One Thing: Hollywood Promised Increased Inclusion. Jews Say They Were Left Out. – CNN 5 Things

I saw a movie recently that I cannot stop thinking about. No, not Dune two. I’m talking about the Zone of Interest.

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It’s about the Nazi who ran the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War two. He and his family lived literally right outside the camp and a beautiful house. They have a pristine garden and a pool for the kids. But on the other side of their garden walls, unspeakable horrors are unfolding. And yet, this family just goes about their lives.

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‘Now, while you do hear what’s going on at the camp, you don’t see any of all the horror is off screen. It’s genocide as white noise. And that’s actually been one of the criticisms of the film, that there are no Jewish characters at all. Now, that very well may have been the directors intent. But it does raise some familiar questions. Who has the right to tell a Holocaust story? Why do so many of them focus on Jewish pain rather than Jewish resilience? Why not make a movie about ordinary Jewish life? Well, as Hollywood gathers for the Academy Awards, a group of Jewish Hollywood figures are asking, why are we not a bigger part of the industry’s diversity push? My guest this week is CNN entertainment correspondent Elisabeth Sagmeister. We’re going to talk about what Hollywood’s complicated history with anti-Semitism can tell us about diversity and inclusion on and off screen. From CNN, this is One Thing. I’m David Rind.

So, Elizabeth, earlier this year, you did some reporting on a letter that was sent to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which is the titular academy of the Academy Awards. Tell me about.

‘It. Yes. So this was an open letter that was signed by around 300 figures in Hollywood, including actors, directors, producers, agents, screenwriters, and so forth. And some of the biggest names from this list were David Schwimmer, of course, from friends, also the co-creator of friends, Marta Kauffman, Tiffany Haddish, Debra messing, the list goes on and on. And what these figures are calling out the Academy for is they are saying that Jews are not included in the Academy’s inclusion and diversity standards. Now, let me explain what those standards are.

They’re calling it the Academy Award white outs.

There’s not much diversity, and that is what the hashtag OscarsSoWhite is all about. But when the hashtag OscarsSoWhite went viral back in 2015, that’s what first really put the Academy on notice for their total lack of diversity.

Spike Lee, an honorary Academy Award winner, took to Instagram saying in part, quote, how is it possible? For the second consecutive year, all 20 contenders under the actor category are white.

For many nominees, the question has been less who are you wearing? And more, who do you stand with?

The reason why that hashtag was born is because all 20 actors across all of the acting categories were all white.

I still cannot believe that was before. Honestly, that is so crazy.

I remember the day that those nominations were announced and I couldn’t believe it then. And I still can’t believe it now. You know, this is not ancient history. This was 2015.

You realize if they nominated host, I wouldn’t even get this job. So y’all be watching Neil Patrick Harris right now.

‘And, you know, to their credit, the Academy has made great efforts to increase the diversity among their voting body. And back in 2020, as part of the Academy’s new diversity efforts, they unveiled a new set of standards that require films to submit data on inclusion for the crew and everyone working on the film. In order to be considered for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Now, these initiatives were unveiled in 2020, but the upcoming Oscars this year in 2024, of course, are the first year that these standards go into effect. Within those initiatives, the Academy outlined what they referred to as underrepresented groups, and part of those underrepresented groups included women, LGBTQ, plus people with cognitive or physical disabilities, as well as racial or ethnic groups. The racial and ethnic groups that were outlined in the Academy standards are Asian, Hispanic, black, indigenous, Middle Eastern, Native Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islander. But what this letter in particular is saying is that Jewish people were omitted from those groups. And in the aftermath of October 7th, when we know that antisemitism is spiking in America and around the world, these signatories are saying that this adds to the growing anti-Semitism.

Right. And you listed a ton of underrepresented groups that I think would sound familiar to a lot of people, but Jews maybe not. So. And, you know, kind of hanging all over this is this dark stereotype, right, that Jews control Hollywood, they’re in Hollywood. And this group is kind of saying, you guys have that wrong.

Absolutely. That is what this group is saying. And I actually spoke to the individual who organized this open letter. Her name is Allison Josephs, and she is the founder of the advocacy group called Jew in the city. And here is what she told me, David. She said, quote, Jews are a very misunderstood group, which means that while other communities have benefited from diversity, inclusion and authentic storytelling, Jews have been left out. Jews have historically stood with other marginalized groups, but unfortunately have not stood up for themselves. But this letter shows that something is changing. Now, it remains to be seen if this will move the needle, because the Academy has not responded to this letter. I did reach out to them. They declined to comment. You know, this was weeks and weeks ago, and here we are on Oscar Sunday. And still no comment. In response from the Academy.

So, Elizabeth, for this group. What exactly are they taking issue with? Is it Jewish people not getting opportunities to play Jewish characters? Is it something deeper, like what is this frustration actually look like?

So there have been a lot of people who, over the years in Hollywood, have called out the industry, for saying that Jews are essentially only represented in Holocaust centric movies.

Yes, our little girl is looking more and more like Winston Churchill every day. You know, it’s a big Yalta head, but that’s not a reason to leave, right?.

Now over the years, we have seen various versions of Jewish representation. You know, something that comes to mind is The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which shows a lot of Jewish culture.

