Michael B. Jordan helped studio bosses at Warner Bros. create their new inclusion policy.
The Black Panther actor is set to star in Just Mercy, a film about social activist and lawyer Bryan Stevenson, and he reveals the film is the first project that started with his inclusion policy.
"I helped Warner Bros. write their inclusion policy for the studio and Just Mercy, this movie I just got finished doing about Bryan Stevenson, is the first film under that policy," he told U.S. talk show The View on Wednesday (21Nov18). "It's pretty much the first step to open up the doors and set a precedent for other studios to follow that lead."
"It just basically means that it's mandatory in every department to see a person of colour, a woman, somebody from the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) community...," he continues. "Warner Bros. are stepping up and doing that is a huge step, it's a major (step). So salute to Warner Bros..."
Inclusion policies hit the headlines earlier this year (18) after Frances McDormand used her Best Actress acceptance speech at the Academy Awards to encourage her fellow industry playmakers to add inclusion riders to their contracts to help ensure equal opportunities for all in Hollywood.
Her empowering remarks prompted Jordan to announce he would introduce the riders at his own production firm, Outlier Society, as standard for all of their film and TV endeavours in March (18).
The idea of an inclusion rider was first raised by Dr. Stacy L. Smith, the founder and director of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, in a 2016 TED Talk.