"Lost" actor Daniel Dae Kim has been invited to be a part of the voting members in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as a response to the criticism that the Oscar nominations lacked racial and gender diversity.
683 stars in total have been invited to the said occasion, which is a record-breaker for the organization. Kim welcomed the move and praised The Academy's president Cheryl Boone for initiating the change that needed to be addressed, according to an interview in The Hollywood Reporter.
41 percent of the ones who were invited were people of color, which includes Kim, and 46 percent of them were women. This has been a result of the social media campaign #OscarsSoWhite, in which the previous nominations and invitees were often white men, at a whopping rate of 92 percent white and 75 percent male.
Kim feels that the move was substantive and that the reaction of the organization to the uproar was immediate, applauding Cheryl for listening to the people who worked hard to push for this kind of change. He believes the Academy still has a long road to take in terms of greater diversity, he said that this was still a major step forward.
It seemed like a positive sign for him despite the unpredictable future the organization holds with regards to better representation. He remains faithful that the next years will be crucial steps towards a more progressive portrayal of the industry.
However, despite these good changes, there were also claims about the new invitees having credits that weren't film-related, but Kim does not see and take this as an issue. There are other alternatives such as TV and theater, and people who work for the industry go back and forth between these outlets, so it still means that all of them take their responsibilities seriously when it comes to filmmaking.
According to an article on TV3, looking for quality entertainment will remain to be his main responsibility. Honoring those who truly deserve the achievements in filmmaking will still be the top priority and not diversity for its own sake. But he insisted that he will always be on the lookout for stories that might be unheard of or underrepresented.