Sandra Bullock’s solution for an Oscars host could help Hollywood’s diversity issue

The Academy is still scouring for an Oscar host, and Sandra Bullock might have a plan to that solves the hosting dilemma.

After Kevin Hart stepped down from hosting the Oscars this coming year, the academy has been searching for someone to host the event. Although the Academy is still looking for the perfect presenter for the 91st Academy Awards, several entertainers have proactively offered to fill the opening.

From Ken Jeong to Whoopi Goldberg and Bruce Campbell, several celebrities have used their public appearances or social media platforms to volunteer to host the event, according to the New York Times. As professionals in the entertainment industries queue in the metaphorical line to host the Oscars, even Twitter has seemingly endless suggestions for the 2019 Oscars host. However, Sandra Bullock might have a solution to the search for the next Oscars host.

During an interview with The Associated Press, Bullock suggests that instead of secured a preestablished host for the Oscars, the Academy should randomly choose actors from the audience to read the teleprompter. Honestly, we’re on board with this idea.

As the Los Angeles Times notes, the venue for the Oscars, the Dolby Theatre, only seats a maximum of 3,400 people. Although the fortunate industry professionals who are able to get entry to the event are minuscule in comparison to entertainers in the overall entertainment industry, Bullock’s impromptu Oscars host module could help bring lesser known actors to the stage, literally.

After all, we know that Hollywood is dominated by every annual most-watched actors and actresses lists or lists that rank entertainers by their annual income or any variation of a ranked list in the industry. Regardless of the variation or the title of the list, we can pretty much assume which actors we would see on any noteworthy list — because we’ve all likely seen them in a film or multiple films every year.

Giving random host positions to actors during the Oscars ceremony could give less-experienced or underrecognized actors a live opportunity to showcase their prowess. Thus, this could yield additional job opportunities for a more diverse acting class every year. Granted, that relies on if the attendees the Academy members would call on to read from the teleprompter, as Bullock references.

If the Academy continues to promote diversity with its yearly attendees and implements a variation of Bullock’s suggestion, the Oscars could start to promote inclusivity in the Hollywood industry, which still has only made very scarce strides in its goal for on-screen diversity.  Given the Oscars have operated on the concept of preselected hosts for years, integrating an unscripted version (at least in the context of who will present) of that might take some coaxing before Sandra Bullock’s ideation materializes (both from a new way of hosting the Oscars and in the form of increased on-screen diversity in the entertainment industry).

Naturally, attempting Bullock’s suggestions would take a bit of restructuring on the Academy’s behalf (plus the Academy would actually have to agree to this change in tone). However, we think changing the hosting tradition a bit could help the industry give less recognized actors and actresses a platform to show their abilities during an event that’s viewed by millions of people worldwide.