Will Smith to join wife Jada Pinkett Smith in Oscars boycott

Will Smith says he will not attend the Academy Awards next month, joining his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, and others in protest against two straight years of all-white acting nominees.

Smith said on ABC’s Good Morning America that he and his wife feel “we’re uncomfortable to stand there and say ‘this is OK’”.

Some thought Smith might be nominated for his performance in the football drama Concussion, but he was not.

Smith would likely have been a sought-after presenter at the February 28 ceremony at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

He had been nominated twice before, for 2001’s Ali and 2006’s The Pursuit of Happyness.

Pinkett Smith said on Monday she wouldn’t attend or watch the Oscars ceremony.

A video she posted helped prompt calls for a boycott of the awards show.

Pinkett Smith says her plea was about black people taking back their power in an industry that doesn’t value people of colour.

On Tuesday, she thanked the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and its president for promptly responding to the outcry.

Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs has pledged “dramatic changes” to diversify the academy’s membership.