Watch 'Creed' Director Ryan Coogler Talk Diversity in Hollywood, Salute Film Critic
Creed director Ryan Coogler gave an impassioned speech at the Los Angeles Film Critics Awards last weekend. See it above as he honors Variety’s Justin Chang for giving criticism a new voice and issuing a challenge to the next generation of film critics.
Accepting the New Generation Award, an honor Coogler was relieved didn’t carry a “best” connotation, he accepted it as a challenge to continue putting his voice into the world. The 29-year-old director recalled the first time he ever saw a critic actually doing the work of film criticism. It was at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, his first trip overseas. With a short film in tow, he found himself spending a lot of time at the Variety press tent.
“There was this guy that was going crazy, typing on his laptop, then he’d run off. Then he’d come back, type away, run off,” Coogler recalled. “He typed like a madman, and I recognized that. It was passion, trying to get the words out. He looked Asian, and I found out it was Justin Chang.”
He encouraged the room, “in this world of Rotten Tomatoes and clickbait,” to continue that work, and issued a challenge in return. “Reach back into the community and find the next Justin Chang,” he said. “Find the diversity. Find the voices that are in those places you might not think to look, because it will be amazing to see the next generation. Maybe more of them will look like Sue [Kroll, president of Warner Bros.]. Maybe more of them will look like me and Mike [Jordan, star of Creed]. Maybe more of them will look like Justin.”
