Director Tim Burton slammed political correctness in his response to criticism about the “lack of diversity” in his films, claiming that he is far more offended when producers cast minority actors in their projects for the sole reason of diversity.
“Nowadays, people are talking about it more,” Burton said in a brief interview with Bustle when asked about the “lack of people of color” in his new movie Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.
“Things either call for things, or they don’t,” he continued. “I remember back when I was a child watching The Brady Bunch and they started to get all politically correct, like, ‘Okay, let’s have an Asian child and a black’ – I used to get more offended by that than just – I grew up watching blaxploitation movies, right? And I said, that’s great. I didn’t go like, ‘Okay, there should be more white people in these movies.’”
Samuel L. Jackson, who stars in Burton’s new film, also defended the director when asked about the lack of diversity in his film’s casts.
“I had to go back in my head and go, how many black characters have been in Tim Burton movies?” said Jackson. “And I may have been the first, I don’t know, or the most prominent in that particular way, but it happens the way it happens.
“I don’t think it’s any fault of his or his method of storytelling, it’s just how it’s played out” he continued. “Tim’s a really great guy.”
The topic of diversity in Hollywood has exploded in recent years after having received renewed attention following the #OscarsSoWhite controversy of 2014. The issue will be the focus of two upcoming industry conferences, and seemingly everyone from actors to studio chiefs have weighed in on the matter.
Most recently, American Psycho author Bret Easton Ellis similarly blasted political correctness in his latest podcast episode, calling the ideology a “delusion” that society has been “coddling” which encourages people “to think that life should be a smooth utopia built only for them and their fragile sensibility.”
Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook.
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