Michael B. Jordan helped HBO and Warner Bros. develop a company-wide inclusion policy, because time’s up, Hollywood
We still have a long way to go before there’s true diversity and inclusion in Hollywood, but one of the biggest studios just took a step in the right direction. In partnership with actor Michael B. Jordan, WarnerMedia, the parent company of Warner Bros., is instituting a new policy to create more diversity both on screen and behind the scenes.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the company-wide inclusion policy means that WarnerMedia, which includes HBO and Turner, will be working to hire more women, people of color, people with disabilities, and LGBTQ people on their productions. They promise that going forward the company will be “[engaging] with our writers, producers and directors to create a plan for implementing this commitment to diversity and inclusion on our projects, with the goal of providing opportunities for individuals from under-represented groups at all levels.”
So where does Jordan come in? The first movie that will be made under this policy is one he’s starring in and producing: Just Mercy, a legal drama that starts filming this week.
In a statement, Jordan called this a “legacy-bearing moment” for him and the company.
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“The WarnerMedia family has introduced an approach that accomplishes our shared objectives, and I applaud them for taking this enormous step forward,” Jordan said. “I’m proud that our film, Just Mercy, will be the first to formally represent the future we have been working toward, together. This is a legacy-bearing moment.”
Warner Bros. CEO and chairman Kevin Tsujihara also released a statement about the policy to the L.A. Times, saying, “Our policy commits us to taking concrete action to further our goals, to measure the outcomes and to share the results publicly. I’m also thrilled that we were able to work with Michael B. Jordan to craft a meaningful policy and framework that will apply to all of our productions, across all of our divisions, going forward.”
It will take more than just one studio’s policy—which, it’s worth noting, is short on details of how this initiative will actually work—to get Hollywood where it needs to be, but this is a positive step toward inclusion.
