Cynthia Erivo, star of Stephen King's The Outsider, address the author's controversial tweet about diversity

Entertainment Weekly

The author took some heat earlier for tweeting Tuesday, in reaction to the nearly all-white Oscar nominations, "I would never consider diversity in matters of art. Only quality. It seems to me that to do otherwise would be wrong." Erivo, the only minority to be nominated this year in all of the Oscar acting categories, was asked about King's comments while appearing via satellite from Tokyo at the TV press tour. “I can’t solve how you balance diversity with quality of work,” Erivo said. “I’d like to think I’m part of the world of diversity. Hopefully, more works get seen by people who are making good work. I feel like this year we had a flurry of beautiful pieces by people who are of diverse nature, black women, women in general, and I think you’re seeing more of it on TV, HBO in general.”