Clippers coach DOC RIVERS was one of many speakers from the sports and entertainment industries who spoke about race, immigration, cultural diversity and inclusion at the CAA Amplify conference yesterday in Laguna Beach. About 150 people -- including actors, writers, directors, athletes, political leaders and activists -- attended the invite-only conference. Those seen at the conference included NBCUniversal Vice Chair RON MEYER, Universal Pictures Chair DONNA LANGLEY, former National Security Advisor SUSAN RICE, actor JESSE WILLIAMS, Gold Medal-winning U.S. sprinter SANYA RICHARDS-ROSS, Jaguars DT CALAIS CAMPBELL, former NFLer NNAMDI ASOMUGHA and ESPN’s DESMOND HOWARD. Speakers included CAA President RICHARD LOVETT; movie directors J.J. ABRAMS and AVA DUVERNAY; National Black Women’s Justice Institute co-Founder & President MONIQUE MORRIS; Warner Bros. Chair & CEO KEVIN TSUJIHARA; VALERIE JARRETT, former senior advisor to PRESIDENT OBAMA; actors KERRY WASHINGTON and RUPAUL CHARLES; Republican strategist and political commentator ANA NAVARRO and ACLU Exec Dir ANTHONY ROMERO.
DEALING WITH ADVERSITY: Rivers relayed a story about meeting with his team hours after the infamous DONALD STERLING audio tape became public in April ‘14. "That is not a good room," Rivers told the audience yesterday. "That is not a room you want to be in." The Clippers were in the middle of the first round of the NBA playoffs against the Warriors when the audio tape of the then-Clippers owner making racist statements was broadcast. That day when Rivers met with the team, some players were talking about not playing the Warriors, and only one player was wearing his Clippers shirt. Rivers started out the team meeting by telling them who he was and how he felt about what Sterling said. He told them he was Glen Rivers, not Doc Rivers, from Maywood, outside of Chicago. He told them how someone burned his house down to the ground, six years before, because he was black. "I told them if you think you are more pissed than me, you are nuts," Rivers said. "But it's not our anger that is going to get us through this. It's what we do that is going to get us through this." Rivers by then was getting messages on his phone from REV. JESSE JACKSON and REV. AL SHARPTON, and the players were getting other messages from people wanting them to make statements. Several team members did not want to play. "I've never said I wanted to win the world championship for Donald Sterling," Rivers said. "I wanted to win the world championship. I shared that with them. I said, 'He has nothing to do with what we're doing. And we should go out and represent us, not him.' And so we did; they decided to play." Race is not an issue that should be avoided, Rivers said. "The one thing we need to do is talk about race more."
POLITICAL HOT POTATO: Tsujihara talked about his decision to tell the story of his parents and grandparents being sent to internment camps during World War II in the Hollywood Reporter during last year’s Presidential race. He also expressed his concerns about anti-immigrant rhetoric during the polarizing election. "It was a tough decision, in that I try not to take political views on things," Tsujihara said, adding he tries to stay apolitical because of his position at Warner Bros. But he said the anti-immigration rhetoric really bothered him. "It just felt like I had a duty to do something," Tsujihara said. Washington, who starred in "Scandal," said she was working on a project about the ACLU and interviewed Romero on the stage. "We have filed 86 different lawsuits against the Trump administration since the election," Romero said to applause from the audience.
LOOKING FOR MORE DIVERSITY: Most of the speeches and panels were not about partisan politics so much, but about how to make storytelling, whether it be through film, television or the internet, more diverse. CAA launched the event by providing statistics showing that appealing to non-whites, as well as casting them was healthy for business. Larger percentages of non-whites go to movies than whites. In ‘15, 49% of movie tickets sold were sold to non-whites even though they make up 38% percent of the population. At every budget level, a cast that is at least 30% non-white outperforms a release that is not, in opening weekend box office, CAA found. The average opening weekend box office for a film that has a diverse cast of 30% or more non-white actors, is $31M versus $12M for films with non-diverse audiences, CAA found. This was the first year CAA hosted the multicultural conference which is intended as a way for thought leaders to exchange ideas, but Lovett said he hopes it becomes an annual event.
