The University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism has found that, yet again, Hollywood appears to not care much about diversifying the ranks of its films and director corps.
The study, “Inequality in 700 Popular Films,” showed that “about 73 percent of characters in the 100 top‐grossing films from 2014 were white, while less than 2 percent of directors for the same category were female.”
Invoking proportionate representation ideology, the research also determined that “less than 5 percent of all speaking or named characters in those movies were Hispanic or Latino, despite that group comprising about 17 percent of the U.S. population.”
Just 2.4 percent of recent top-grossing films were directed by Asians, comprising 19 Asian directors in total across the 700 top-grossing films, researchers said.
Hollywood’s apparent lack of diversity also impacted gender, as no female actors over 45 years of age were cast in a lead or co-lead role in 2014, according to the study. Only three of the female actors in lead or co-lead roles were from an underrepresented ethnic background.
The study also found a notable increase – 7.8 percent – in the number of female characters aged 40-64 years old when a female director was attached to a project.
In addition, a mere nineteen “speaking characters” out of over 4,600 in 2014’s top 100 films were gay, lesbian or bisexual.
The researchers offer an “easy and essential means” of enlarging the hue/gender/sexuality pool in popular films: alter the casting of supporting and background characters.
Superhero films have done just that in recent years. Witness Laurence Fishburne as The Daily Planet’s Perry White in Man of Steel, and Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm/the Human Torch in the just-released Fantastic Four.
There was even a bit of controversy in June over Spider-Man’s sexuality. As a result of the infamous Sony hacking, a licensing agreement revealed that the wall crawler should “‘not be homosexual’ in any onscreen depiction.”
Adding to the debate was Marvel Comics’ godfather Stan Lee, who concurred with the agreement.
Read the full USC study article.
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