Gabrielle Union | Making society more inclusive, one production at a time

Actress, activist, mother of a baby girl born through a surrogate mother and mother-in-law of three boys, Gabrielle Union campaigns for a more inclusive society. The actress was challenged by the script of the most recent version of Cheaper by the Dozen, from Disney, which depicts for a rare time a reality that resembles its own. Interview with a woman who wants to break down barriers.

Danielle Bonneau
The Press

Aware of the reach of her voice, Gabrielle Union (bring it on, Being Mary Jane and LA’s Finest) defends several causes that are close to his heart. Multiplying roles for twenty years in films and television series, she uses her fame to (among other things) reduce inequalities, help victims of rape, prevent breast cancer and fight sexism and racism. .

The release of the film Cheaper by the Dozen (Cheaper by the dozen en version française), which features her with Zach Braff at the head of a blended and interracial family of 10 children, gives her the opportunity to express herself on the importance of expanding what is perceived as being ” regular”.

“I believe that every family matters,” she said in a videoconference interview with The Press. When we refer to the so-called traditional family, it is a way of excluding people. I want to try to find more ways to include more people. That’s what this movie does. The Baker family is racially, culturally and diversely mixed. There are ex-spouses in the portrait, with whom the parents must deal, in addition to being co-parents. There are also animals and a cousin who comes to live with the family. »

Sound complicated? Those who have read his two books (We’re Going to Need More Wine: Stories That Are Funny, Complicated and True and You Got Anything Stronger), who follow her on social media and who read the many stories about her and her famous husband Dwyane Wade, a retired basketball player who raises two sons and a nephew, know that her private life is just as complex, at her way.

Diversity and Inclusion

When she was approached for the film Cheaper by the DozenGabrielle Union was familiar with the premise of the feature film, inspired by the novel written by Frank Bunker Gilbreth Jr and his sister Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, published in 1948, in which they recount their childhood in a family of 12 children in New Jersey.

The actress knew little about the film version starring Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt, launched in 2003. But she knew the original film, which dates from 1950, by heart. “My older sister was obsessed with this film, we watched it every time he was playing, she recalls. With our version, we’re imagining not one, but two classics again, with much more diversity and inclusion, and people of color in real positions of power throughout the process. »

The two screenwriters, Kenya Barris and Jenifer Rice-Genzuk Henry, presented the script to him even before the project was officially accepted. “I had published shortly before the children’s book Welcome to the Party, which celebrates the different kinds of families, underlines the author and activist. We had our daughter through a surrogate and a lot of people didn’t know how to celebrate our version of a family. You know, my mother adopted the first of three children at 60. She is now 75 years old and raising children who are in grade six, grade eight and grade nine. When she arrives at school, people don’t know what to do with this kind of family. »

Having founded the production company I’ll Have Another, in 2018, to diversify the points of view of the stories told on the screen, she naturally became executive producer of Cheaper by the Dozen, directed by Gail Lerner. A role she takes on with three other big names in the industry, including Shawn Levy, who notably directed the 2003 film.

Gabrielle Union wants to see more films with multi-faceted characters. “Too often, for too many years, storylines and characters have been toned down for greater appeal. We have to stop watering down the culture, the language and the way others present themselves in order to open more doors. You know I watch The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. This is happening in a different time, in a different culture than mine and a different religion. I am black, Catholic from Omaha, Nebraska. It’s one of my favorite series because it’s specific to his experience. »

Building on what makes each of us special is the way to find ways to get along, she believes, using the many members of the Baker family as an example. That’s how, she says, they manage to work well together.

Featured on Disney+ from March 18