Watch ‘Black Actors, White Roles’ in Hilarious Oscars 2016 Bit
Chris Rock‘s monologue was one of several moments to spotlight the lack of diversity in Hollywood and the Oscars, which led to an Oscars boycott. In a hilarious montage that illustrated how hard it is for black actors to get crucial parts in films, several actors joined Rock to act in scenes belonging mostly to white actors from this year’s batch of film nominees to further highlight the issue.
Rock was joined by Whoopi Goldberg, Saturday Night Live‘s Leslie Jones and Tracy Morgan, who stepped in for parts that were originally played by white actors and also a bear. There was even a walk-on part. During a pivotal scene from Joy, where Jennifer Lawrence’s titular character is readying to make her first appearance on TV trying to sell her Miracle Mops, Whoopie Goldberg sweeps into the scene as a janitor with a mop, showing the characters how it’s done.
In another famous scene from The Revenant, Leonardo DiCaprio’s character is attacked by a bear in the film, but in the montage, Saturday Night Live‘s Leslie Jones steps in to berate DiCaprio instead. Tracy Morgan hilariously shows up in drag, playing the part belonging to a white actress in The Danish Girl, and he’s seen eating a Danish, naturally. “These Danishes is good girl,” he remarks.
To close the montage out, Rock portrays Matt Damon’s character in the The Martian, who at the defining moment when the NASA team in the actual film is working to get the white astronaut back, in the montage, they instead contemplate leaving the black astronaut behind because it will cost too much money.
The clip further drove the point that Rock opened the ceremony with home.