Oscars weekend is annually fueled by champagne, but this year, the political climate has somewhat muted the celebratory mood.
“You feel it,” said Freida Pinto on Friday night at the Women in Film Pre-Oscar Cocktail Party, where stars including Meryl Streep, Viola Davis, Emma Stone, Brie Larson and Ava DuVernay kicked off the weekend.
Pinto cited President Trump’s travel ban, which caused Academy Award-nominated Iranian director Asghar Farhadi to opt out of attending Sunday’s ceremony. “But if you’re a conscientious person, you don’t have to not celebrate, not party, not be part of the festivities. I don’t think you can think about the thing that upsets you every single moment of the day,” she said.
Earlier Friday, directors of the five foreign-language film nominees, including Farhadi, issued an unprecedented advance statement condemning “the climate of fanaticism and nationalism” in the U.S. and other countries.
Pinto added: “I do believe that a lot of people, at least the friends that I have in this industry, are very aware of what is happening and are very disturbed by it. The most important thing is they’re doing something about it.”
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SOURCE: USA Today, Andrea Mandell
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