Cheryl Boone Isaac

HOLLYWOOD’S HIDDEN FIGURE Cheryl Boone Isaacs, recently retired president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, was the driving force behind many changes in Hollywood—including the academy’s diversification BY JACKIE KRENTZMAN diversitywoman.com Winter 2018 DIVERSITY WOMAN 27 CHERYL BOONE ISAACS and marketing, made changing the hide- bound nature of the academy one of her priorities, starting with diversification of the more than 6,500 members. When she became president in 2013, the mem- bership was 93 percent white and 76 percent male. In 2016, in part as a response to the #OscarsSoWhite backlash, Boone Isaacs kicked into high gear an initiative called A2020 (which had already been in the works) with the goal of significantly increasing the representation of women and people of color in the 17 branches of hen Cheryl Boone Isaacs was trying to the academy by 2020. So far the initiative launch a career in publicity in Hollywood is slowly and steadily working—from in the 1970s, she would cold-call studios. 2015 to 2017 the percentage of women When she would tell them her name to in the academy increased from 25 per- set up an appointment, the person on cent to 28 percent, and the percentage of the other end of the line invariably would people of color grew from 8 percent to 13 say, “Oh, are you one of Pat Boone’s down after four years as president of the percent. daughters?” Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sci- “Cheryl played a huge role in chang- “Then I would show up and get a long ences. She was its first African American ing both the numbers and the culture second look,” says Boone Isaacs, who president in its 90-year history and only of the academy,” says Reginald Hudlin, is African American. “There just wasn’t its third woman. Former presidents in- a film producer and director and former much diversity in Hollywood in those clude Hollywood royalty such as Gregory president of entertainment for BET. “She days.” Peck, Douglas Fairbanks, Bette Davis, and had to manage some of the toughest transi- Today, Hollywood is a more diverse Frank Capra. tions in the history of the academy—every industry, in part because of the efforts Boone Isaacs, who has a long and distin- couple of decades the institution has to of Boone Isaacs, who in 2017 stepped guished career in Hollywood in publicity reinvent itself to make sure it is relevant From left to right: Boone Isaacs with Academy “I am very interested in stories about people and Award–winning actress Octavia Spencer; their relationships to different cultures. I would with screenwriter, director, and producer Reginald Hudlin and actor and producer David have loved to have made Lion or Hidden Figures.” Oyelowo; (adjacent page) with actor Dev Patel. 28 DIVERSITY WOMAN Winter 2018 diversitywoman.com CHERYL BOONE ISAACS “I was out there, knocking on doors. It was very intimidating, especially as a black woman. There just was not much diversity in Hollywood back then.” for the next generation. Cheryl did that Boone Isaacs, who grew up in a middle- Despite some tear-drenched show- with her efforts around diversity of the class family in Springfield, Massachusetts, ers, her career took off. Boone Isaacs academy—which was not easy, as it is was the youngest of four in a tight fam- became executive vice president of very challenging to make changes with ily. Her father was a postal worker and her worldwide publicity for Paramount Pic- a group of very successful people who mother a stay-at-home mom. tures, where she was responsible for think things are fine just as they are.” Her life changed when she was a junior orchestrating the publicity campaigns Legendary studio executive Sherry in high school, and her sister moved to for Best Picture Oscar winners Forrest Lansing, who was the beneficiary of California to get married. Gump and Braveheart. She later was Boone Isaacs’s publicity work on several “When we were out there, and there was hired as president of theatrical market- films when she ran Paramount, says that no humidity, no mosquitoes, and no thun- ing for New Line Cinema, overseeing the changes Boone Isaacs implemented derstorms, I immediately thought, ‘I got the box office success of films such as at the academy may represent the pin- to come here,’” says Boone Isaacs. “In my Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, nacle of her career. senior year of high school there was a late and Rush Hour. I’ve known Cheryl Boone Isaacs for over spring snowstorm, and I said to myself, Hudlin, who first worked with Boone 30 years,” says Lansing. “As a producer ‘I can’t do this one more minute.’” Isaacs