Charlotte Rampling Clarifies Controversial Diversity Remarks

Academy Award-nominated actress Charlotte Rampling said her
comments that an Oscars’ boycott is “racist to white people” were
misinterpreted. In a statement to CBS News’ “Sunday Morning” on
Friday, Rampling said she wished every performance were given equal opportunity
for consideration.

All this year’s acting nominees are white. Rampling, 69,
previously told France’s Europe 1 radio Friday that, while it’s impossible to
know for sure, “maybe the black actors didn’t deserve to be in the final
stretch.” She told “Sunday Morning” that “I regret that my
comments could have been misinterpreted.”

Asked if there should be quotas — not a suggestion made by most
boycott supporters — Rampling said we live “in countries nowadays where
everyone is more or less accepted,” but there would always be problems
with people being judged “not handsome enough,” ”too black” or “too
white.”

WATCH: Plugged In: Charlotte Rampling’s ‘Reverse Racism’ Oscars Comment

Speaking in French, she asked if the goal was to classify
everybody and have “thousands of little minorities everywhere.”

Rampling, who has starred in both English and French films, is
nominated for a best-actress Academy Award for Andrew Haigh’s portrait of a
marriage, “45 Years.”

WATCH: Oscars Controversy: Will The Academy Make Any Changes?

Veteran British actor Michael Caine, meanwhile, urged black
actors to “be patient” and said recognition would come.

He told the BBC there are plenty of strong performances by
non-white actors this year, including Idris Elba’s “wonderful” work
in “Beasts of No Nation” — which did not receive an Oscar nomination.

“Be patient,” said 82-year-old Caine, who has won two
supporting-actor Oscars. “Of course it will come. It took me years to get
an Oscar, years.”