Daniel Radcliffe Weighs in on Oscar Boycott: It's Already Been Effective

Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith announced earlier this week they will not attend this year's Academy Awards

Boycott of the Oscars or not, just the threat of one is already changing Hollywood.

So says Daniel Radcliffe.

"I suppose in a way it's already been effective because there has been a reaction in terms of the Academy working on changing their policy," the Harry Potter star told me at the Sundance Film Festival premiere of his new indie Swiss Army Man (more on that later).

"It's the start of a conversation that feels like we shouldn't need anymore because particularly in this industry, we think of ourselves as being liberal [and] very progressive," he said. "We need to put our money where our mouth is."

Earlier this week, Spike Lee, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith said they weren't going to attend this year's Oscars because of the lack of diversity among the nominees. The #OscarsSoWhite controversy erupted again after the nominations were announced on Jan. 14. All of the 20 acting nominees are white.

The Academy has been swift to respond to the outcry. Just this morning, the organization announced that its board of governors voted last night to approve "a sweeping series of substantive changes designed to make the Academy's membership, its governing bodies, and its voting members significantly more diverse.  The Board's goal is to commit to doubling the number of women and diverse members of the Academy by 2020."