Just like Charlotte Rampling, his co-star in The Statement, Michael Caine is addressing the diversity controversy in this year’s Oscar nominations, which, for the second year in a row, chose an all-white slate in the acting categories. In an interview with BBC Radio 4, the two-time Oscar winner argued that “You can’t vote for an actor because he’s black … You have to give a good performance†— an echo of Rampling’s opinion that “perhaps the black actors did not deserve to make the final list.â€Â Unlike Rampling, Caine did acknowledge the black actors in the Oscar conversation, calling Idris Elba’s work in Beasts of No Nation “wonderful†and worthy of a nomination. When asked to give advice to actors like Elba who were shut out, the 82-year-old actor told them to “Be patient, of course it will come. It took me years to get an Oscar.â€