'Big Short' director seems to make barely veiled pitch for Bernie Sanders at the Oscars -- but it's not
Would it even be the Oscars without politics?
After host Chris Rock absolutely devastated the audience with an on-point monologue about racism in Hollywood, the field was open to wider cultural and political statements, and at least one winner took the chance to make a point.
The Big Short director and co-writer Adam McKay showed his sympathies to be very much in line with those seen in the wildly successful movie, which portrayed Wall Street as a rigged den of iniquity.
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“Don’t vote for candidates who take money from big banks, billionaires and big oil,” McKay said.
The comment was immediately widely understood as an endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who has run on the same platform.
Sanders has repeatedly slammed his rival Hillary Clinton for her connections to big banks, including $600,000 speeches to professionals at Goldman Sachs.
Many on Twitter were eager to #FeeltheBern.
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The Bernie bias is understandable, considering Hollywood's liberal leanings, which was mocked even by Rock in his monologue when he said of white Hollywood, "and these are the nicest people on earth. They're liberals."
But the writer himself clarified backstage that his comments were not purely about Bernie Sanders.
And indeed, Donald Trump has run on the same platform.
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McKay clarified backstage that he was not picking sides in the presidential race, but merely advocating for giving banks and billionaire less power to choose the next president.
"We've gotta stop man, big money has taken over our government. It really has to be right-left -- it's got to be like a scarlet letter on candidates on both sides. That wasn't meant to be pointed at either side," he said.
--Josh Dickey contributed reporting
Heidi Moore is a Business Editor at Mashable. She directs a team of reporters and editors in creating richly reported, smart and entertaining stories about media, startups, advertising, careers and Social Good that show that business is really a reflection of life and what we value in it.Heidi was previously a finance and economics editor at the Guardian, New York bureau chief and Wall Street correspondent at Marketplace Radio, and a financial reporter at the Wall Street JournalShe loves yoga, rooftops and taking photographs of everything.