in 1992 when he was the director and, later, as chair of Paramount, I saw She moved to Southern California to at- of the Eddie Murphy vehicle Boomerang, firsthand how brilliant Cheryl was at her tend Whittier College. She knew no one in a film she was in charge of promoting, job. But perhaps Cheryl’s most impressive California except her sister. says he knew right away that she had achievement to date was her leadership of “Later in life, I realized that I like throw- what it took to succeed in the cutthroat the academy. She deftly steered the orga- ing myself in the deep end,” she says. world of Hollywood. nization through a period of highly visible After graduation Boone Isaacs turned “Paramount in that era was legendary, challenges and helped solidify its future as her attention to the film industry. Her and she fit in with that team of hard- a far more diverse and forward-thinking older brother Ashley Boone Jr. was already charging, high-powered executives,” he cultural institution.” entrenched as a successful motion picture says. “She was very impressive. Boomer- marketing and distribution executive, but ang was a big summer movie, and Ed- vercoming obstacles against she was determined to make her way on die Murphy was an important asset for heavy odds is nothing new for her own and didn’t use his name in the the company. She always handled things OBoone Isaacs. She was raised by early stages of her career. smoothly, she was always in control, her parents to view obstacles as challeng- Her first job was as a publicist for Co- there was no drama, no panic, in what- es and opportunities for growth. lumbia Pictures, promoting Steven Spiel- ever Cheryl was involved in. She had a berg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It grip on what to do and how to do it. So was the first of several movies she would when she became head of the academy, publicize for Spielberg, including the Indi- I was not surprised at all—it made so ana Jones series. much sense.” “I was such a little pisher, standing in Reflecting back, Boone Isaacs says she the corner scared to death!” she says. “I can’t choose a favorite director to work was out there, knocking on doors. It was for, or actor to help promote. Perhaps it’s very intimidating, especially as a black her politic, careful nature—which served woman. There just was not much diversity her well as the head of the academy. in Hollywood back then.” However, some projects do stand out, Sometimes she was so upset by the she says. “Naturally, Braveheart and For- slights that she would go home and cry in rest Gump were special because they won the shower. That became an indicator. Best Picture. Forrest Gump was probably “One of my rules was the minute I cried the most challenging film I ever had to pro- in the shower, I needed to look for another mote. Think about it. If you see this title— job,” she says. “And let me tell you, it hap- Forrest Gump—what does that mean? How pened more than once.” do you sell that to a broad audience?” diversitywoman.com Winter 2018 DIVERSITY WOMAN 29 CHERYL BOONE ISAACS “Cheryl deftly steered the organization through a period of highly visible challenges and helped solidify its future as a far more diverse and forward- thinking cultural institution.” —Sherry Lansing in 2013, she initially dismissed the idea. look around for new talent in its particu- Then she thought, “Why not me?” lar areas, and it worked.” The academy thought the same. That Small steps, but in an industry that has year, she was elected to the first of four traditionally been resistant to change, one-year terms. She had a full agenda, these numbers are meaningful, says starting with diversifying the academy. Boone Isaacs. And change takes time— As the academy gently nudges the mo- 2016 was the same year that the #Os- tion picture industry, the more diverse carSoWhite campaign broke out, as all of its 17 branches will become and the more that year’s Academy Award actor and ac- likely that more films will feature diverse tress nominees were white. casts and directors, and accordingly they The diversification was only one of will be nominated for the top awards. Boone Isaacs’s many priorities. She pre- Perhaps even more important, a more sided over the groundbreaking in 2016 diverse academy means that members of the Academy Museum of Motion Pic- are recommending and hiring talented tures, slated to open in 2019. She also diverse cinematographers, directors, edi- oversaw the launch of the Gold Talent tors, and publicists—broadening the di- Development and Inclusion Program, a versity of the industry as a whole.

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