Danielle Deadwyler Speaks Out on Oscars Snub: Academy Voters Chose Not to See Till

Danielle Deadwyler is speaking out on her Best Actress Oscars snub.

The “Till” star addressed the “misogynoir” of Academy Awards voters when it comes to viewing contenders, speculating that Academy members most likely did not see the historical feature directed by Chinonye Chukwu.

“We’re talking about people who perhaps chose not to see the film. We’re talking about misogynoir, like it comes in all kinds of ways, whether it’s direct or indirect,” Deadwyler said during the “Kermode & Mayo’s Take” podcast (via Entertainment Weekly). “It impacts who we are.”

The actress added, “I think the question is more on people who are living in whiteness, white people’s assessment of the spaces they are privileged by.”

Deadwyler is nominated for Best Actress at the BAFTA and SAG Awards and was recognized at the Critics Choice Awards. The star likened the lack of diversity among Academy Award nominees this year as part of a systemic issue that transcends Hollywood.

“We’ve seen it exist in a governmental capacity — it can exist on a societal capacity, be it global or national,” Deadwyler said. “Then it has its residual effects. It is in our quotidian life. It is in our industries. It is a thing… Everyone has to assess and investigate, source out and make more equitable. Nobody is absolved of not participating in racism and not knowing that there is a possibility of its lingering effect on the spaces and the institution.”

Deadwyler formerly told IndieWire that a “big misconception” of “Till” is that the film “centers wholly on the trauma” of the death of Emmett Till.

“We’re incessantly informing people that this film begins and ends with joy,” Deadwyler said. “That this film is critical in understanding that Black families are not just the moment in which they have experienced violence or trauma.”

“Till” director Chukwu previously took to social media to slam the Academy’s dedication to “perpetuating an unabashed misogyny towards Black women” as the film was shut out of the nominees.

“We live in a world and work in industries that are so aggressively committed to upholding whiteness and perpetuating an unabashed misogyny towards Black women,” Chukwu wrote. “And yet, I am forever in gratitude for the greatest lesson of my life: Regardless of any challenges or obstacles, I will always have the power to cultivate my own joy, and it is this joy that will continue to be one of my greatest forms of resistance.”

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