Best Actress Nominee: Oscars Controversy Is 'Racist to Whites'

Two English actors are making headlines—not in a particularly good way—after weighing in on the #OscarsSoWhite controversy:

• Charlotte Rampling, a best actress nominee this year for her role in 45 Years, spoke to a French radio station Friday and said the whole thing is "racist to whites," the Guardian reports. "One can never really know, but perhaps the black actors did not deserve to make the final list,” she said, later adding: "These days everyone is more or less accepted ... People will always say: 'Him, he’s less handsome'; 'Him, he’s too black'; 'He is too white' ... someone will always be saying 'You are too' [this or that] ... But do we have to take from this that there should be lots of minorities everywhere?"

• Michael Caine spoke to a BBC radio program and advised black actors to "be patient." "There's loads of black actors," he said. "In the end you can't vote for an actor because he's black. You can't say 'I'm going to vote for him, he's not very good, but he's black, I'll vote for him.' You have to give a good performance and I'm sure people have. Of course it will come. It took me years to get an Oscar, years."

(There's at least one black actress who might agree with Rampling and Caine.)