Frances McDormand’s Oscar acceptance speech seems to have made a huge impact on Hollywood. Ever since she mentioned the two words – Inclusion Rider – things appear to be changing with several stars coming forward in support of it.
An “inclusion rider” is a clause that an actor can insist be inserted in the contract; it requires the cast and crew on a film to meet a certain level of diversity. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, who jointly run the production company Pearl Street Company, are reportedly set to include the inclusion rider in their future projects.
Fanshen Cox DiGiovanni made the announcement on Monday night via Twitter at the South by Southwest Film Festival.
.@michaelb4jordan Thank you for always supporting broader representation in the industry. On behalf of Pearl Street Films, Matt Damon, @BenAffleck, Jennifer Todd, Drew Vinton & I will be adopting the #InclusionRider for all of our projects moving forward. https://t.co/ODit24D2Rb
— Fanshen is at SXSW (@fanshen) March 13, 2018
Black Panther actor Michael B Jordan was one of the first few celebrities to announce that he supports inclusion riders after McDormand’s historic speech. “In support of the women & men who are leading this fight, I will be adopting the inclusion rider for all projects produced by my company Outlier Society,” he wrote on his Instagram profile on March 8.
In her acceptance speech, McDormand honoured the other women who were nominated in various categories. “Look around, ladies and gentlemen, because we all have stories to tell and projects we need financed,” she said. “Don’t talk to us about it at the parties… invite us into your office in a couple of days or you can come to ours, whichever suits you best, and we’ll tell you all about them,” she announced. She concluded her speech with: “I have two words for you: inclusion rider.”
Feature Image: Photo by Michael Tran/FilmMagic
