Daily Variety – Exploring How Spirituality and People of Faith are Portrayed in Pop Culture; Richard Gere on his Dalai Lama Doc ‘Wisdom of Happiness’

On today’s episode, we hear from Brooke Zaugg, executive director of Faith & Media Initiative, on the coalition’s work to influence portrayals of spirituality and people of faith in media and pop culture. And Variety’s Marc Malkin talks with Richard Gere about his new documentary on the Dalai Lama, “Wisdom of Happiness.”

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome to Daily Variety, your daily dose of news and
analysis for entertainment industry insiders. It's Thursday, December fourth, twenty
twenty five. I'm your host, Cynthia Littleton. I am co
editor in chief of Variety alongside Ramin Setuda. I'm in
La He's in New York, and Vriety has reporters around
the world covering the business of entertainment. In today's episode,

(00:30):
we'll hear from Brooks Zog, executive director of the Faith
and Media Initiative. That initiative is backed by a broad
coalition of organizations that are studying how faith and spirituality
are depicted in pop culture, and Variety's Mark Malkin talks
to Richard gear who is doing his own work on
this subject with the new feature documentary about the Dali
Lama Wisdom of Happiness. But before we get to that,

(00:53):
here are a few headlines just in this morning that
you need to know. There was chatter on Wednesday that
Paramounts Gods is about to get more aggressive in its
pursuit of Warner Brothers Discovery. We got confirmation of that
this morning with word that Paramount has sent a letter
to WBD CEO David Zaslov, claiming that the bidding process

(01:13):
has been steered toward Netflix, which is one of three
contenders for the studio, alongside Paramount and Comcast. The Paramount
letter accused Warner Brothers Discovery of having embarked on a
myopic process with the predetermined outcome that favors a single bidder.
Much more to come on that. Meanwhile, Paramount continues to

(01:34):
add creative firepower to the studio. It's inked abroad Film
and TV deal with Wicked and Wicked for Good director
John m chu. Hugh Laurie has joined the cast of
Apple TV's Tehran for season three. The drama bows on
January ninth, and has already been renewed for a fourth season.
Rest in peace to two great guitar players, Steve Cropper

(01:56):
and Phil Upchurch. Crapper was such a big personality in
the HBO docuseries Stax Soulville, USA. Upchurch worked with Quincy Jones,
Curtis Mayfield, and Michael Jackson, among many others over a
long career in jazz and pop. Thanks to both for
all those great guitar licks. All of these stories and
so much more can be found on Variety Dot com

(02:18):
right now. Now it's time for conversations with industry leaders
and writing journalists about news and trends in show business.
Next up, we'll hear from Brooks Zog, executive director of
the Faith and Media Initiative. She discusses the group's work
to help influence more nuanced portrayals of spirituality and people

(02:39):
of faith in media. Part of that initiative will be
expressed later tonight at Variety's second annual Faith and Spirituality
Honors in Beverly Hills. Thank you so much for joining
me here today in the restaurant of the Edition Hotel
in West Hollywood. It's closed and they graciously have allowed
us some space.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
Thrilled to be here with Arriet. We are talking today
because later tonight, Thursday night, Variety will host its second
annual Faith in Spirituality Honors in Beverly Hills. We have
a great program of awards that recognize people that do
the thoughtful work of incorporating issues of faith and spirituality
into the fabric of their program, not as a sermon,

(03:23):
not as a moment on the mountaintop to preach, but
to weave it in as a normal, everyday part of
the lives of the characters that they are writing about.
Your organization really has put a lot of thought, a
lot of energy, a lot of money and resources into
research and some advocacy to reclaim the spiritual life of

(03:45):
America in much of the programming that America and now
the world watches and the world consumes. So with that
long preamble, Brook, let's talk about why it's important that
you be here in Hollywood to talk to the heart
of the creative community.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
And like you said, we've invested in a lot of
research or a third party expert to understand it feels
oftentimes like faith and spirituality has been portrayed negatively or
kind of leaning on stereotypes. Is that actually true? And
do people care? And what we found is that for
many years it has been, like you said, either absent
or it's been kind of tropes and stereotypes that are

(04:20):
sometimes true in religion, but oftentimes not reflective of the
true lived experience of people of faith. And we really
wanted to become an advocate for raising awareness on the
importance of covering and talking about and exploring what spirituality means,
because in fact, in the research we've learned it's deeply
important to many many people. And when you understand that's

(04:41):
a lens in which many people use to make meaning
of their life and how they explore purpose, how they
overcome hardship and trials, it's a very very rich way
to add depth to stories. And what our goal was
is to just help raise that knowledge and though this
market needs and interest to both newsrooms and studios to

