2020 has changed everything, and Variety sat down with Hollywood stars and executives to discuss how COVID and Black Lives Matter changed everything, and how the industry should move forward.
GEORGE CLOONEY
Clooney said perspective is important: “We shot a movie The Midnight Sky that was designed to be shown in theaters. The first thing I said to the Netflix guys was ‘I don’t want anybody to ever say, “Stay home from school, don’t go out for dinner, but definitely come to see my movie.”‘ There’s no reality in it. So the movie is going to come out on Netflix. We told them we’d shoot it in 65mm because it’s night and day when you see it on a giant screen. This particular film is made for that. But if you can’t, you can’t. There are a lot bigger issues in the world right now than that.”
He added: “It was a terrible year that started with Kobe Bryant dying. When Chadwick Boseman died, I remember that gut-punch feeling that this year was designed to test our mettle.”
Clooney also said that the government should bail theaters out: “We should be giving federal aid to the theaters. The movie industry, Hollywood, which everybody loves to crap all over, is one of the largest exporters of original product in the United States. I would make the argument that they should be subsidizing the theaters and keeping everybody afloat.”
PHARRELL WILLIAMS
On how Black Lives Matter should change things: “The biggest challenge is the system becoming hyper-aware of its purposeful blockages and making things more equitable for all people. We need more advocates and allies. Those things seem so obvious, but it doesn’t to a lot of people because a fish doesn’t know it’s wet. It requires extreme self-awareness, an extreme level of empathy, to say, ‘OK, that’s not so nice.'”
LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA
On Broadway’s historic shut-down: “The loss to the theater community is already incalculable. It’s shown people who go into this way of life how fragile it is, how dependent we are on each other, and when the ability to gather is taken away, how long it can take. I’ve written rec letters for fellow actors who are going into other lines of work. That’s a real hole, and I don’t know who is going to come back on the other side of it.”
JASON KILAR
The WarnerMedia CEO on industry adjustments to the crisis: “The pandemic is absolutely accelerating change because consumers are changing. In the case of WarnerMedia, this means that we need to talk about the fan. Let’s talk about the customer. And let’s talk about the amazing things that we can do on their behalf. That really is what our business comes down to, which is how can we move the world through story, which, of course, is very firmly focused on the fan. And what we want to do is leverage every single tool in the arsenal to be able to do a better job each and every day.”