Oscar Isaac’s Fierce #OscarsSoWhite Joke Caught Everyone Off Guard

We’re a few years into the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag being used against the Academy Awards, and though change has been long overdue, it doesn’t appear to be happening. Even after younger and more diverse voters were allowed in, the Oscar nominations remain largely white and male, rarely acknowledging the presence of female filmmakers and filmmakers of color. At this year’s Oscars, Natalie Portman called out the lack of women director nominees, and with her cape no less, and later during the ceremony, Oscar Isaac slipped in his own dig, in the form of a joke.

Isaac was presenting the two sound awards alongside Salma Hayek. Before they handed trophies to Ford v Ferrari (for Sound Mixing) and 1917 (for Sound Editing), Hayek grabbed Isaac’s arm and held it aloft, proclaiming that she can now say that she held an Oscar. Isaac then threw some shade, joking, “Oscars not so white now.”

People inevitably ate it up.

https://twitter.com/batspidersith/status/1226697393816645640

https://twitter.com/llewyin/status/1226700134286790657

https://twitter.com/munozjose/status/1226696895298461696

Someone couldn’t resist channeling Poe Dameron, in turn channeling the late Carrie Fisher.

Meanwhile during the ceremony, the Oscars team appeared to try to atone for the lack of non-white nominees by including countless presenters, as well as performers, of color. As for actually nominating some of then, well, maybe next year.