Italian comic actor, director and screenwriter Massimo Ceccherini on Monday apologised for saying "Jews always win" after Matteo Garrone's migrant drama Io Capitano, for which he co-wrote the screenplay, lost out to Auschwitz-set The Zone of Interest in the best foreign film category at the Oscars, stressing he had meant films about Jews and not by Jews.
"I apologise if anyone was offended, it was not my intention to offend anyone", the 58-year-old Ceccherini told ANSA after Italy's Jewish community said it was "extremely serious and unacceptable" that the actor had "revived one of the saddest and most common anti-Semitic stereotypes".
Ceccherini, who rose to fame as a comic foil in Leonardo Pieraccioni's Tuscan romcoms, was accused of perpetuating the trope that Jews rule Hollywood, a claim that led to Mad Max and Braveheart star Mel Gibson being blackballed for several years until recently.
While apologising, Ceccherini said his words had been misconstrued and that he had not meant that Jews always won Oscars but that films about Jews and the Holocaust were often favoured Oscar fare as shown by works like Schindler's List and The Pianist.
He also said he had been speaking off-hand and lightly, and not fully seriously.
"I was slightly joking yesterday," he said.
"But I expressed myself badly: I was referring to films that talk about the Jews and I wanted to say that it's not the first time that they've won at the Oscars.
"I myself had made a small bet on Io Capitano's success, but I knew well that the other film was a hot favourite, also because its odds were very short for the bookmakers.
"When I said 'they always win', I was talking about films that speak about the issue.
"I said so off the cuff, explaining myself badly."
Ceccherini said he had got "the biggest telling off from my wife who told me: If you can't manage to explain yourself, it's better for you to shut up".
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