Oh, my God, Esther’s not gone, ignore him. Touch my belly. It’s a mitzvah maybe later She’s gone! she’s really gone!

You know. Now, of course, that is just one sector that’s very specific to a certain time period in New York. So there’s criticism about how Jews are represented on screen, but also who should play Jewish people? Again, this is not something, that is specific to only Jewish people.

If somebody doesn’t sing and you that nothing sinks in you, and if nothing sings and do that, you can make music.

But most recently, we’re talking about the Oscars, right? And, Bradley Cooper was at the center of controversy for his film maestro for the nose exactly. But Hollywood does have a long, complicated history when it comes to Jewish representation and inclusion. This goes back decades and decades, David, all the way back to the people who built Hollywood in the early 1920s, and they were afraid of being outed as Jews. When the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures opened a few years ago, you know, they received a lot of praise for showing all the contributions of women and artists of color and people from all sorts of background and the contributions that they made to the film industry. But the one group that was absent in this opening of the museum was these Jewish immigrants, who were known again as the founding fathers of the Hollywood studio system.

And now it is our thrill and honor to present the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award to the incredible, the indomitable Barbra Streisand.

This actually just came up in this award season in 2020 for Barbra Streisand. She took the stage at the SAG Awards last month, where she was honored with a big Lifetime Achievement award.

What an idea. Moving pictures on the screen. And I can’t help but think back to the people who built this industry.

And she noted that the Founding Fathers, as they’re known of Hollywood, who helped establish Warner Brothers, MGM and Paramount, they were all Jews.

They were all fleeing the prejudice they faced in Eastern Europe simply because of their religion. And they were dreamers too, like all of us here tonight. And now I dream of a world where such prejudice is a thing of the past.

So it sounds like this group that wrote this letter that we started talking about, they’re not just necessarily thinking about that. They, you know, maybe want more specific kind of roles played by certain people, but that there is this history that has been kind of sanded off of Hollywood and, and there are dangers to kind of forgetting some of that stuff.

‘That’s exactly what they are saying. And they’re saying that especially in the aftermath of the events of October 7th, they’re saying that by Hollywood and the Academy leaving Jews out, that it is adding to these dangerous levels of anti-Semitism.

But beyond, you know, what’s kind of outlined at the Academy Museum or these inclusion and diversity requirements for the Academy Awards, like, is that kind of stuff doing anything to actually push the industry forward in terms of getting underrepresented groups, underrepresented people into positions where they can succeed and have flourishing careers, like where is Hollywood at in terms of that actual progress beyond just who is up on stage at an awards show?

It’s a really good question because, you know, covering the entertainment industry, I often get some comments from people saying, why should we care about what celebrities say? Right? But the truth is, is that Hollywood is a prism through which a lot of people can see their lives. So when Hollywood does something, there can be a trickle down effect on other industries. But where do we really see the results? You know, with the Academy in terms of diversity? We’ve seen results there with a wider voting body. You know, we’ve also seen changes in the studio system, in the agency system where there are more women in power. But there was just a study that came out, about female directors and female representation in films. And the numbers are staggering. It’s at an all time low for the past decade, so it feels like it is one step forward and a few steps back.

Right? Barbie is just one movie and doesn’t necessarily represent where the industry is at on a whole.

Absolutely.

So since it’s Oscar SundayElizabeth. Can I get some hot take predictions from you like. And I’m talking like a hot take because I know Oppenheimer is probably going to win Best Picture and a bunch of other awards, but like, give me a prediction that’s going to like blow my socks off that people listening on Monday and Tuesday can listen back and say, wow, she’s really smart.

Okay. Well, that is you know, that scares me because my but my here’s what I will say. I do think that this Oscars will be fairly predictable. I do think Oppenheimer will win best picture, best director, best actor, best supporting actor. But when it comes to the Best Actress category, Lily Gladstone from killers of the Flower Moon, has been the shoo in since the beginning of awards season, and however, I think there’s a good chance that Emma Stone wins. Of course, if Lily Gladstone won, she would become the first indigenous woman to win in this category. So that would be a major history making moment. Emma Stone has already won an Oscar. Doesn’t mean that she doesn’t deserve another one, but I think that that could be the opposite of the night.

Well, there you go. And, for anybody listening on, Monday or later in the week, they can look back and say, hey, they were really smart. And if it’s the opposite, I don’t know if we want to hear about.

This is what they’re going to say. They’re going to say she was wrong.

Thank you.

One Thing is a production of CNN audio. This episode was produced by Paola Ortiz and me, David Rind. Our senior producer is Faiz Jamil. Our supervising producer is Greg Peppers. Matt Dempsey is our production manager. Dan Dzula is our technical director. And Steve Lickteig, is the executive producer of CNN Audio. We get support from Haley Thomas, Alex Manasseri, Robert Mathers, John Dianora, Leni Steinhart, Jamus Andrest, Nichole Pesaru, and Lisa Namerow. Special thanks to Jason Kravarik and Katie Hinman. And just one thing I asked you guys last week for some ratings and reviews on Apple Podcasts and wow, did you guys deliver! I see you backbone93. Phantomcupcake. Jenneymess. Suzmok keep it coming, guys. Thank you. We’ll be back next week.