Ryan Reynolds Launches Diversity Initiative for His Next Movie: It's 'The Right Thing to Do'

Ryan Reynolds intends to create more opportunities for people of color in one of his next movies.

The actor has launched The Group Effort Initiative, a self-financed program intended to give minorities more opportunity on movie sets, beginning with Reynolds’ next project, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

“I’ve had a front-row seat to the immense talent of so many artisans, storytellers and experts,” Reynolds told the outlet in a statement. “Being a member of a film crew is a special experience — but that privilege hasn’t been extended to everyone.”

He continued, “There’s a ton of untapped talent out there. This action is the right thing to do, but it’s worth noting that inclusivity will also make our industry stronger and more dynamic. We will tell better stories.”

The program intends to take on between 10 to 20 trainees who are black, indigenous or from other minority communities, THR reported.

In a message on the program's website, Reynolds said "COVID-willing, we’ll be starting a movie this fall."

"These new recruits will be paid and housed out of my salary and will spend their days on set learning from professionals and getting real-life experience that they can then parlay into another job and another job and hopefully a career in the film industry," he continued.

Application details will be available in the coming weeks.

Reynolds' upcoming, untitled movie is a time travel adventure film with Stranger Things producer and Free Guy director Shawn Levy taking the helm for Netflix.

In June, Reynolds and his wife, actress Blake Lively, made a $200,000 donation to the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) Legal Defense Fund in the aftermath of George Floyd's death.

"Last week we contributed $200,000 to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. We stand in awe of this organization and its leader, Sherrilyn Ifill. And this is just a start," they said in joint statements shared to their respective Instagram accounts. "We also pledge to star educated and vote in every local election. We want to know the positions of school board nominees, sheriffs, mayors, councilpersons. We want to know their positions on justice. But mainly, we want to use our privilege and platform to be an ally. And to play a part in easing pain for do many who feels as though this grand experiment is failing them."

"We've never had to worry about preparing our kids for different rules of law or what might happen if we're pulled over in the car," the statement read. "We don’t know what it’s like to experience that life day in and day out. We can’t imagine feeling that kind of fear and anger. We’re ashamed that in the past we’ve allowed ourselves to be uninformed about how deeply rooted systemic racism is."