Kumail Nanjiani Delivers Keynote Speech at THR's Raising Our Voices Event | Raising Our Voices

  • last month
The Hollywood Reporter held its third annual Raising Our Voices luncheon, celebrating some of the industry's most powerful advocates for diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility. THR co-editor-in-chief Maer Roshan introduces Kumail Nanjiani, bringing him to the stage to deliver the event's closing keynote.

Category

People
Transcript
00:00Hey everybody, I'm Mayor Rashan, I'm co-editor-in-chief of The Holland Reporter, as you heard.
00:13It's a great privilege to be here with all of you today.
00:17This is my first Raising Our Voices event since I joined THR earlier this year as a
00:25gay Iranian Jewish immigrant, it's dear to my heart, this event.
00:33And it is a real honor for me to introduce our keynote speaker, who many of you, all
00:39of you probably know from his roles in Silicon Valley, Welcome to Chippendales, The Big Stick,
00:47Eternals, and the current fourth season of Only Murders in the Building, in which he
00:52plays the mysterious Christmas all-the-time guy.
00:58He is also a prolific behind-the-scenes talent, including as an executive editor on such
01:05groundbreaking series as Apple TV's Plus's Little America.
01:11However he contributes to the story, Kumail has emerged as an industry leader in highlighting
01:18inclusive stories and promoting voices from underrepresented communities with humility
01:24and much-needed comedic relief.
01:27Please join me in welcoming my luncheon companion, the comedian, Oscar-nominated screenwriter,
01:34Emmy-nominated actor, and the incredibly funny Kumail Nanjiani.
01:48Hi, what an incredibly inspiring afternoon.
01:52It's really lovely to be a part of this, you know.
01:55It can feel sometimes the world is dark, but then you come to a place like this and it
02:00really feels very hopeful, especially, you know, the way the debate went last night,
02:04that was great too.
02:06Yeah.
02:08So first of all, I want to thank Spago for accommodating my cat-only diet.
02:18Shout out to Wolfgang.
02:22They were like, are you vegan?
02:23I'm like, no, not exactly.
02:28And so a lot of this is actually addressed, we're the people who showed up for this, we're
02:32like the good people.
02:35So a lot of this is addressed for like whoever watches this on camera who isn't here.
02:41So thank you all for being here.
02:45This is the Raising Our Voices luncheon, whose goal is to establish diversity, equity, and
02:50inclusion in Hollywood.
02:52This event happens once a year and I am the keynote speaker.
02:59That's a lot of pressure.
03:00I have seven minutes and it's very intimidating.
03:04All of my friends are texting me, things better be different tomorrow.
03:09So I have to speak very fast.
03:12I get seven minutes to fix this.
03:14By the way, you guys have been doing this for three years.
03:17Why haven't you fixed it yet?
03:20Spoiler alert, we're not going to have this figured out by the end of this seven-minute
03:23speech either.
03:25So I'm resetting expectations.
03:28Because that's the other thing, right?
03:29The pressure on us to make this change is huge.
03:34Why is the pressure on us?
03:36We're not the ones who did this.
03:39We weren't like, eh, no, it's just better to have straight white people in everything
03:43and making everything.
03:45We weren't like, we kind of like chilling off to the side, you know?
03:48Give us a call if you need a nerd in a computer room yelling instructions to the hero white
03:52man as he dangles off the side of a building.
03:56You know, they always ask me on red carpets, what can we do about diversity?
03:59Don't ask me, I just got here.
04:02Ask them, ask them, people who did this.
04:06So next time, you know, next time you do this, there should be like two people.
04:10There should be someone like me talking about the importance of diversity and diverse points
04:14of view.
04:15And then a white person off to the side taking notes and nodding.
04:20Because the thing is, we have been raising our voices.
04:26But the people in power need to also be listening to our voices.
04:30There's no point in raising our voices if...
04:32You know, there should also be like a keynote listener.
04:37And he just should...
04:38By the way, let's face it, it will probably be a he.
04:42He just takes notes and goes, sorry, could you repeat that?
04:45Okay, got it.
04:46And at the end, he has to explain in great detail exactly how he plans to address each
04:52of these things.
04:57I now have five minutes left to fix a diversity issue in Hollywood.
05:02So let's talk first about what we've, you know, about how you've done so far.
05:06And I'm going to use the same tactics that are used on me when I get notes from executives.
05:11So I'll do this in note speak since I know you guys speak this language.
05:15Here we go.
05:17We are incredibly excited about the direction you're going with this.
05:23First of all, some great stuff in here.
05:26By the way, we all know some great stuff in here is code for page one rewrite.
05:34A lot of this is working.
05:37We have made progress.
05:38We have.
05:39We have made progress.
05:40When I first started auditioning, every role I read for was a cab driver or a 711 employee
05:47that Aziz Ansari had obviously passed on.
05:51All of the roles were named Azim or Afeez or in one case, Aziz Ansari.
06:00And the situation has changed.
06:02I have gotten the opportunity to play all kinds of people.
06:06I got to play a superhero, which was great.
06:11But that also upset people because they said it was race swapping.
06:14I hate that phrase.
06:16Race swapping.
06:17All right.