(05:02):
be aware of and confident in covering a very complex topic.
And the reason why it's important for us to partner
with a variety and do this in Hollywood is Hollywood
Shapes reflects what culture is. Hollywood reflects what matters to
society today. As much as research is important, awards for
excellence and showing and modeling what is great is a

(05:23):
huge part of our strategy.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
I just want to emphasize one of our Honorez's Bridget Everett.
Theeves are and creator of the show Somebody Somewhere, which
is again the way the characters search for purpose and
meaning in her life, and her definition of spirituality was different,
her definition of family was different and not what people
would stereotypically think of. Well, a Faith and Spirituality initiative

(05:46):
is going to want to impose a certain way of thinking.
What I've been impressed by is the depth of the
serious research that you're doing with organizations like the Hairs
Poll and really trying to understand attitudes of the many
generations that make up our world these days. And it's important.
But also that you came in saying we want a

(06:06):
array of faiths represented. Let's talk more about the Family
Initiative and tell me what sparked it.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
So there are several key stakeholders who involved. The first
group that put money into this was the Church of
Jesus Christ of latterday Saints, who actually cares the many
of them know them as the Mormons. They care very
deeply about freedom of religions. They've invested a lot, they
own media companies, And what we've learned is most people
actually care deeply about this. And the other thing is
for people who are looking for purpose and meaning, we

(06:35):
hope that the narrative that they get is maybe broader
than what.

Speaker 1 (06:38):
They've typically received.

Speaker 2 (06:39):
So there's no proselytization agenda of And then we've received
partners like Fetzer Institute as a major funding partner, as
well as other individuals from different faith traditions, who cared
deeply about the way that they are portrayed. We have
a coalition of over one hundred people from Pillars Fund
to Princeton to paramount individuals who cared usc Diane Winstony,

(07:00):
who runs the Night Center's Religion and Media Center. So
we have individuals all over the country who've been working
on this individually, that have come together as a coalition
that are helping us identify how can we help improve
fates portrayal and media. You touched on something earlier about
recognizing different films like Somebody Somewhere, and I think a
show that comes to mind for me from Israel was

(07:21):
I Always Butcher the Name Stizzle, which I watched. I
wept through that film because I identified with themes that
were so important to them, around family, around motherhood, around
the complex nature of finding your way and looking a
little different than maybe what kind of the community thinks.
I think that was true if we are Lady pardon

(07:41):
which also I laughed out loud, it was. They were
very universal themes.

Speaker 1 (07:45):
Or as we go into what I think of as
the roaring twenties of the twenty first century, with just
massive accelerated change, it's no surprise that people are seeking.
By my unofficial poll on Sundays, lately, the pews have
been packed in my chain and maybe there is something
about gen Z that is perhaps a little more open
to all forms of trying to commune with something larger

(08:08):
in the universe.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
Well, Harris did a United States poll in September, so
it's very current reflective of how people feel today. Seventy
six percent of that audience, reflective of this country identified
as religious, spiritual, or person of faith. That's over three
quarters of this country. When we looked at that across
party lines and across age, it was universally important. So
from a democratic perspective it was seventy two percent, and

(08:33):
a Republican was eighty six. Independent was seventy one percent,
so seventies up to high eighties. When we looked at age,
gen Z was seventy seven percent and millennials for seventy
eight and boomers were seventy three. So again it was
to make a note that while we don't talk about this,
this is universally important, and rather than seeing this as
a great divider, it is a great unifier and a

(08:53):
great way for us to no one and understand our neighbors
also care about these things, and it's a great way
to understand how people are making meanings their life. And
it is across party lines and across eight and I
think there is a huge revival in terms of people
looking for faith and spiritual traditions that give added purpose
and meaning to their lives.

Speaker 1 (09:09):
Seeing these generational change in attitudes, I have to believe
that it has something to do with there's just so
much more content at your fingertips if you are curious,
if you are a seeker, you don't have to go
very far from your phone to find all manner of
info and avenues to explore. Is that's got to be
having an impact.

Speaker 2 (09:26):
One hundred percent. I think there's so much content to consume,
and that's why we want to be able to ensure
that whenever it's possible and relevant, that we incorporate this
in a meaningful way so that people just have a
much deeper, expanded view of the nuance and the complexity
of these types of topics. So one of the films
that we recognize that's as Chief of War and well,
that's not about a particular religion, per Se did a

(09:48):
beautiful job of showing some people who use religion or
prophecy or the belief in a negative way, or to
use it to cause harm. But with the majority of
people on those islands, that was the way that they
gave purpose and meaning. It informed their traditions, It informed
why they were doing what they were doing. It was
a binder for them as families.

Speaker 1 (10:06):
You can move people through storytelling. I know this is
a hard question, but five years, ten years, what does
your home run success look like? For FAMI and for
the world.

