The launch of Vancouver actor Ryan Reynolds’ search for production trainees who are of Black, Indigenous or other minority background (BIPOC) to work on his upcoming untitled time travel movie for Netflix proved so popular on Thursday morning it appears to have crashed the website.
Titled the Group Effort Initiative , Reynolds says he is looking to hire 10 to 20 people to work on his upcoming project, which will shoot in Vancouver.
“Making a film is a group effort, but for entirely too long that group has systemically excluded Black, Indigenous, people of colour and several other marginalized communities. This is a global problem which will not be fixed overnight, but change can start locally and immediately,” the 43-year-old Deadpool star wrote on the Group Effort Initiative’s website.
“Covid-willing, we’ll be starting a movie this fall. We’ll be bringing on between 10 and 20 trainees who are Black, Indigenous, people of color or people from marginalized and excluded communities. Of all ages. From 18 to 118. (If you’re under 18, your time will come. Sorry, there are laws!) 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.”
In the job posting, Reynolds’ company insists this is an “opportunity for candidates to have real experience in the entertainment industry that will open new doors and lead to future jobs through a wider professional network.”
The application window opened at 8 a.m. Thursday but the site crashed about 30 minutes later. It appears to be functional again now.
Interested candidates can apply through SparkHire by clicking here.
On Wednesday, Reynolds confirmed he is is also in talks to invest in a soccer team in Wrexham, Wales.
Eight years ago, a Welsh woman joked he might one day come to the town in northern Wales. The actor quoted the tweet Wednesday to make reference to the news he was in talks with Wrexham’s fan-run ownership group.
One British soccer reporter said Reynolds’ interest — he’s partnered with American actor Rob McIlhenney — would mean a great deal to a part of the UK that’s struggling through these uncertain economic times.
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