Women & Film Industry: Geena Davis Bemoans Lack Of Change For Actresses Even After 'Thelma & Louise
In a recent interview with The Guardian, Geena Davis spoke about the sad state of affairs for women in the film industry today.
The actress was critical of how, sadly, the status quo hadn't quite changed, but did laud the fact that actresses were speaking up more about the unfairness than they did in her time. Interestingly enough, Davis also noted that despite milestones like the iconic Thelma & Louise -- in which she co-starred with Susan Sarandon -- not much has changed for women, even though they were hopeful they would.
"The big takeaway I got from Thelma & Louise was the reaction of women who had seen the movie being so profound, so different. It was overwhelming and it made me realise how few opportunities we give women to feel excited and empowered by female characters, to come out of a movie pumped," she said.
But later she added that despite Thelma & Louise being such a beacon of light for women, it did not beckon the kind of change for women they were anticipating. She also added that this trend continues to sustain itself even today, when there are so many women-centered movies which keep us hopeful.
"And it happened to me twice. That's how I became aware of the phenomenon. After Thelma & Louise, which was pretty noticed and potent and significant, [people were saying] 'This changes everything! There's going to be so many female buddy movies!' and nothing changed. And then the next movie I did was A League of Their Own, which was a huge hit and all the talk was, 'Well now, beyond a doubt, women's sports movies, we're going to see a wave of them because this was so successful.' That's balls. It took 10 years until Bend It Like Beckham came out. So, there was no trend whatsoever
"It keeps happening, and we keep falling for this notion that now there's Bridesmaids, now there's Hunger Games..." She said. "It hasn't started a trend."
