The Falcon and the Winter Soldier actor Anthony Mackie has previously called out Marvel Studios’ lack of diversity when it comes to hiring cast and crew members. The studio, known for its various characters across franchises, has always promoted diversity and inclusion.
In a recent report revealing Disney’s discriminatory practices, an executive boss has been caught admitting their active racist hiring process towards actors.
Disney Boss Caught On Camera Revealing Studio’s Racist Hiring Procedure
In a video shared by O’Keefee Media Group, Disney Senior VP Michael Giordano revealed Disney’s practice in terms of hiring actors and gave an instance when they passed on a Black actor because he wasn’t Black enough.
We wanted to hire somebody in a department from a few years ago now, who was half black but didn’t appear half black. And there was a creative executive who was like, ‘That’s not what’s wanted.’ They wanted somebody in meetings who would appear a certain way, and he wasn’t gonna bring that to the meeting.
He confirmed that this was on the corporate side of the company. The interviewer said that she has many Black friends who aren’t so dark-skinned, and asked if this was something that Disney so profusely cared about.
Giordano stated, “They say they don’t care about it, but the truth is, to some extent, they do.” The Disney boss revealing the company’s practice will definitely stir more buzz on social media. He said that “if you’re mixed, you don’t look black at all” then the casting directors would not be sure about hiring you.
What’s more alarming was his revelation that Disney’s mindset when it comes to this is that diversity means more profit. Giordano explained that they have this belief that “we’re gonna make more money if we appeal to a wider variety of people” before adding, “we have shareholders too and diversity helps with that.”
Is the diversity plan only a strategy to reach more people across the world to gain more profit and not mainly to show authentic representation on screen? Even actor Anthony Mackie isn’t pleased with the company’s production crew.
Anthony Mackie Calls Out Disney For Lack Of Diversity
Prior to the release of Disney+’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Anthony Mackie complained about the lack of diversity in Marvel’s production team. He says it bothered him that he’s done seven MCU films, and almost everyone was white.
Black Panther had an all-Black cast, and he pointed out via Variety how having “a Black director, Black producer, a Black costume designer, a Black stunt choreographer” is “more racist than anything else.” What the actor meant was that there’s an imbalance in the distribution of employees.
Because if you only can hire the Black people for the Black movie, are you saying they’re not good enough when you have a mostly white cast?
The actor could only hope for the better and he wishes to see improvements in Disney’s hiring process. There had been a rise of protests over systemic racism in Hollywood so the studio should know better.
