'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,' Jordan said, just days after Frances McDormand deployed the term in her Oscars acceptance speech.
When Michael B. Jordan isn’t offering to pay for replacement retainers for teenagers who have clenched their teeth too hard during his shirtless “Black Panther” scene, he’s working to make Hollywood more inclusive.
At the Oscars on Sunday, Frances McDormand, who won an Academy Award for “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” delivered a rousing acceptance speech that ended with the term “inclusion rider” (and a mic drop). Her mention of the term — a practice that involves writing a requirement that a cast and crew be diverse into an actor’s contract, or asking the same of the film’s producers — drew a wave of interest after the awards show.
Jordan, 31, has pledged to apply the practice to all of the projects that come out of his production company, Outlier Society.
“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 posted on Instagram Wednesday. “I’ve been privileged to work with powerful woman (sic) & persons of color throughout my career & it’s Outlier’s mission to continue to create for talented individuals going forward.”
McDormand, who asked all female nominees in every category to stand during her Oscars acceptance speech, has certainly done a lot in just a few days to popularize the idea of the rider, even without defining the term for the audience. But Stacy Smith, director of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative at the University of Southern California, is credited with introducing the term and helping actors work such agreements into their contracts alongside civil rights attorney Kalpana Kotagal.
“It stipulates that in small and supporting roles, characters should reflect the world we live in,” Smith told Vanity Fair after the Oscars. The requirement would also apply to “below the line” (non-acting, writing and directing) positions on a film’s crew.
Jordan directed his followers to a link to the Inclusion Initiative in his Instagram bio.
The actor, who grew up in Newark, plays villain Erik Killmonger in the Marvel movie “Black Panther” and will return as Adonis Johnson in “Creed II” this fall opposite Tessa Thompson, Sylvester Stallone, Dolph Lundgren and Florian Munteanu. He started Outlier Society in 2016.
Outlier Society productions currently include the upcoming “Thomas Crown Affair” remake that will have Jordan starring the the lead role, the forthcoming Netflix series “Raising Dion,” in which he will have a role, and a film adaptation of the YA novel “The Stars Beneath Our Feet” that will see Jordan in the director’s chair for the first time.
Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AmyKup or on Facebook.