A USC Annenberg Study Finds That There Hasn’t Been Much Change In How Movies Cast People Since 2007:
A new study by the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative at USC found that Hollywood’s most popular movies haven’t changed much when it comes to hiring people from underrepresented groups, even though people have been pushing for this for years.
The study, which came out on Thursday, looked at the genders, races, cultures, LGBTQ+ identities, as well as disabilities of 69,858 speaking parts in the top 1,600 movies from 2007 to 2022.
The COVID-19 Outbreak Made A Lot Of Changes To Going To The Movies:
Even though there were more female and girl characters in 2022 movies and more characters from underrepresented race and ethnic groups, the number of women and girl characters stayed the same over time.
Even though the number of leading or co-leading parts reached a 16-year high in 2022, the number of female-identified speaking personalities hardly changed since 2007: 34.6% in 2022 and 29.9% in 2007.
The COVID-19 pandemic might have changed going to the movies in important ways, yet it did not make minority groups feel more welcome. A new study shows where the most popular movies of the last year have improved and where they haven’t.
The Study Revealed That Just 15% Of The Top 100 Movies Of 2022 Had An Equal Number OF Men And Women In The Group:
The study showed that only fifteen percent of the top 100 movies of 2022 had an equal number of men and women in the group, meaning that girls and women had 45–54.9% of the speaking parts.
The study was written by Dr. Stacy L. Smith, Dr. Katherine Pieper, and Sam Wheeler. Dr. Smith said, “It appears that the film and television industry has little interest or motivation to enhance casting procedures in a manner that makes a real difference for girls and women.”
“After decades of activism as well as advocacy, the lack of growth is extremely disappointing.” Inclusion rates in the investigation were worse when both gender and race were taken into account.
By 2022, No Movie Will Have A Girl Or Woman Who Is An American Indian As Well As An Alaska Native:
In 2022, “there were no movies with American Indian or Alaska Native girls or women, 99 were missing Native Hawaiian as well as Pacific Islander girls or women, and 95 had no female characters from the Middle East or North Africa.”
Seventy movies didn’t have any girls or women who were mixed race or mixed ethnicity. 61 of them didn’t have any Hispanic as well as Latina girls or women, 44 didn’t have any Asian girls or women, and 32 didn’t have any black or African American girls as well as women. “On the other hand, there were no white girls or women in seven movies,” the study said.
Asian characters were the only overlooked race or ethnic group to make real progress. The number of Asian characters went from 3.4% within 2007 to 15.9% in 2022.
Only 2.1% Of The Actors Who Spoke In 2022’s Best Movies Were LGBTQ+:
Only 2.1% of characters who spoke in the top pictures of 2022 were LGBTQ+. This number hasn’t changed much since 2014. There were 5 transgender characters in the top films of 2022. This is the most transgender characters in a top film in the last nine years.
But four of these five-figure actors only showed up in one film, Bros. More than half of the 87 LGBTQ+ figures shown in 2022 were men, and 58.8% of them were white.
In 2022, 72 movies didn’t have a single LGBTQ+ character, and 84 of them didn’t have any girls or women who were LGBTQ+. Also, only 1.9% of the top films had people with disabilities, which is the same as 2015, when that number was 2.4%.
In 2022, 44 Movies Did Not Have A Single Character With A Disability:
Most disabled figures had a physical disability (82.7%), then a communication disability (33.3%), and then a brain disability (17.3%).
In 2022, there was no one with a disability in 54 movies, and there were no girls or women with disabilities in 76 movies. Most people with disabilities were men (69.1%), and most of them were white (76%).
Smith said, “These trends show that there isn’t much hope for individuals from underrepresented racial as well as ethnic groups.”
8.8% Of The Highest Grossing Film Directors In 2022 Were Women:
“It’s good to see that leading characters and the Asian community are changing, but our data upon invisibility shows that there’s still a lot more to do to make certain that the diversity that occurs in real life is shown on screen.”
Behind the lens, the study looked at how key film workers deal with diversity. In 2022, 8.8% of the top-grossing film directors were women. This number is the same as it was in 2021 (12.4%) and is up from 2007’s 2.7% but the same as 2008’s 8%.
In the last 16 years, 88 women have directed top-grossing movies, while 833 men have done the same.
A Survey Of Directors Revealed That Only 1% Of Them Were Black:
In the 1,600 films that were looked at for the poll, there were only 10 black, Latino, as well as Asian producers. Only 12.2% of casting directors were from groups that don’t get enough roles.
In addition to talking about how inclusion is right now, the writers offer answers that focus upon changing the processes that lead to unfair results and making decisions based on criteria. Smith said, “We’ve been giving the same solutions for years.”
It’s Clear That The Sector Either Isn’t Paying Attention Or Isn’t Doing Anything About It:
“It’s clear that the business isn’t listening or isn’t doing the simple things that would bring in more skilled people from different backgrounds.
Companies and viewers will missing these points of view and stories until the business does something about it.
In 2022, 19.5% of directors were from a race or ethnic group that wasn’t well-represented. 80.5% of the directors for 2022 were white, 10.6% were Asian, 3.5% were black, 3.5% were from more than one race or ethnicity, and 1.8% were Hispanic or Latino.
