Minority representation both on the screen and behind the scenes in film has remained stagnant, according to a USC report released Wednesday by the Media, Diversity and Social Change Initiative at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
The group's most recent study, just one in a long line of research by the initiative on diversity in Hollywood, analyzes character demographics within the 100 highest-grossing films of 2015. The study found little change from 2014 in all major categories of underrepresented groups, except in the case of woman leads, which were found in 11 percent more films than before.
Other stand-out statistics include the fact that there were no lead LGBT-identified characters in 2015, and only 2.4 percent of characters were disabled. Of the speaking named characters, only 12.2 percent were black, 5.3 percent were Latino and 3.9 percent were Asian.
Stacy Smith, who led the research and acts as an associate professor at USC Annenberg, stressed that despite all the activism and press attention the need for diversity in film has received, very little has actually changed.
"We're seeing entrenched inequality," Smith said in an interview with KPCC. "Whether we're studying gender, race, ethnicity, LGBT or characters with disabilities, we're really seeing exclusionary forces leaving out anybody that's not a straight, white, able-bodied man."
According to the study, Hollywood is "an epicenter of cultural inequality" and not enough is being done by major players in the movie industry. Although films like "Creed," "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," "Mad Max: Fury Road," and "Straight Outta Compton" made shockwaves in box office success this year, Hollywood has mostly remained as it was before — a place that hypersexualizes young women, kills off LGBT characters and erases the entire disabled population.
"We've seen a lot of talk and little action," Smith said. "What we need now is for companies to take the same leadership position, be transparent in their inclusion goals and be accountable to representing the actual world we live in when it comes to the demography of the U.S."
USC students involved in Smith's research, such as junior Tara Bitrun, said that though working with Smith has been valuable to the way they view films, the lack of minority representation was not a new concept to them.
"I don't even know if I can say if I'm surprised," Bitrun said. "I've watched a lot of media in my life and I've seen the patterns again and again. [The research] reinforced with me what should be changed."
Bitrun said the research she conducted on under-representation of disabled people in Hollywood hit closest to home for her — Wednesday's study found that only 2.4 percent of characters in 2015 films were identified as disabled, while 18.7 percent of the U.S. population identify as disabled, according to the 2010 census.
"My sister is on the [autism spectrum]," Bitrun said. "She is 17 years old. I think it's really important to have representation that is accurate to how people with disabilities live their lives."
Smith concurs, citing that when a group is so minimally represented, it "merits more investigation."
Reach Staff Reporters Emma Peplow and Rennie Svirnovskiy here and here, respectively.
Annenberg Media