Entertainment

‘We Don’t Start These Movies To Win Awards’: Jamie Foxx, Michael B. Jordan Talk Diversity, Oscar Nominations

(Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images for SiriusXM)

Font Size:

Actors Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx both shut down the conversation regarding diversity in the Oscar nominations.

Jordan and Foxx agreed that they’d rather focus on the people who were nominated than on the lack of diversity in a video from the London premiere of “Just Mercy” shared on Twitter by the Associated Press.

“I think honestly with the awards, we don’t make movies for that,” Jordan said. “This is the nominees’ moment and they worked extremely hard on their films and we don’t want to be a part of that dialogue, taking away from anything that they have going on. Any awards, any nominations that come our way when it comes to this movie, it just adds to the message, adds to the movie that we’re really trying to make.”

“I don’t want to take anything away from the goal at hand and that this movie needs to be seen and people need to talk about the issue that we have and hopefully it connects with people around the world,” he added. (RELATED: ‘Joker’ Pulls In 11 Oscars Nominations, Most Nominations For A Comic Book-Based Movie Ever)

“Just Mercy” follows the story of an attorney who takes on the case of an African American man wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death. The film was left off the list of Oscars nominations, sparking outrage at the supposed lack of diversity.

“We don’t start these movies to win awards,” Foxx said. “We’re happy about the NAACP award, the SAG award, but all of that goes into the pot of making sure ‘Just Mercy’ gets out there and then there’s also a level of respect of the people that are nominated. We don’t want to cloud their moment. This is their time, they put their work in, however anybody feels about anything, let’s let them enjoy their time.”