Ryan Reynolds launches The Group Effort Initiative to increase diversity

Reynolds will take on diverse trainees for his new time-travel film due to shoot in Vancouver this autumn

By Chris Evans 2 Aug 2020

Ryan Reynolds launches The Group Effort Initiative to increase diversity

Hollywood A-lister Ryan Reynolds has launched The Group Effort Initiative to improve diversity in the film and TV industry. This will involve him paying for a diverse group of trainees to work on set and gain experience on his forthcoming productions.

Reynolds posted a video on The Group Effort Initiative website saying: “Making a movie is a group effort, but for entirely too long that group has systemically excluded black, indigenous, people of colour and a whole host of other marginalized communities. So, Covid willing, I’m going to be starting a movie this fall [Shawn Levy’s time-travelling film for Netflix and Skydance], and I’m committing to bringing between 10 and 20 trainees from the BIPOC community and other marginalized communities of all ages.

“These new recruits are going to be paid, housed and travelled out of my salary and they are going to spend their days on set learning from professionals, getting real life experience that they can then parlay into getting another job and then hopefully a career in the film industry.”

Reynolds worked with Dr. Stacy Smith of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative to help design The Group Effort Initiative, which he will employ for movies made under his Maximum Effort Productions company.

Levy’s film is due to shoot in Vancouver, Canada, but this is dependent on the state of the coronavirus in the country.

On Friday, Canada extended a measure barring most foreign travellers from entering the country and launched a new contact tracing app as part of its fight to control the pandemic.

While new infections and deaths in Canada have moderated in recent weeks, officials have urged people to stay on high alert and border restrictions are aimed at preventing a second wave.

 

 

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