Diversity in Hollywood Simply Cannot Be "Organic"

Sometimes it's hard to reconcile my disappointment with the lack of diversity in front of and behind the camera and my enjoyment of mainstream Hollywood. I try to blame the system, not the players. But it's frustrating to see the people of power and privilege continually close their eyes to the big problem in their industry.

When white male filmmakers talk about the lack of diversity, they tend to bring up two major points: one that their decision to hire straight white men is nothing more than them picking the best man for the job because being straight, white and male is remarkably conducive to imagination and creativity. The other thing is that they think diversity needs to be organic to the story being told. FYI, both of those things are utter B.S. and total cop outs.

Diversity has to be a conscious choice. Inclusivity has to be something that people of power resolve to participate in. White male filmmakers are incredibly privileged. Their films have more visibility, and they have the benefit of being similar to the people of power. Brad Bird said that he suggested Colin Trevorrow for Jurassic World because he "saw a lot himself in [Trevorrow].* This has been called the mini-me form of Hollywood privilege and sexism. There aren't enough minority people in power who can take underlings into their den for grooming and opportunity. And so, people in power have to say, "look I want to promote diversity and inclusion so I will make a deliberate choice to mentor a woman, LGBTQIA+ individual or person of color." Instead, mainstream Hollywood becomes a white boys club because white male nerds like other white male nerds.

People who oppose diversity (i.e. white guys afraid of losing their jobs or white male audiences afraid of different perspectives intruding on their media) like to say that diversity has to be organic to the story. For one thing, what the hell does that mean? It means that they don't want women, LGBTQIA+ people and/or people of color to exist in spaces outside of where they belong (side characters and few production positions, if represented at all). The thing is, there probably are scripts out there about these individuals HOWEVER those movies aren't getting made. So sometimes, diverse casting has to be "forced onto the film." And in my opinion that's okay.

Sandra Bullock recently made headlines because her role in the political satire Our Brand is Crisis was intended for George Clooney. The story goes that she called him and said she wanted to do it, and as producer he agreed. According to Clooney and Bullock, not much of the role had to be changed for Bullock AND the change got the film some extra publicity. Truth be told, Sandra Bullock is a much bigger box office draw than George Clooney. In the last 6 years, the Academy Award winner had 5 films make over $100 million at the US box office alone (most of them a lot more than 100). George Clooney hasn't hit that number in the US since 2000 outside of the "Oceans" movies co-starring Matt Damon and Brad Pitt.

Let's look at Michael B. Jordan being cast as the Human Torch in Fantastic Four. The diverse casting made this film seem different than whitewashed other films. Granted that movie was terrible but a black actor still got cast and walked away with most of the praise. Right now, the top fan choice for James Bond after Daniel Craig finishes: Idris Elba.

While it might be easy to say, "oh can't black actors or women or whomever just get their own franchise?" In an ideal world, yes. But we still live in a patriarchal society where "straight white man" is the default casting and pool for hiring. Someone with power NEEDS to actively think outside the box. Like with the Captain Marvel, Black Panther and Wonder Women films: someone has to decide to only look at minority directors, just to diversify the pool. Whenever big movies start to be developed, the usual list of directors are all straight white men.

Diverse casting and diverse production crews make films more interesting, more accessible and more profitable. If getting more diversity in Hollywood means that it has to be a deliberate choice and shoved down our throats, I'm okay with that. The playing field has to be made equal.

*Edit: previously I put that Trevorrow was recommended for Star Wars by J.J. Abrams. Actually it was for Jurassic World by Brad Bird. I corrected the mistake.

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