Inclusion In Movie Casting Has Seen Little Progress Since 2007, USC Annenberg Study Finds
deadline.comA new study by USC’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative has found little improvement in casting among marginalized groups in Hollywood’s most popular films, this despite years of advocacy for more representative characters on the big screen.
The study, released Thursday, examined characters’ genders, race/ethnicities, LGBTQ+ identities and those with disabilities for the 1,600 top-grossing films from 2007 to 2022, spanning 69,858 speaking roles.
While 2022 films saw increases in characters onscreen among women and girls as well as among underrepresented racial ethnic groups, overall those numbers were static over time, specifically among the former group, which despite seeing a 16-year high in leading or co-leading roles in 2022 (44%) saw almost no change since 2007 in the percentage of female-identified speaking characters (34.6% in 2022 compared with 29.9% in ’07).
The study found that only 15% of 2022’s top 100 films featured a cast that was gender-balanced, or featured girls and women in 45-54.9% of speaking roles. “It is clear that the entertainment industry has little desire or motivation to improve casting processes in a way that creates meaningful change for girls and women,” said Dr.
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