Whoopi Goldberg chimes in on Barbie Oscars ‘snub’ drama: ‘Not everybody gets a prize’

Whoopi Goldberg isn’t interested in the backlash to this year’s Oscar nominations – particularly the Barbie movie’s Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig’s supposed snubs.

The actress and her The View co-hosts were deep in Oscars discussions on Wednesday (24 January) after the nominations were announced earlier this week.

As it does every year, the Academy faced intense backlash from movie lovers around the world. This year, the top talking point was the Barbie movie’s nominations.

While Ryan Gosling and America Ferrera picked up nominations for Best Supporting Actor and Actress respectively, Greta Gerwig missed out on a Best Director nomination, and Margot Robbie didn’t make the cut for Best Actress.

It was a decision that rubbed many fans up the wrong way – including Gosling himself, who issued a statement shortly after his nomination to call out the Academy for not nominating Robbie or Gerwig.

However, Goldberg – who is an Oscar-winner herself, and an ex-Academy board member – thinks that this discourse has been blown out of proportion.

The Ghost star shared her honest opinion after her The View co-hosts Alyssa Farah Griffin and Sara Haines discussed the “snubs”.

“Did they miss the whole moral of the story of Barbie?” asked Griffin. “Of course, we celebrate just Ken, not the woman who’s the lead in it and the icon in it.”

Haines then countered: “The message of all of that is not lost on me, but one question I have – and maybe Whoopi is the only one that can answer this – when does it become a snub? I know the film, I know the greatness and the money, but that assumes someone else shouldn’t be in there.”

Goldberg told her co-stars that she wouldn’t call Robbie and Gerwig’s omissions “snubs”. Rather, she said, this was just a simple case of “not everybody gets a prize.”

She told the panel: “It’s not the elites, it’s the entire family of the Academy Awards who vote for Best Picture nominations. We all vote for Best Picture, everybody.”

When Sunny Hostin chimed in that she thought Ava DuVernay’s Origin was snubbed from this year’s Oscars, Goldberg retorted: “There are no snubs. That’s what you have to keep in mind: Not everybody gets a prize, and it is subjective. 

Movies are subjective. The movies you love may not be loved by the people who are voting.”

While Goldberg’s point stands, both Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig are still technically in the running for an Oscar this year.

Gerwig may not be up for Best Director, but she has been nominated for Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay). Meanwhile, Robbie may not have earned a Best Actress nomination, but as a producer, she could potentially take home the Oscar for Best Picture. 

In total, Barbie is up for eight Oscars this year, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Costume Design, Best Production Design, and two nominations for Best Original Song.