The term is not well known in Hollywood, but by early morning on Monday after the awards ceremony, Twitter boasted an #inclusionrider hashtag and a Google search of the term produced more than 10 million hits.

While negotiating a contract, actors and filmmakers can use their star power to get a studio to hire more women and people of colour on the production, McDormand explained backstage after her televised comment, which came in a ceremony notable for its activism.

“I just found out about this last week,” McDormand, who won the Oscar for her portrayal of a mother searching for her daughter’s killer in ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’, told media backstage.“You can ask for and/or demand at least 50% diversity in not only the casting but also the crew,” she added as an example.

University of Southern California professor Stacy Smith mentioned the idea in a 2016 talk on the lack of diversity in the film industry. She said that Hollywood A-listers could stipulate in their contracts that minor roles be cast to reflect demographics of the real world. Studios could voluntarily do the same thing, she added.