Deadline Discourse_DEI_Episode 1

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Transcript

00:00 (upbeat music)

00:02 - Hello and welcome to Deadline Discourse.

00:17 I'm your host Valerie Complex,

00:19 associate editor and film writer at Deadline.com.

00:23 And we are gonna be talking with some Hollywood insiders

00:26 and no topic is off limits.

00:28 So this panel today dives deep into the nuances

00:32 of diversity, inclusion and equity in Hollywood

00:35 and reflecting on the journey

00:36 since the pivotal year of 2020.

00:38 We'll examine whether the industry's DEI efforts

00:41 post George Floyd's death have sparked systemic change

00:45 or if it's simply performative.

00:47 You know, recently Issa Rae shared her thoughts

00:49 on the industry in Time Magazine

00:50 and how Hollywood is sort of falling behind

00:52 in regards to black content.

00:54 Do you share her, I wouldn't call it pessimism,

00:59 I would say, do you share her ideals

01:01 regarding accountability within the industry?

01:03 - Yeah.

01:06 (laughing)

01:07 - Next question.

01:08 I mean, you know, there's so much more

01:10 that needs to be done.

01:11 I mean, you know, look, it's been nine years

01:14 since Oscar's so white

01:15 and it's incredibly hard to see sustained progress, right?

01:20 You know, as you say, you know,

01:22 sometimes it is one step forward and two steps back, right?

01:25 As opposed to what we want, which is the other way around.

01:27 But what I love to see is actors, filmmakers

01:32 taking the reins in their own hands and saying,

01:36 you know, we are no longer waiting for a seat at the table.

01:38 We are creating our own mansion

01:40 and we are putting our own table and chairs in it.

01:42 And we are creating our own production companies, right?

01:45 Because the powers that be are still the ones

01:49 that are going to green light the films.

01:50 And there's a reason why, you know,

01:53 and those are still older white men,

01:54 let's just be honest about it.

01:55 And so there's a reason why we get a huge movie about war

02:00 every December at the start of war season.

02:02 (laughing)

02:03 And so there isn't as much space and interest in,

02:07 at least from that standpoint, to softer movies,

02:12 you know, and TV shows.

02:14 You know, I think about "Queen Sugar"

02:16 and, you know, talking about gentrification

02:19 and the importance of black families owning land.

02:21 Like, you know, and so that stuff comes from court cases,

02:25 but it's also things that are being dealt with

02:27 every single day.

02:28 And there's a reason why we're not getting that,

02:31 we're not getting that type of content.

02:33 And so it's incredibly important that we have the ability.

02:36 And when I say we, I mean,

02:37 people who are very often pushed to the margins,

02:40 you know, regardless of how they identify race, gender,

02:44 sexual orientation, disability, geography,

02:47 all of those stories need to be told.

02:49 And so this is the best way to do it,

02:51 for us to tell them ourselves.

02:53 - Absolutely, yeah.

02:56 And you were right to try to correct yourself

02:58 in saying that it's pessimism,

02:59 because we all have eyes, we all have ears.

03:02 - It's reality.

03:03 - Like, we see what's taking place, and it's just fact.

03:07 - Inside of Hollywood,

03:10 I'm hearing more and more of us talk about

03:12 getting some piece of ownership in the deals that we make.

03:16 We have to start taking a stand on that.

03:18 I think the more that we do that,

03:20 if we could really lock, you know,

03:22 lock hands and do that across the board,

03:25 it'd be very disruptive to our industry,

03:27 but that's what needs to happen.

03:29 - Even if we go back to 2020,

03:31 all these diversity jobs were hired

03:33 because the voices demanding this were so loud.

03:37 There was no way anyone in any position of power

03:40 could not move forward and say,

03:42 "Come into my house and help me rebuild," right?

03:45 Similarly, all this incredible creative work

03:47 that's going out there,

03:49 how is the collective community

03:51 showing up for those projects?

03:52 Where are we spending our dollars?

03:54 What shows are we talking about on our socials?

03:57 How are we also making sure that these creative projects

04:00 that are being put out into the world

04:03 are incredibly successful?

04:05 And, you know, all the metrics are there to back that up.

04:08 The spend is there, the tweets are there,

04:11 or we don't say tweet anymore, right?

