Christina Ricci says it is ‘elitist and unique’ to evaluation Andrea Riseborough’s Oscar nomination: ‘Very backward to me’

Christina Ricci is not happy that the Academy of Movement Image Arts & Sciences is reviewing Andrea Riseborough‘s Greatest Actress nomination.

The Yellowjackets star took to Instagram on Friday to publish a press release which has since been deleted, Deadline reported. Within the assertion, Ricci lashed out on the Academy’s announcement that they’d be reviewing Riseborough’s Academy Award nomination for the indie movie To Leslie, through which the British actress portrays a Texas lady who squanders her lottery winnings whereas coping with alcoholism. Riseborough’s nomination adopted a word-of-mouth marketing campaign through which her superstar friends publicly praised her efficiency, an method the Academy is now second-guessing.

Ricci, for one, is standing by Riseborough and the grassroots marketing campaign that acquired her award season buzz.

“Appears hilarious that the ‘shock nomination’ (which means tons of cash wasn’t spent to place this actress) of a legitimately good efficiency is being met with an investigation,” Ricci wrote. “So it’s solely the movies and actors that may afford the campaigns that deserve recognition? Feels elitist and unique and admittedly very backward to me.”

Ricci continued, noting that Riseborough herself had “nothing to do with the campaigning” for the nomination. Nonetheless shifting ahead, “now her nomination will probably be tainted by this.”

“If it’s taken away disgrace on them,” Ricci closed out her now-deleted publish.

Final week, the Academy confirmed that it will likely be “conducting a evaluation of the marketing campaign procedures round this yr’s nominees.” Nonetheless, they didn’t identify To Leslie particularly. As an alternative, they acknowledged they’re working to “make sure that the Awards competitors is performed in a good and moral method.”

“We’re dedicated to making sure an inclusive awards course of,” the assertion learn. “We’re conducting a evaluation of the marketing campaign procedures round this yr’s nominees, to make sure that no tips have been violated, and to tell us whether or not adjustments to the rules could also be wanted in a brand new period of social media and digital communication. We now have confidence within the integrity of our nomination and voting procedures, and assist real grassroots campaigns for excellent performances.”

The energetic assist for To Leslie on social media from stars like Kate Winslet, Edward Norton and Gwyneth Paltrow seems to be the trigger for the nod to endure evaluation, which some questioned as probably “unlawful.” The evaluation is supposed to find out whether or not the nomination violated present guidelines towards lobbying for votes, Yahoo Entertainment previously reported.

The grassroots marketing campaign to attain Riseborough a nomination is alleged to have “seemingly pushed out” two actresses of coloration from scoring the nomination: Viola Davis for The Girl King, and Danielle Deadwyler for Until. Each stars “have been backed by well-funded campaigns by Sony and MGM/Amazon, respectively, and have been broadly predicted to attain honors, but presumably wouldn’t have entry to a community of highly effective (and, let’s be trustworthy, white) mates within the Academy to marketing campaign for Oscars on their behalf,” Puck writer Matt Belloni noted.

AMPAS’s board of governors will meet on Tuesday, Jan. 31 to debate the problem.

Riseborough initially mentioned she was “astounded” to obtain the nomination, Deadline reported following the announcement of the Oscar nominations.

“It’s such an sudden ray of sunshine. It was so onerous to consider it would ever occur as a result of we actually hadn’t been within the operating for the rest,” Riseborough mentioned. “Regardless that we had quite a lot of assist, the thought it would truly occur appeared so far-off.”