Geena Davis thinks Hollywood needs to 'get over' its fear of female characters

Geena Davis speaks Thursday, March 10, 2016, in Giffels Auditorium in Old Main on the University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville.
Geena Davis speaks Thursday, March 10, 2016, in Giffels Auditorium in Old Main on the University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville.

Geena Davis has starred in plenty of movies written and directed by women in which she plays complex, idiosyncratic female characters. And with her Bentonville Film Festival, she founded a festival designed to promote work by women and to get their movies the distribution that will put them in front of audiences.

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Davis spoke in advance of the festival about what changes Hollywood will have to make if the entertainment industry wants to get serious about hiring more women, whether the movie business makes rational decisions about how to make money, and why streaming in particular and television in general have been boons to women's stories.

Q: One of the biggest obstacles to changing anything in Hollywood is just how many different organizations and institutions are involved in making and distributing a single movie or television show. Where do you think the most significant roadblocks for women in the industry lie?

A: I know you don't want me to say "everywhere," but it really is a case of a lot of unconscious bias in everybody. Because if you look at not just the industry, but every sector of society around the world, there is inequality. And especially when you get to leadership positions.

So we're all taking in this message that women and girls are less important than men and boys, and therefore their stories are less important, what they do and what they say, just everything is less important. And some of it is completely unconscious. Employers who swear up and down that they have no gender bias, they just hire on merit, research shows that you show them two identical resumes where the only difference is the first name on one is female and the first name on the other one is male, the man gets offered a job more often, at a higher salary, and people are more likely to say that they think that they would like him. So it really is everywhere.

The most impact thing would be in the writing. ... We asked (executives), "If a gender-balanced script came across your desk, would that be a problem for you?" and 90 percent said, "No, and I wouldn't even notice, it wouldn't occur to me, 'This has too many females in it.'" So that's the best place. You have to look behind the camera.

Q: Do you think Ryan Murphy's commitment to make sure that half of the episodes of his TV shows are directed by women or people of color will set a standard that other people will have to meet?

A: Shonda Rhimes has been doing this for a while now. Her shows are incredibly diverse and populated with women in the production side and the directing. So that definitely has had an impact. And his actions will definitely also have an impact. We haven't got to the place yet where people say, 'Oh, I have to do this because people are noticing.' Because, you know, every year those numbers are released where they analyze what TV shows had women, or diverse, directors. And there are so many shows that have zeros. You'd think that with this thing coming out every year, people would say, 'Wow, that's embarrassing.' I'm very grateful to him for saying that and doing that. And I hope others follow suit.

Q: But do you really think Hollywood makes those sort of rational business decisions? If you look at the Motion Picture Association of America's Theatrical Market Statistics report, it shows that women buy half of movie tickets, and Hispanic moviegoers buy more tickets per capita than members of any other demographics, and yet representation is what it is. Do you think the studios think they don't have to cater to women and people of color, because we'll just go to the movies anyway?

A: We actually work with the National Association of Theatre Owners a lot. They're perplexed by this, too. They would love to have more diversity and inclusion in what they show.

I think it's two things. One is just a strange phenomenon: Even when there's research that shows a financial upside, in business, all the data is in that if you have more women on boards, the company makes more money. So you would think everyone would be like, 'Let's do this as fast as we possibly can!' But those numbers move glacially, so people aren't jumping on what sounds like a clear opportunity to have the company perform better.

The second thing is this innate sense in Hollywood, that women will watch men but men won't watch women, is true, no matter what evidence you give them. That's why I think we see so many examples that are wildly successful starring a woman or about women, or whatever, it doesn't matter how many Bridesmaids and Hunger Games and all that that we have, that we don't seem to get any momentum going.

It's kind of crazy to think about it. Look at Disney: They roll out movie after movie with a female star, more movies starring a female than not. They're not kind of successful. They're blockbusters. They're gigantic hits. And people don't say, "Wow, that's somebody proving it over and over again." There's such ingrained mistrust for whatever reason.

Q: What impact do you think big streaming services like Netflix and Amazon (Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post) will have on women's directorial prospects? Could outlets like these, that are trying to serve niche audiences, resurrect genres like the romantic comedy?

A: Absolutely. Television in general is already doing a much better job than film. There's more female characters. It's not perfect by any means. There's more female characters, they have more things to do, more leadership positions, more rich and fully developed female characters. It's definitely a place where a lot of progress is already being made and can be made. It's such a different model, the streaming services. I think there's plenty of room for progress and inclusion in those kinds of shows. Personally I would like to be on a cable or a streaming service like that.

NW News on 05/01/2016

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