‘Hangover’ producer Scott Budnick cannot be pigeonholed

Scott Budnick might be best known for producing The Hangover trilogy, one of the most successful R-rated comedy franchises ever. But making frat-boy comedies and spending years among ladder-climbers and clout-chasers in Hollywood left Budnick wanting. “I just felt empty inside,” he tells Art of Power’s Aarti Shahani. Budnick tells Shahani about the turn of events that led him to become one of California’s foremost advocates for criminal justice reform. He explains how he broke into the film industry — and then why he left it to found the non-profit Anti-Recidivism Coalition. And he describes his pivot back to creating films — including the 2019 Michael B. Jordan drama Just Mercy — through One Community, a production company with an explicitly political agenda.