The acting categories at the 2016 Oscars didn’t include any nominees of color, but that didn’t stop Chris Rock — who had only just delivered a scorching, somewhat surprising monologue that directly addressed the #OscarsSoWhite protests — from proposing a few edits to the nominated films.
Oscars 2016: Here’s what Joy, The Revenant, The Danish Girl, and The Martian would look like with black people
Caroline Framke wrote about culture, which usually means television. Also seen @ The A.V. Club, The Atlantic, Complex, Flavorwire, NPR, the fridge to get more seltzer.
More specifically, he led the charge to insert some black actors into the action.
As Bradley Cooper egged on Jennifer Lawrence in Joy’s QVC presentation scene, Whoopi Goldberg walked out with a janitor’s broom to deliver some straight talk. Then The Revenant — Alejandro González Iñárritu’s tale of Leonardo DiCaprio braving the elements — was interrupted by Saturday Night Live’s Leslie Jones, who ripped the movie’s infamous bear to pieces. Tracy Morgan even dropped by to play The Danish Girl.
Finally, Rock himself paid a visit to the set of The Martian to imagine what the conversation between NASA and a stranded astronaut might have been like if said astronaut were black. Kristen Wiig and Jeff Daniels reprised their roles, and not in an especially flattering way, as they mulled the consequences of saving Rock: “I mean, it would cost $2,500...”
To see the clips in action, check out the video above.
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