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Directors Guild of America Pushes For Diversity, Studios Respond With: Not Gonna Happen

Published Tue, 14 Feb 2017 01:27:30 -0600

Hollywood's luminaries continue to have speaking opportunity after speaking opportunity at which they beat their chests and expound on the desirability and determination for diversity. While the celebrities beat the drum from the red carpet, it unfortunately seems that the studios are not even interested in putting on a token display of considering changing up their landscape.

Deadline is reporting that both film and TV companies have "categorically rejected" repeated efforts by the Director's Guild of America to introduce a program similar to one adopted by leading tech companies (like Facebook) and the NFL to encourage consideration of minority and women candidates. The NFL adopted the 2003 "Rooney Rule" requires teams to interview minority candidates for open positions.

So being clear on this program, it isn't a directive for quotes or mandated hires. It simply ensures that minorities and women are allowed to interview for director positions at studios. The DGA began urging for the rule adoption back in 2013 during the union's contract negotiations.

While one might have hoped that in more recent years that the times might have changed, and indeed it seems that cracks in the wall might have been starting to form. An industry source told Deadline that the companies had expressed they would be "much more interested this time." Once again however, when it came time to sit down and have a new round of general contract negotiations, "The companies declined to discuss it."

On the one hand, it is often a chicken and egg situation where talent agencies aren't interested in taking on minority or women clients simply because studios don't hire them. Studios when they do put out a call for a minority candidate, they are told the agencies don't have any available, so they go back to their standard rolodex. However if a Rooney Rule were to be adopted, then agencies would suddenly discover a need to be able to provide to match, and if they don't find some to make available, another agency will jump in to pick up the slack.

It is ironic however, how much that studios appear to not even be interested in interviewing candidates. We haven't even gotten the point of putting in hiring directives, only trying to get people in the door seems to be a battle far larger than is spoken about in even the most heartfelt of acceptance speeches.

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