Ahead of the Oscars, actor Harsh Varrdhan Kapoor tweeted about this year’s best actress nominees and said he was “having nightmares” because of the possibility of Cate Blanchett losing to Michelle Yeoh as a result of a “PR campaign.” The tweet garnered mixed reactions from Twitter users, who called him out for targeting and undermining one performance over the other.
Kapoor’s tweet read, “I’m getting nightmares about Cate Blanchett losing to Michelle Yeoh at the Oscar’s… how can a PR campaign centred around race put one of the best performances of all time in the shadows? Any opinions guys.” He referred to Blanchett’s performance in ‘Tár’ and Yeoh’s performance in ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once.’ Both actresses are considered frontrunners in the best actress category.
After Michelle’s triumph at the recently concluded Screen Actors Guild Awards, many consider her a tough contender to beat. If she clinches the best actress at the Academy Awards, it would make her the first Asian actor to have won the Oscar in the category. Kapoor’s tweet received negative reactions from a section of Twitter users.
A person said, "It's okay to love an actor's performance over another, but to downplay another actor's performance as a PR campaign is so disingenuous. Like you really have to be biased to think michelle yeoh's performance isn't great, if not one of the greatest of all times." To this tweet, Harsh wrote back, "She’s clearly trying to use it and do everything she can to edge forward in the race and not let it be only about the merit of the performance…”
One user wrote, "I eat, sleep and breathe Bollywood. Half of my pop culture knowledge is defined by it. Focus on the colourism/racism of your industry instead of downplaying a veteran asian actress’ achievements. It’s not cute. And I bet you your dad and sister won’t like it either." Harsh Varrdhan Kapoor replied,"If my opinion doesn’t matter why are you responding to my tweet ? Yeoh on her instagram posted an article about how she should win because of diversity when Cate has publicly been so supportive of her… really a low blow I felt . She later deleted it after the backlash.”