Oscars 2018: What did Frances McDormand mean by 'inclusion rider'?

Frances McDormand wins Best Actress at the 90th Academy Awards. (Image: Reuters)

"I have two words for you: inclusion rider."

That's how Best Actress winner Frances McDormand ended her acceptance speech at the Oscars, in the process sending viewers googling for what she meant, or even what she'd said.

External Link: Dean Wehrli tweet: 30 million people are googling “inclusion rider” and 10 million are googling “inclusion writer”

But as it turns out, you'd be forgiven for having never heard the term, because McDormand herself reportedly only recently learned it:

External Link: Hollywood Reporter tweet: "Frances McDormand talks inclusion riders backstage: 'You can ask for or demand at least 50% diversity in not only the casting and the crew. The fact that I just learned that after 35 years in the film business – we aren’t going back'"

Here's what an inclusion rider is

Basically, it's a clause which is added to contracts to enforce equitable casting and hiring, with financial penalties for failure to comply.

It's promoted as a solution to getting more under-represented demographics in front of and behind the camera on film sets.

Dr Stacy Smith, the founder of the University of Southern California's Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, came up with the idea along with Washington lawyer Kalpana Kotagal.

They say their intention was to combat "unconscious and explicit bias" without compromising the story.

"The inclusion rider focuses on improving diversity in smaller, minor parts that do not impact story sovereignty or interfere with financing or insurance," the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative said.

Analysis released in January showed the lack of diversity in Hollywood

The Annenberg Inclusion Initiative looked at 1,100 Hollywood films from 2007 to 2017, and said the results were disheartening.

It found that only 4 per cent of the directors were women, while 5.2 per cent were black or African-American and 3.2 per cent were Asian or Asian-American.

The inclusion rider as designed by Dr Smith and Ms Kotagal would mean 50 per cent gender parity for small and supporting roles, as well as inclusion for people of colour (40 per cent), LGBTQ people (5 per cent) and people with disabilities (20 per cent).

External Link: Ted Talk: Dr Stacy Smith on the data behind Hollywood sexism

The hope is that A-listers start to add inclusion riders to their contracts

Dr Smith didn't mention if any A-listers have used one of these inclusion riders yet.

But earlier this year, actress Octavia Spencer revealed that Jessica Chastain had helped her negotiate a higher salary for a film they're working on together.

Immediately after the Oscars, Dr Smith told Vanity Fair: "If you get the Hollywood elite to adopt it in their contracts, it becomes baked in."

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