In the Know: Inclusion Riders

Inclusion riders are a concept crafted by Stacy Smith, founder of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative at the University of Southern California. She explains her research as:

“The Annenberg Inclusion Initiative analyzed 900 popular films released between 2007 and 2016, and found that the prevalence of female speaking characters hovered around 30 per cent in that period. Only 34 women worked as directors for the films released in those years.

Among the top 100 movies of 2016, the report found that 47 did not feature a single black woman with lines, 66 did not have an Asian woman with a speaking part and 72 did not feature any Latinas speaking on camera.

Smith said Hollywood’s storytelling remains dominated by the perspective of the straight, white, able-bodied male.”

Inclusion Riders aim to make the entertainment industry more diverse by ensuring the cast and crew better reflect the world we live in by including minorities such as people of colour, LGBT groups, and women. The goal is to eliminate the bias that is inherent in the casting process. If the studio does not meet the requirements set out by the rider they will be forced to pay a “penalty” that will go to support underrepresented groups.

Since Frances McDormand mentioned inclusion riders at the end of her Oscar acceptance speech, discussions about them have been more prevalent in the public. It sparked a movement for many actors to stand behind the idea of bringing more diversity to the industry. Actor Michael B. Jordan stated in March 2018 that his production company Outlier Society Productions would be adopting inclusion riders on all of their projects. Since his announcement, he is also working with Warner Bros. to ensure that the media company is more inclusive in regards to minorities. John Boyega is another young actor who has publicly committed to using inclusion riders in his company UpperRoom Productions. Boyega sees it as a chance to redefine and reshape the industry. 

Chloë Sevign sees inclusion riders as an opportunity for more people to be in power when it comes to casting. Traditionally, actors tend to have very little imput in casting decisions. The only time Chloë had this opportunity was when she was directing. This is something she sees that needs to change and having inclusion riders is helping to push this issue to the forefront in Hollywood. 

As 2018 was the year of inclusion riders, time will tell if they are here to stay or just a Hollywood trend.