Sorry, Barbie. Hollywood gets failing marks when it comes to reflecting diversity onscreen

Between Barbie, The Little Mermaid, and even 80 for Brady, 2023 might’ve seemed like a strong year for women in Hollywood.

But a little less than a third of the speaking characters in last year’s top 100 movies were girls or women, and even fewer were tapped for leading roles, according to a new report released Monday.

The Inequality in 1,700 Popular Films report, by the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative and its founder Stacy L. Smith, is the latest addition to a 17-year study that analyzes gender, race, ethnicity, LGBTQ+ identity, and characters with disabilities in the most popular movies.

“Once again, we document that there has been virtually no progress for girls and women on screen — across 1,700 films, 17 years,” Smith told LAist. “That to me really communicates despite all the activism, all the press attention, all of the programs affiliated with the companies that make these films, there's a real disconnect between how do you create change, and how do you perform what you think might create change, and it’s essentially not working.”

Report highlights

More than 5,000 speaking characters were analyzed for gender, and the report found that only 30 of the top 100 films cast a girl or woman as a lead or co-lead. That’s “substantially lower” than the year before, but on par with 2010.

Of those 30 films, less than half of the female roles were filled by an underrepresented racial or ethnic group. And only three films had a leading or co-leading woman who was 45-years-old or older (Keri Russell, Nia Vardalos, and Salma Hayek).

For comparison, more than two-thirds of the speaking roles went to men or boys, while nonbinary characters were featured in less than 1% of last year’s top films.

“If the industry wants to survive its current moment, it must examine its failure to employ half the population on screen,” Smith said in a statement.

Does genre make a difference?

Genre matters. For example, there were less women and girls on screen in action movies, 26.7%, than in animation or comedy films. But 2023 wasn’t much better from the year before when comparing the number of women and girls in any of those genres.

Women were also more likely to be cast as parents than men, which is similar to when the research started in 2007.

Notably, there was a connection between the gender of the director and the gender of the speaking characters on screen. Films with at least one woman director attached to the project were more likely to have female speaking characters on screen, as well as leads and co-leads.

“Who the director is matters in terms of the stories that they tell, and who populates life on screen,” Smith said.

How does race and ethnicity play out on the big screen?

Smith noted this trend extends behind the scenes in terms of race and ethnicity as well.

Women and people of color are often only offered projects or characters that match their identity or community group, she said, and that’s part of the bias.

“They're only getting to participate, they're only getting pitched, or they're only getting greenlit those stories that are just similar to themselves, which is incredible,” she said. “But there's one group, white men, who get the opportunity to tell any type of story. So the reality is opportunity is not equal across groups.”

The percentage of white characters dropped significantly from the year before, but they still make up more than half of all speaking roles.

The number of Asian characters, on the other hand, went up. They made up 18% of all speaking characters, which is a significant jump from the 3% in 2007, but not much higher than the year before.

There were no significant changes for any other racial or ethnic groups across the 17 years of research, according to the report.

The report also found that 42 of the top 100 films had no Hispanic or Latino characters with speaking parts, 31 had no Asian characters with speaking parts, and 18 had no Black or African American characters with speaking parts.

What about LGBTQ+ characters?

A little more than 1% of speaking characters in the top films were identified as belonging to the LGBTQ+ community.

According to the report, there hasn’t been “meaningful change” in this area since a decade ago.

There were 60 LGBTQ+ characters across last year’s top movies, and 31 were gay, 20 were lesbian, eight were bisexual, and one identified with another sexuality.

No transgender characters were featured, and more than three-quarters of the films didn't include a single LGBTQ+ character, similar to the year prior.

However, five movies featured a LGBTQ+ lead or co-lead, including The Color Purple, Poor Things, Bottoms, Saltburn, and Knock at the Cabin.

How people with disabilities are portrayed, if at all

Characters with disabilities haven’t been much better either — there’s been no change in their prevalence, according to the report's findings.

A little more than 2% of all speaking characters were shown with a disability, which is almost identical to 2015.

“For people with disabilities, there is so much room here to think about how do you incorporate storylines that reflect 27% of the U.S. population,” Smith said.

They were more likely to have a physical disability, 73% of characters, followed by communicative and cognitive disabilities. Most characters with disabilities were men or boys, and more than half were white.

And 42 films didn’t feature any characters with a disability, and three-quarters didn’t include girls and women with disabilities.

A little more than one-third of people with disabilities on screen were “inconsequential” to the plot, according to the report.

“When it comes to the representation of the LGBTQ+ community and people with disabilities there is one question for the entertainment industry,” Smith said in a statement. “What will it take to increase inclusion of these groups on screen and to diversify portrayals so they reflect the breadth and vitality of people who identify as LGBTQ+ and/or live with a disability?”

What this means for Hollywood

The reports document perception versus reality in the movie industry, and Smith said 2023 certainly wasn’t “Year of the Woman.”

Hollywood is still recovering from the double strikes, COVID, and several other financial headwinds, which she noted is a factor in the research.

“Often in times of economic hardship, diversity, equity and inclusion isn't as much of a priority,” she said.

That’s led to a downturn almost across the board, and Smith is hesitant to highlight films that did something right, because there’s always room for improvement.

The data also hasn’t really changed over the past 17 years, which she described as “absolutely mind-numbing” and occasionally infuriating.

“If you think about the audience and you think about Gen Z, this is one of their number one values,” she said. “Movies like Bottoms, for example" — a sleeper comedy hit about two best friends navigating high school as lesbian virgins — "they resonate with the storylines that reflect the experiences that they're thinking about, and they care about, and inclusion is one of them.”