and our highest sense of decency that we are ultimately serving with these changes. They are both deserving.”
The besieged HFPA has been taking flak from many sides for weeks over the lack of diversity in its ranks and its poorly received initial statement about it and subsequent plan for “transformational change.”
And the blowback continues against the HFPA.
Among the many individuals and groups who have ripped the organization are Time’s Up — which lashed out at it again today after penning a pair of scathing post-Globes letters — Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, Ava DuVernay, Ellen Pompeo, Kerry Washington, JJ Abrams, Jurnee Smollett, Jenifer Aniston, Damon Lindelof, and Shonda Rhimes, the DGA, SAG-AFTRA and GLAAD. The latter issued a statement tonight from President/CEO Sarah Kate Ellis:
“The HFPA reforms do not go far enough to ensure the organization as a place where historically marginalized communities—including the LGBTQ community—feel welcomed; especially not in time for meaningful change to take place before the 2022 awards season. There is a lack of transparency and accountability which still has yet to be addressed.
“It’s not enough for the HFPA to just say that they are working towards having a certain number of Black members. It’s time for the HFPA and the Golden Globes to truly reflect the full intersectional diversity of Hollywood. GLAAD stands alongside the Time’s Up Foundation, Color of Change, and all those who are calling for further and more rapid change, real inclusion, and true acceptance.”