Gabrielle Union calls for entertainment industry reform: ‘Dismantle the whole thing’
Gabrielle Union discussed her recent discrimination complaint against NBC and head Paul Telegdy on The Daily Show With Trevor Noah, Tuesday. Union was a judge America’s Got Talent, where she claims she was the victim of discrimination and racism. Union believes the issue is not unique to AGT or NBC, in fact she thinks it is a systemic problem in the entertainment industry as a whole. “We have been so committed as an industry -- I mean, and every industry is facing the same thing-- with going along to get along, trying to figure out how you work around the bad apples as opposed to addressing and making those bad apples accountable and their being real consequences,” said Union. Union believes that the industry needs to be more diverse from top to bottom. She admits that it may not be possible to achieve significant results without significant change. “You have to dismantle the whole thing,” said Union. “You can't put a Band-Aid on a gunshot.”
Video Transcript
GABRIELLE UNION: We have been so committed as an industry, and every industry is facing the same thing, with going along to get along, trying to figure out how you work around the bad apples, as opposed to addressing and making those bad apples accountable and there being real consequences.
- Actress and former "America's Got Talent" judge Gabrielle Union appeared on "The Daily Show" Tuesday, where she discussed her current discrimination complaint against NBC Entertainment and its chairman, Paul Telegdy, and how the entertainment industry as a whole needs to be more diverse.
GABRIELLE UNION: There has to be an increase in representation across the board, from the top to the bottom. Who gets to make the decisions of which projects to greenlight? Who is a part of those development processes? Who gets to determine budgets? Who gets to determine who gets opportunities and why? We have to be able to be OK with change that doesn't always benefit us.
- Union hopes industry heads like Telegdy will be held accountable for their actions and the actions of their star employees. As for the systemic discrimination issues, she believes they are so bad that the whole industry might need to be dismantled.
GABRIELLE UNION: Some people believe that leadership, the only way to lead, is to center yourself in every argument. What I'm learning throughout this whole process is, sometimes the best way to lead is to get out of the way and make room for someone else. We have to dismantle the whole thing. You can't put a Band-Aid on a gunshot. We can't.
