Marlon Wayans Confident Hollywood Can Bridge Diversity Gap: 'We're Getting Better'

Marlon Wayans is gearing up for the Friday release of his film, Fifty Shades of Black. While he's cast a varied group of stars in his movie, the comedian tells ET that he thinks the recent controversy over the lack of diversity among the Oscar nominees could help the industry.

"I do think that Hollywood needs to make more movies with a lot more diversity," Wayans said at Tuesday's premiere of Fifty Shades of Black in Hollywood. "We made a lot of strides back in the day and we're still getting better. ...This little gap is only supposed to create bridges to bring us all closer together [so we can] get bigger budgets and continue the audience that will come and support our movie."

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The filmmaker added, "It's not a black and white issue. It's a green issue. You mix all that, and we get the gold statue."

Wayans' new comedy -- starring himself, Kali Hawk, Jane Seymour and Mike Epps -- is a comedic take on Fifty Shades of Grey that he hopes people of all races will find humorous. "I try to not make them color specific," he explained. "The humor is something for everybody to get."

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However, Wayans did admit that he had some trouble getting the movie made. "At the end of the day, you make a movie, you put your all into it and everything else you put into God's hands," he said. "I just know that I laugh doing it, I laugh making it, and I know where the jokes are."

And the 43-year-old actor is definitely committed to getting laughs. "I tour every weekend just to know where the jokes are," he shared. "I'm hoping that my instincts are right and that people will come and enjoy. I'm not going to change the world, I'm just going to change the mood."

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The issue of diversity in Hollywood has been the talk of the town ever since it was revealed that all the Oscar nominees in acting categories were white performers. Here's a look at the stars who have spoken out on the controversy:

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Reporting by Denny Directo

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