I - my daughter was a toddler, and I decided she was old enough to start watching preschool shows. GROSS: How did you decide to create your institute?ĭAVIS: It was very specific, actually. I felt very unhappy with having that sort of imposed on me by other people. ![]() I thought, this is incredibly unfair, and I don't want other people deciding that I have to work less, you know, and taking away opportunities. I was very upset and angry at that happening to me. ![]() Or did you think, oh, it's me - no one wants me anymore?ĭAVIS: Oh, no. GROSS: Did you think of it as discrimination against older women? Did you think of it as there not being enough roles for women in their 40s? Which really isn't very old. I very much expected that that would not be the case. And I also expected it to be not true anymore by the time I would get to that age. It was once there was a four in front of my age, and.ĭAVIS: You know, I had heard about that for a long time, that people said that things change when you turn 40 or when you're in your 40s, but I didn't expect it to be literal. GEENA DAVIS: Well, it was pretty dramatic. When did things start to slow down in your acting career? Geena Davis and Maria Giese, welcome to FRESH AIR. Her work led to an ongoing EEOC, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, investigation into systemic discrimination against women directors, as well as an ACLU campaign against discrimination. After feeling that she was shut out of directing because she's a woman, she became an activist. Also with us is director Maria Giese, who's featured in the film, too. She's receiving an honorary Oscar this year, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, at a special ceremony in October. She is an executive producer of and is featured in the new documentary "This Changes Everything," about how women in Hollywood are pushing for more representation in front of and behind the camera. In 2004, she founded the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media to get the actual data comparing the number and types of male and female roles and to use that data to convince the industry of the need for change. My guest Geena Davis starred in two movies about female empowerment - "Thelma & Louise" and "A League Of Their Own." But when she got older and roles started to dry up, she realized how unempowered women were in Hollywood. It is a rallying cry and an invitation to join the movement for gender equality in Hollywood.This is FRESH AIR. ![]() “This Changes Everything” never pretends to be a straightforward documentary, laying out the facts from an arm’s length distance. I’m merely commenting on the challenge in presenting so many facts and figures in a visually arresting manner.)īut when we see visuals of movie scripts that define female characters by their looks - “not the best-looking girl in her class but definitely in the top five” - or when director Kimberly Peirce talks about how it took NINE YEARS for her to get another feature film after her brilliant debut with “Boys Don’t Cry,” these images and stories are striking examples of the institutional sexism in the industry. Tiffany Haddish hilariously describes how much she enjoyed watching Diahann Carroll all decked out and dripping with jewels and slapping Joan Collins on “Dynasty” - and “not going to jail for it.”Īt times, “This Changes Everything” gets a bit bogged down by all the charts and graphs illustrating the gender gaps in Hollywood and whether the focus is on actors or directors or production personnel.
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