06:18I'll just go instead and have my pick of all the characters who were originally conceived
06:22to be Pakistani male superheroes in their 40s.
06:26So many to choose from.
06:29Personally, I'm sort of glad there aren't any because their names would redefine cringe.
06:33The Brown Spider, the Dusky Avenger, Iron Man.
06:41So there has been progress, but we do have a long way to go.
06:46And this is where we get to the next step.
06:48First step, listening.
06:50Next step is doing.
06:53I know.
06:54I'm asking so much of you.
06:56It's a lot.
06:57But here, I'm going to actually appeal to your interest.
07:00I'm going to explain to you why doing is actually good for you.
07:05Of course, having more diversity on screen and behind the screen is good for society
07:09as a whole.
07:10It is.
07:11But I fear that isn't enough incentive for the three corporations that run this town.
07:18So I'll say this.
07:20Diversity behind and in front of the camera is good for profits.
07:24It's good for your bottom line.
07:26It will make you more money.
07:29Most of what we consider great films are normed on a very specific perspective.
07:35So eventually, movies start feeling samey because you're having people from similar
07:39backgrounds and life experiences making these movies.
07:43They can feel repetitive and cliched, but if you get people from different backgrounds
07:48with different experiences, you will get a new perspective and it'll revitalize the kinds
07:53of stories you've already told.
07:55And I don't mean, you know, call us when you want to tell stories about us or people
07:59like us, although that is valuable, of course.
08:01I mean, get us to tell stories and make movies that have nothing to do with our cultural
08:06background.
08:07Yeah.
08:08That's progress.
08:09Look at Twisters.
08:12It was huge.
08:14Not directed by a white guy.
08:16Is there a correlation?
08:17Yes.
08:18But does that mean there is a causation?
08:21Yes.
08:23We can bring our new experiences and tell stories in new and exciting ways and people
08:28will be like, wow, this feels new and unique.
08:31What did you do?
08:32And you can say, we listened to Kumail Nanjiani's keynote speech and then we did what he told
08:38us to do.
08:40Giving POCs more shots will make your product better, which means you will make more money.
08:46And of course, it's going to be a little scary, right?
08:49When you play with diversity on screen, you may think, how will the audience relate to
08:53someone who doesn't look like them?
08:55Well, I've been doing it my whole life.
08:59I've looked at white guys in movies made by white guys my entire life and pretended to
09:03be them.
09:04I think you can see me and find something in common to connect with.
09:08You don't just connect with people who look exactly like you.
09:12Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of the biggest movie stars of all time.
09:16Do you think his audience is exclusively six foot two behemoths who can bench 500 pounds
09:21and sound like they got here from Austria earlier today?
09:25I was a little nervous about that one.
09:29No.
09:30Well, there you go.
09:33You know, I watched and related to you.
09:35Now you can watch and relate to me because ultimately we are all people.
09:40We can do that.
09:41You know what separates us from animals?
09:43Empathy.
09:44And movies, as the late great Roger Ebert said, are empathy machines.
09:50Lastly, I am not saying you have to have every kind of person represented in every movie
09:56or TV show.
09:57I'm just saying don't exclude us.
10:00Make your movies and TV shows look like the world.
10:03That's all we want.
10:06Also one more, one more lastly.
10:09Let us play all kinds of characters, okay?
10:11Write that down.
10:12That's important.
10:14I know we've had issues in the past with people of certain ethnicities being typecast as certain
10:18bad guys.
10:20That's true.
10:21But I also think we've overcorrected.
10:22I want to play a bad guy.
10:25When I say that, people say what kind of message is it sending if you play the bad guy?
10:29The message it's sending is that we're just like everybody else.
10:33We're complicated.
10:34We can be saints and sinners.
10:36We can be nerdy guys and terrorists and video gamers and superheroes and divorced people
10:41and family people.
10:42And some of us are good people.
10:44And yes, some of us are bad people because we are people.
10:47We are complicated people.
10:49And we want to play complicated people as Annette Bening was saying.
10:53Sorry, I don't know you well enough to just use your first name.
10:57Hi.
10:58Hi, Annette Bening.
10:59Nice to meet you.
11:01Big fan.
11:04I want to play complicated people too, Annette Bening.
11:08Such a fan.
11:09I'm just kidding.
11:11I don't want to play just noble people who teach other people how to be noble.
11:16I don't have any more wisdom than anybody else.
11:19I don't.
11:20All I have is a different perspective and a different set of experiences.
11:25So if we all pool together and all share our different perspectives with each other and
11:31the world, that is the only way we can reach collective wisdom, by listening to each other
11:36and adding to each other's perspectives and life experiences.
11:40So lastly, this is the last lastly, I swear.
11:45Just do your best.
11:47Progress is hard.
11:48All we can do is commit to try, okay?
11:50So let's commit to try and commit to be better.
11:54Do your best.
11:55We just want to work.
11:56All right.
11:57So I'll see you guys in six months when you'll report your progress to me.
12:02And thank you so much for having me and thank you so much for doing this.

Recommended