John Oliver's Last Week Tonight makes a bitingly good point about the so-white Oscars

Hollywood is still casting white actors in ethnic roles? Last Week Tonight asks, incredulously

(Image credit: Last Week Tonight)

last updated 28 February 2016

This year's Academy Award nominees are, once again, "whiter than a yeti in a snowstorm fighting Tilda Swinton," said John Oliver's announcer on Sunday's Last Week Tonight. Some people in Hollywood blame this on a lack of good roles for minority actors, but that would be more persuasive if Hollywood didn't keep casting white actors as Egyptians, Persians, and warriors from around Asia. "All of this is nothing new — white actors have taken roles designed for every ethnicity throughout Hollywood history," Last Week Tonight said, but in 2016, "how is this still a thing?"

Last Week Tonight took a trip back in time, noting the roster of famous white actors who took roles written for other ethnicities, heaping special scorn on Mickey Rooney and Tom Cruise. And the practice hasn't stopped, the narrator said. "So when you hear people say the Oscars are so white because the roles aren't there, just remember, the Academy gave Oscars for characters named O-Lan, Billy Kwan, and Luis Molina to actors named Luise [Rainer], Linda [Hunt], and William [Hurt]." Watch below, but be warned: There's decidedly NSFW language scattered throughout the video. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.