HBO reaches a diversity milestone behind the camera

For years now, the Directors Guild of America (DGA) has been researching the demographics of people working behind the camera in Hollywood, and for years, the bulk of people in those jobs have been white men. For example, during the 2014-15 TV season, 77% of the directors working at HBO were white men, 14% were white women, 8% were men of color and one was a woman of color.

This lopsidedness has been widely reported in the media over the last handful of years, and HBO programming president Casey Bloys cites it as one of the reasons he and CEO Richard Plepler decided to make diversity a priority when Bloys was promoted in 2016. “It’s not a difficult thing to do,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “You need someone to push from the top and have everyone involved in the process.”

To that end, Bloys set up twice-a-year meetings with people from different departments where they’re free to make suggestions about directors who might work for a given show, limited series or movie. “It was about everyone being in the same room, in the same conversation, and being responsible and accountable for [the directing roster],” Bloys said.

The efforts paid off. For the 2017-18 season, the demographic split among HBO directors looked very different: 43% white men, 34% white women, 14% men of color and 9% women of color. This doesn’t mean that diversity is on the rise at every network, but HBO is making an effort. “It’s not just about hitting a number and then saying, ‘All right, we’re done,'” Bloys said. “It’s obviously something that we have to continue to work at and stay on top of. We constantly think about, ‘Who would we benefit from if they were in our ecosystem?'”

That’s a big part of the point of Bloys’ initiative; HBO isn’t trying to increase diversity just to do it, but because it’s good for business:

"If my job is to appeal, with high-quality programming, to a lot of different demographics, I think a good way to ensure you’re doing that and a good way to ensure you’re getting things right, is to have different points of view. It makes the stories real and authentic and, I would say, more emotional. It’s worth the effort because I believe that the end product is always going to be better."

At HBO, the push for more diversity behind the camera is seen mostly on newer shows like Westworld, Insecure, Barry and Big Little Lies. Game of Thrones, which has become the network’s biggest-ever hit since debuting in 2011, has only had one female director in its history: Michelle MacLaren, who directed four episodes across seasons 3 and 4. Meanwhile, Vanessa Taylor and Jane Espenson are the only women on the show with a writing credit to their names; they worked on four episodes between them.

According to Bloys, by the time he secured his new role, Game of Thrones was too far along to shake up. “To be honest, when I started two years ago, they were just finishing their sixth season,” he said. “It’s a giant show. By that point, it was a well oiled machine. They knew what they were doing they had their people in place, so it really wasn’t an area where I felt like it was going to make much change. When someone is building [a show], it’s easier to come in and say, ‘What about thinking about it this way?'”

To qualify, none of this is to say that showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss were wrong to make Game of Thrones as they did — clearly, it’s worked out for them — but bringing in different points of view does have a way of making you look at old problems in a new light. But as Bloys says, by the time he started up this initiative, Game of Thrones was already speeding to the finish line and there wasn’t a practicable way to slow it down and make changes.

However, the forthcoming Game of Thrones prequel show will have screenwriter Jane Goldman as showrunner, while series like Lovecraft Country (from Get Out writer/director Jordan Peel) and Watchmen will have more diversity backstage.

Watchmen in particular sounds like an interesting case. The show, from Lost creator Damon Lindelof, will take its cues from Alan Moore’s classic graphic novel but will forge its own path. It will have a diverse writer’s room made up of four white men, three women of color, one white woman and one man of color. To hear Bloys tell it, that’s by design.

"Because of the things that Damon wants to discuss, he felt, and I agree, the African-American voices were very important,. I don’t want to give away what the show is or who the characters are just yet, but he did have a lot of African-American voices in the room. If it is decided that it will go forward — and I’m crossing my fingers and fully expect it will — that will be an important component going forward."

I guess you could interpret that as a spoiler if you wanted to.

Anyway, to highlight their efforts, HBO is putting out a series of spots highlight women behind the camera, like this one of director Chloe Domont working on an episode of Ballers:

“It’s one thing to read a story about stats from the DGA or increasing numbers, and that’s great, but one thing I like about the spots is that it’s a different thing to see a woman cinematographer or director or comedy writer,” Bloys said. “If that’s what you want to do, just seeing that other people are doing it — just visually, that can be so powerful.”

The DGA’s new report on inclusion comes out in September.

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