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A Year After Star Turn on Oscars, ‘Inclusion Riders’ Are Making Inroads in Hollywood

  • Film projects seek to add diversity, but progress is slow
  • ‘The studios have the memo and they are making changes’
Frances McDormand during the Women In Film 2018 Crystal + Lucy Awards in 2018. 

Frances McDormand during the Women In Film 2018 Crystal + Lucy Awards in 2018. 

Photographer: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images North America
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It’s been a year since Oscar viewers feverishly began Googling “inclusion rider” on their smartphones while watching the awards show.

Actress Frances McDormand, who dropped the legal bombshell in her Oscar speech, had only just heard the words herself. But “inclusion rider,” a provision in contracts that directs studios to hire more women and minorities, has quickly become a Hollywood byword. The brainchild of Stacy Smith, an associate professor at the University of Southern California, the clauses have been added to contracts for films by Michael B. Jordan and another bought by Apple Inc.