Spike Lee has not gotten softer with age, but he has become more diplomatic. His interviews used to have much more pointed comments and I would have even called him judgmental. Nowadays, he takes the longer view and that makes him more interesting, I think. Spike is the recipient of this year’s BFI Fellowship, the highest honor from the British Film Institute. To celebrate, Spike agreed to a wonderful interview with the Guardian. He spoke about awards shows, the Oscars, Malcolm X and Beyonce. Enjoy:

He believes his film ‘Malcolm X’ is still relevant: “Very relevant. Did you see what happened in Memphis recently?” says Lee, referring to the killing of Tyre Nichols, a shocking reminder that history has a habit of repeating itself. “Malcolm X will stand the test of time. And that performance by Denzel still amazes me. It’s one of the greatest I’ve ever seen.” As for the fight against racism, he adds: “It’s always two steps forward, one step back. But I’ll never say there’s been no progress. The struggle continues.”

When EEAAO’s director Daniel Scheinert called ‘Malcolm X’ a “crime movie”. “I’d never heard that description before. But look, I’m not going to kill the guy. I’ve misspoken many times in my life, too. So I’m calling on Black Twitter to give the guy a break – because when Black Twitter gets on your ass, they get on your ass.”

His relationship with film critics: “People forget that when Do the Right Thing came out, critics with loud voices said: ‘This film will incite African Americans to riot all across the country.’ It sounds crazy now, but that was written by prominent film critics, that my film would cause black folks to run amok. They’ve still never said they f–ked up. It was a very racist take on a film that dealt with the legacy of racism in the US.”

On Viola Davis and Danielle Deadwyler being snubbed for Oscar noms: “You know, I’ve really got nothing to say about it. I’m happy Angela Bassett got nominated. I’m happy Ruth Carter – who for a long time was my costume designer – got nominated… It gets tricky when you get these award things. And the Academy has a history with … The Academy has a history, let’s leave it at that. But the whole #OscarsSoWhite hashtag definitely made an impact. The Academy, to their credit, made changes to bring diversity to the voting body.”

Beyonce losing Album of the Year again at the Grammys: “I’m not the male president of the Bey Hive [Beyoncé’s fanbase], but I love and support Beyoncé. Her album is amazing. I know she’s won multiple Grammys, but four times nominated for album of the year and she’s lost every time? No disrespect to those artists like Adele or Harry Styles who won. It’s not their fault, but that’s some straight-up bullsh-t. There’s a history of great black artists who come up for these awards and don’t win. We all know their work is great, because art speaks for itself. But then it always comes down to this tricky territory of validation. Do black artists say: ‘F–k it’ – or seek white validation and chase awards? I just want to give a shoutout to my sister Beyoncé. We know what the deal is. It’s straight-up shenanigans, skulduggery, subterfuge. Or as the British say: it’s some poppycock!”

Speak your truth to power: “I’ve learned that you have to speak truth to power. When I take my last breath, which won’t be soon by the way, it’ll be written that I was on the right side of history. But it’s an individual choice. There’s certain times when you know there’ll be repercussions and you’ve got to make a choice to speak out or clam up.” But speaking truth to power, he adds, has never felt like a burden. “Because I’ve never tried to position myself as speaking for 45 million African Americans. I always say, ‘This is my opinion’. Fairly early on, my late mother said: ‘Spike, we as black people are not one monolithic group. We don’t look alike, talk alike, think alike. We’re very diverse, from many different backgrounds.’ And I took that to heart.”

[From The Guardian]

Everything Everywhere All At Once’s co-director Daniel Scheinert really did call Malcolm X a “crime movie” and it caused a lot of debate on Film Twitter and Black Twitter. It’s funny that Spike is kind of giving him a pass on that, maybe because Scheinert’s comments, in context, were complimentary towards the film. I love what he says about Beyonce and the history of Black artists not getting any validation from predominantly white industries. And Spike is talking about himself there too – you know he’s debated whether or not he should take the Oscars seriously, whether he should seek validation from his industry peers, whether he should even go to the Oscars when he’s nominated. Those are questions without answers, and every artist has to figure it out for themselves. I kind of wish Beyonce would just stop going to the Grammys though.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.