The Actors & Creators Who Have Already Committed To Inclusion Riders

Frances McDormand did something rare when she accepted her Oscar for Best Actress at the 2018 Academy Awards: She issued a call to action. With just two words she set off not only a series of Google searches and explainer articles, but also a challenge to Hollywood. “Inclusion rider: look it up," she said.

Inclusion riders are equity clauses that actors can have put in their contracts that guarantee a project attain a certain level of diversity both onscreen and off. They also come with financial penalties should good-faith efforts not be made to achieve these goals. They were introduced by University of Southern California professor Stacy L. Smith of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, civil rights attorney Kalpana Kotagal, and Head of Strategic Outreach at Pearl Street Films Fanshen Cox DiGiovanni, who had already been working together behind the scenes to roll them out several months before the Oscars. Kotagal told Jezebel they had been hearing from talent interested in including the riders in their contracts, but couldn’t “name names.”

Now that McDormand has blown the lid off inclusion riders, those names are coming forward. “The inclusion rider uses strong language to encourage the hiring of people such that the cast and crew reflect what the world (and/or the world of the story) looks like. This is proven to be effective in combating implicit bias — which we do accept has been part of the problem since we’ve met so many well-meaning people who say they want to do better,” DiGiovanni told Refinery29 in a recent email.

These are the well-meaning actors, creators, and agencies who have already vowed to do better.

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Michael B. Jordan

The Black Panther star announced on Instagram that his company, Outlier Society, will be adopting inclusion riders for all projects. “I’ve been privileged to work with powerful woman & persons of color throughout my career & it’s Outlier’s mission to continue to create for talented individuals going forward.” He hashtagged the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative as well.

Matt Damon & Ben Affleck

"On behalf of Pearl Street Films, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Todd, Drew Vinton, and I will be adopting the Inclusion Rider for all projects moving forward. At this point, now we walk the talk. We are ready to stop talking and start DOING,” Fanshen Cox DiGiovanni, Head of Strategic Outreach at Pearl Street Films, wrote in an email to Refinery29.

**Dee Rees**
Oscar nominee Dee Rees told BuzzFeed News that, “A lot of people of color have been doing that for a long time unofficially, and demanding a certain number of people on set be people of color. It's making your sets look like the world, at a minimum. And it's not just about tokenism, it's about talent. That's the exciting thing. People with the ability and the ambition can have opportunities that are commensurate with who they are."
Photo: Steve Granitz/Getty Images.

Brie Larson

Almost immediately after the Oscars, Larson tweeted that she’s committed to the inclusion rider. She included a link to a 2014 column Stacy L. Smith wrote for The Hollywood Reporter in which she introduced an early version of the concept similar to the NFL’s Rooney Rule, which requires the league to interview people of colour for head coaching and senior football operation jobs. As an Oscar winner herself, Larson is in the type of position of power where she can implement an inclusion rider in her contracts going forward.

**Ava DuVernay**
According to the Daily Bruin, director Ryan Coogler confirmed that DuVernay implemented a practice similar to an inclusion rider on *Queen Sugar*, mandating “the inclusion of female directors and key creatives” behind the scenes. She also rewrote the script for 2015’s *Selma*, the Oscar-nominated Martin Luther King Jr. biopic she directed, to include more women in the story.
Photo: Taylor Hill/FilmMagic.

Paul Feig

The Bridesmaids director tweeted that his company, Feigco Entertainment, which produced projects such as Spy and the all-woman Ghostbusters reboot, will be adopting inclusion riders going forward. In his tweet, he suggested other companies do the same.