Jamie Foxx has said he appreciates that “people feel for us” after he was snubbed for an Oscar and only one black performer was nominated.
British star Cynthia Erivo is the only non-white person nominated in the acting categories at the 2020 ceremony, resulting in the lowest number of nods for performers from minority backgrounds since the #OscarsSoWhite controversy in 2015 and 2016.
Foxx, who won an Oscar in 2005 for Ray and who has been nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for his performance as a man on death row in Just Mercy, told the PA news agency: “We do movies to get the stories out and anything else that comes, we welcome it.
“But at the same time we are not looking to be upset, because at the same time those people that are nominated, we want to give them their moment.
“But we do feel that people feel for us, they wanted to see this go all the way and so you appreciate that but we don’t let that stop us getting the word out and continuing.
“I applaud this young man (co-star and producer Michael B Jordan) all the time, continuing to do movies that we can literally feed off of for a lifetime and that is what it’s about.”
The film stars Jordan as civil rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson as he battles to free death row prisoner Walter McMillian, played by Foxx, after he was convicted of murdering a white woman in 1987.
Jordan said: “It’s something that has been going on for a really long time and it continues to happen.
“This story took place over 30 years ago but it could have happened yesterday so I think, for me, having the platform that I have to be able to produce films and be able to tell stories, this is one that I felt was really important.”
He added: “There is a racial bias in the criminal justice system so to be able to highlight that, to start those conversations again and to be able to put that at the forefront of people’s minds, is extremely important.
“And to help try to change the perception of what it is to be black or brown, when guilt, and danger and negativity is always associated with you and how you look, I think it’s good to help try to change the narrative with films and powerful stories like this.”