. She said that there are so many “newer voices on the scene” and this trend of emerging storytellers will only continue with the proliferation of platforms. She said, for instance, shows on youth-skewing network Freeform, need to be told by young storytellers, who are more in tune with their audience. “We are at an extraordinary moment in the content business and it’s because of diversity of stories,” she said.
She added that she’s proud of how Disney has done in terms of making its organization “look like the “like the audience we serve” and that starts with hiring senior executives of color and women. “We have welcomed in amazing creative and business leaders, executives of color, decision makers at the highest level. That’s where it has to start if we want meaningful change,” adding that these execs are “magnets” for the best talent to make “effortlessly” diverse content.
On Covid, Walden said it had been an “unthinkably” difficult year as Disney General Entertainment shut down around 150 shows but she praised shows such asfor being “trailblazers” in terms of getting back into production and was proud that on its productions, its Covid transmission rate was under 1%, particularly given the spike in Los Angeles over the last few months.
When asked what she urged young people wanting to make their voice heard in the business, she reiterated a story about how she moved out of Fox’s publicity department into a creative role. She said that during a company retreat in 1995, she decided to impress Peter Chernin, who she’d met multiple times but always said ‘Nice to meet you’.
“I thought I’m not making the right impression. I’m going to pick my shot, be very honest and very candid what I think about our business. I’m going to say something that means something to him. When the time came to give a short presentation, I was very honest that our studio wasn’t making the right kinds of deals, weren’t working with the storytellers to make the shows. I laid out a strategy of how we could be more meaningful with creators.
THESE ARE HITS!!! ROTFLMAO~ 'hit after hit, from ABC’s ‘Abbott Elementary’ and Onyx Collective’s Academy Award-winning ‘Summer of Soul,’ to Hulu Originals like ‘Only Murders in the Building,’ ‘Dopesick,’ ‘The Dropout’ and ‘The Kardashians.’
A shoutout to Dana. Cape Town, rules when it comes to economics of movie making. My place cool as well. Can help with everything, but boring to do it by myself. It's all about meeting other artists.