Whoopi Goldberg says there is no such thing as an Oscar snub

On The View, Whoopi Goldberg weighed in on the discourse surrounding Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig being passed over for Oscar noms

By Mary Kate Carr  |  January 25, 2024 | 2:51pm
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Whoopi Goldberg says there is no such thing as an Oscar snub
Whoopi Goldberg; Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig Photo: ABC/YouTube; Amy Sussman

By the looks of The A.V. Club comments section and the Internet at large, folks are divided about whether Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig were snubbed for Barbie. But perhaps the question we should be asking is, do “snubs” even exist? There is an entire Internet discourse economy built on the concept, but the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is not an all-knowing cinematic deity bestowing recognition upon only the most deserving. It’s a large body of industry professionals with differing thoughts and feelings about film, whose voting decisions may be personal or political. Just ask Whoopi Goldberg, Academy voter and one of our few EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony) winners.

“Here’s the deal: Everybody doesn’t win,” Goldberg said during a panel discussion on The View. “They’re not snubs. And that’s what I want to sort of point out. And it’s not the elites, it’s the entire family of the Academy who vote for best picture nominations. We all vote for best picture, everybody. … You don’t get everything that you want to get.”

‘Barbie’ Fans React To Irony Of Oscar Snub | The View

View panelist Alyssa Farah Griffin reiterated a popular online talking point about Gerwig and Robbie missing Best Actress and Director nominations, lamenting that Ryan Gosling got a nod instead. “Did [the Academy] miss the whole moral of the story of Barbie? Of course we celebrate just Ken, not the woman who’s the lead in it and the icon in it,” she said. (Reminder: Gerwig and Robbie are nominated for their work as writer and producer of the film, respectively, just not for acting and directing.)

But taking the nominations personally (and in some cases, taking it as a slight against women as a whole) is part of the problem, per Goldberg. She didn’t get all the details right—her example was Everything Everywhere All At Once winning Best Actress but not Best Picture, though in reality it won both—but the bottom line is, Oscars are a crapshoot. “There are no snubs, and that’s what you have to keep in mind: Not everybody gets a prize, and it is subjective,” she said. “Movies are subjective. The movies you love may not be loved by the people who are voting.”

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