Spike Lee Says Getting a Black President Is Easier Than a Black Studio Head

Earlier at the event on Saturday, the Academy's president launched a new initiative, A2020, that aims to promote more diversity in Hollywood over the next five years.

Accepting an honorary Oscar at the 7th annual Governors Awards, Spike Lee said, "It's easier to be the president of the United States as a black person than to be the head of a studio."

The director told the industry audience gathered at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland, "We need to have some serious discussion about diversity" and he thanked Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs, saying "she's trying to do something that needs to be done" for raising the issue and making it part of the Academy's current consciousness.

Earlier at the event, Boone Isaacs launched a new initiative, A2020, that aims to promote more diversity of age, gender, race, national origin and point-of-view, in Hollywood over the next five years. 

"When it comes to fair and equal representation in our industry, words are are not enough," the Academy president said. "We also have a responsibility to take action and we have an unique opportunity to do so now."

The portion of the evening devoted to Lee's career began with Aloe Black singing Sam Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come," which Lee used in his 1992 biopic Malcolm X, starring Denzel Washington. Washington appeared on stage alongside Wesley Snipes and Samuel L. Jackson, all veterans of Lee's movies. Riffing without any need for a teleprompter, the trio proved to be something of a modern-day Rat Pack, feeding each other good-natured jokes and even aiming a few barbs Lee's way. Snipes claimed he and Lee were once turned away from a post-Oscars Governors Ball because they didn't have the right ticket. And as Jackson was explaining, "Spike makes film that are very personal," Washington got a laugh by butting in to say, "He don't pay nobody, either." On a more serious note, Washington pointed out, "Spike Lee has put more African-Americans to work in this business than anyone else in the history of the business."

For his part, Lee, after showing off a special Oscar-gold pair of Air Jordans that he was wearing, used the occasion to relate his own journey to become a filmmaker. Admitting that he was a poor student during his days at Morehouse College, he found his calling when he began studying film at New York University — after being turned down, he said, by USC and the AFI. "I don't say I found film," he said. "Film found me."

As part of her welcoming remarks, Boone Isaacs also referenced the attacks in Paris, saying, "All of us here stand in solidarity and support of France and the French people." She observed, "Our connection with the film-loving French is especially deep."

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