Getty ImagesCharlie Ebersol is getting political!
Britney Spears' boyfriend teamed up with Michelle Obama and Bradley Cooper Friday morning at the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C. to talk about the portrayal of veterans in entertainment, People reports. The trio also launched the 6 Certified program.
Ebersol recently teamed up with Got Your 6, an organization that lobbies for accurate representation of troops who have fought on the frontlines. 6 Certified is a bipartisan campaign that will work with the veteran lobby group.
Cooper joins the first lady and Ebersol because he stars as Navy SEAL Chris Kyle in the hit American Sniper. All three are hoping that their program will help show how much good veterans continue to do after coming back from war.
"The media tends to say, 'They're victims, or they're heroes.' People see these very extreme depictions of hero or martyr or victim," Ebersol told People. "When you normalize the view, it really affects the public perception, and it leads to positive and powerful movements."
Of American Sniper, Ebersol said that Kyle's work outside of the service improved so many people's lives.
"He comes back, and he's a productive member of society, and he was using his military experience to make people's lives better, and he wasn't an extreme hero or an extreme victim," he said of Cooper's depiction of Kyle. "That's the ultimate goal."
The producer also cited TV's Modern Family as another great example of veteran portrayal in the media. Ed O'Neill's character, Jay Pritchett, is a veteran, but Ebersol says that as a character, Pritchett isn't defined by his veteran status, but instead many of his values are defined by his time in the service.
"It's not like he has some military experience that inexplicably altered his life," Ebersol told the magazine. "But his commitment to his family, his technical understanding–they're all things he learned while in the military and drive his character."
Although he has met the Obamas before (he almost worked with them on a documentary), he told the mag that he was excited to get to know them again. As for why a TV producer is getting involved with 6 Certified? Well, Ebersol, who is the son of longtime NBC exec Dick Ebersol and actress Susan Saint James, has a pretty good answer for that.
"If my legacy 20 years from now is that I produced television, that'll be disappointing," he said. "But if my legacy is that I was able to effect real change in the lives of other people, then that's a big win for me."