Photo: CTV News Vancouver Island

British Columbia's Ryan Reynolds is leading a new program to help Black, Indigenous, people of colour (BIPOC) and others from marginalized communities get training with professional movie crews during an upcoming shoot.

The Hollywood star will be taking part in the Group Effort Initiative which aims to provide BIPOC and marginalized people with training alongside movie professionals, according to CTV News Vancouver Island.

The movie industry 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,” reads a statement from Reynolds on the Group Effort Initiative website.

Between 10 and 20 trainees will be payed out of Reynolds pocket to join the film set while getting to learn from professionals in the industry.

“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,” he said.

Specifics for the movie shoot are still in the works, however anyone wanting to apply can do so through the Group Effort Initiative website.

“COVID-willing, we’ll be starting a movie this fall,” said Reynolds.

-With files from CTV News Vancouver Island