Speaker 2 (10:15):
I think a great analogy is Glad. Glad has done
a tremendous job over many, many years to improve the
way the LGBTQ community has been portrayed through characters, character development,
and we see that great milestones over many, many years
of hard work, and we've actually talked with them to
understand how they have found great success. And I think
for us, this is a long game. This is a

(10:36):
big culture change and to overcome people's fears of tackling
this that people of faith are portrayed as thoughtful, complex
people navigating their lives and everyday stories, and that people
have the confidence to do this and we see it regularly,
so I think we don't expect this to happen overnight,
but we do hope that over the next ten years

(10:56):
that this is more and more common and that the
shows that include this find great commercial success. Another thing
that we're learning is that comedy done thoughtfully is another
tremendous way disarm people and cover very complex, hard things.
When it comes to faith, is a very meaningful way
to connect with audience. So we're going to continue to

(11:17):
unveil lots of insights and research again to be a
model for what kind of stories, what kind of clips,
what kind of moments and time and experiences do audiences
resonate with in the storytelling.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
Brook, thank you so much for this discussion. I appreciate
all of the intention and the work that you've done.
Media is such a powerful platform and it's important how
all aspects of life are portrayed.

Speaker 2 (11:39):
If I could just finish with one story. When we
launched our first round of research, it was at Concordia
with Mike Allen, who's the founder of Axios, and he
said to a whole group of newsroom people and leaders
from around the world, he just said, you know, we
cover in the news a lot of complicated topics. We
cover war, we cover politics, we cover economics, we cover sexuality.

(12:00):
All of those are complicated, but we shy away from
religion and faith because it feels complex. But faith fluency
is essential for society to be united and understand each other.
And we should not be afraid of something because we
cover all of the other complicated things. We shouldn't be
afraid from this because it is universal and a great

(12:20):
connector if we do it well.

Speaker 1 (12:22):
Thank you, Brooke. And now, sticking with the theme of
the search for meaning and purpose, here's Variety's Mark Malcolm.
He's got highlights from his recent conversation with Richard Gear
about his new documentary on the Tibetan Buddhist leader, Wisdom
of Happiness.

Speaker 3 (12:42):
Thanks Cynthia. I caught up with Richard Gear early this
week to talk about his documentary about the Dali Lama,
Wisdom of Happiness. The film Gear serves as executive producer,
chronicles the ninety year old Dali Lama's life. It features
the Nobel Peace Prize winner speaking directly into the camera
as if he's having a one on one conversation with
the viewer. It is quite intimate. Throughout the film, the

(13:05):
Dalai Lama recalls his childhood and family memories. He also
offers guidance about the search for happiness and his belief
that compassion and being of service are the key to
achieving peace of mind. Gear says the project started as
a celebration to mark the Dali Lama's ninetieth birthday.

Speaker 4 (13:26):
I was thinking, yes, this is the center of this
celebration of an extraordinary life. But then in the meantime,
the world has gotten so much crazier.

Speaker 5 (13:38):
That's just taken on a different kind of life today,
that there is a there's a medicinal quality I think
to this film in a time where there's a deep sickness.

Speaker 3 (13:54):
Gear explains that the Dali Lama suggests that the film's
viewers take a deep breath, step back and question ourselves.

Speaker 4 (14:02):
Ran a very wrong track here, and it's gotten worse
over the last years.

Speaker 6 (14:10):
That just even a sense of basic kindness is lacking,
the way people fought to each other language and obviously
this comes from our leaders, especially the one we have now.

Speaker 3 (14:23):
For more of my chat with Gear, he also opens
up about being banned from the Oscars for twenty years.
Check out my column Just for Variety at Variety dot com.

Speaker 1 (14:37):
As we close out today's episode, here's a few things
we're watching for The Red Sea Film Festival kicks off
today in Jeeds, Saudi Arabia. We'll have a report on
Monday from Alex Ritman, Variety's London bureau chief, who is
covering the festival for US Golden Globe Award nominations are
out on Monday. Will one battle after another maintain its

(14:58):
Kudo's momentum we'll find out. Of course, the big event
next week comes on Wednesday, when the Variety's staff hosts
our third annual Cookie Exchange. We love to hear from
our listeners, so please send thoughts, gripes, and other feedback
about Daily Variety to podcasts at Variety dot com Before
we go. Congrats to Doug Hersog and Patrick Vihan. They've

(15:20):
joined the Board of Comic Relief. That nonprofit is definitely
becoming more active under CEO Michelle Gainless, who was appointed
in January. Thanks for listening. This episode was written and
reported by me Cynthia Littleton, with contributions from Mark Malcolm
Stick's Next Hick Picks. Please leave us a review at
the podcast platform of your choice, and please tune in

(15:41):
Monday for another episode of Daily Variety,