04:12 - We sure do.

04:13 - Yeah, we do.

04:14 - We sure do.

04:15 - Amen.

04:16 - The tweets are there, right?

04:17 It's Black Twitter.

04:18 - It's Black Twitter.

04:19 - Yes.

04:20 - You didn't buy Black Twitter,

04:20 you might have bought that other thing.

04:22 - Right.

04:23 - But Black Twitter is still there, right?

04:24 But you're gonna go, you know?

04:25 Like, we need to still also put pressure

04:29 on these decision makers, on these systems,

04:31 by showing up and showing out.

04:33 It's, I mean, the consumer spend alone

04:35 amongst the Black community,

04:37 I think it's like $1.4 trillion right now.

04:39 That is a lot of money.

04:42 Then you layer on other communities.

04:44 You bring in the Latino community,

04:46 you bring in the Asian community.

04:48 There is a lot of spending power.

04:51 And for anyone who's running a business,

04:53 you know, they cannot deny those voices of those communities.

04:57 So I think there's also a real need for us to show up.

05:01 You may not love everything you're watching,

05:02 but you are there spending that dollar,

05:04 because you know that dollar will create access

05:06 for the next show that you may love.

05:08 - Do you feel like what has been happening

05:12 has been sort of sped up or exacerbated

05:15 by the fact that the strike took place

05:18 and lasted as long as it did?

05:20 - These companies, you know, look to trim the fat

05:22 and we're the fat.

05:24 - Yeah. - You know, we're the lard.

05:26 You know, and they start trimming

05:28 and they start trying to make things fit

05:30 because, you know, the double strikes,

05:33 which really almost felt like a triple strike

05:36 because there was nothing I could do as a director

05:38 without my script, obviously,

05:41 and definitely not without my actors.

05:43 - Right, I was gonna say. - So it was really, you know,

05:45 a pause across all three guilds.

05:47 And yeah, it, you know, it was devastating on every level.

05:52 And so the companies are trying to figure out, you know,

05:58 how to make themselves solvent going forward.

06:02 And I think, you know, we represent kind of the fat

06:05 on that spreadsheet and yeah, we fall to the wayside.

06:10 - Something I think about though too with that,

06:13 and this goes back to exploring that,

06:15 that space of independence, right?

06:19 I've always been so in awe of black people

06:24 and the black community and our ability to reinvent,

06:27 to create, to make our own.

06:30 I sit here and I also wonder,

06:32 is this going to be the impetus for us

06:34 to really start to explore these independent avenues

06:38 in a very different way?

06:40 And I think time will tell.

06:42 I don't think there's an immediate solution,

06:45 but if anything, the strikes have impacted

06:47 the entirety of an industry.

06:49 They're shaking up an entire system.

06:51 And back to our conversation on the soil earlier, right?

06:55 Was the soil even that good?

06:57 Is this also an invitation for us

07:00 to really think differently about how to build?

07:02 And I hope that that sort of innovation comes from this

07:06 as opposed to just sitting in a moment of despair

07:09 and hoping that the industry rebuilds itself

07:12 because the way it was built

07:13 wasn't working for us before anyway.

07:15 So I think a lot about that.

07:17 Like, is there an opportunity to come from this?

07:21 - No, I think so, absolutely.

07:22 I mean, I liken the strike to like a brain hemorrhage, right?

07:25 Like when you have like a massive hemorrhage like that,

07:27 the brain in its healing has to relearn a lot of things,

07:31 but in relearning it,

07:32 it just completely has to restructure

07:34 the way that it processes information.

07:36 So I feel like that's where we find ourselves

07:39 in a situation where, okay, this is a new normal

07:43 and we're having to kind of figure out how to work together.

07:46 And that's ultimately what it's going to need to be

07:49 is us working together.

07:50 Like we were feuding, we were feuding family.

07:53 We're at opposite ends.

07:55 And now we've had to come back together

07:57 to kind of pick up the pieces and figure out what to do.

08:01 And that's where we kind of find ourselves.

08:04 And in the meantime, as you're saying,

08:06 like folks are just waiting in the wings for opportunities

08:09 to be able to make something, do something, build something,

08:14 while this family tries to figure out a way

08:16 to put itself back together.

08:18 (upbeat music)

08:21 (upbeat music)

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