When Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively launched Group Effort Initiative, their Hollywood training program for members of unrepresented communities, they were nervous that their initial plans may have been too ambitious.

They started five years ago with eight trainees on the set of Reynolds’ 2020 Netflix film “The Adam Project.” Group Effort financed the trainees’ salaries and housing during production, which took place in Vancouver, Canada.

“When we saw those first eight trainees on set for ‘The Adam Project,’ it was clear something good was happening,” Reynolds told me via email. “I left plenty of room for it to backfire and I still think about the feeling in the pit of my stomach and the blind faith it can take to just leap.”

Lively said, “I was worried because I’d advocated for 8 to

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