Institute on Gender in Media was founded, and there is still a lot of important work to be done. The actress and producer has worked tirelessly with her team to research the statistics on women working in the entertainment industry, taking that data “privately and directly to the creators and saying, ‘Hey, did you know this?'” But, Davis points out, she is never there to “shame or blame anybody.
Interestingly, Davis shares that Donahue was the first person to approach her about such a project. The irony of a man making a film about the importance, but lack, of women getting important industry gigs such as directing was not lost on either of them, but it mattered most that somebody was finally willing to dive deeply into the topic.
“It’s a different time now. It’s a time of people really speaking up and sharing their truth and a dramatic change in Hollywood,” Davis says. “There’s two very broad categories of filmmaking, and one is in front of the camera and one is behind. And I work primarily on in front of the camera, and I feel like it’s the lowest hanging fruit in our industry, and in general actually: It’s the easiest place to achieve parity. So that problem actually responds to research; it’s where the numbers really make a huge difference. It’s largely unconscious that films and television are so imbalanced,” she says.
Davis herself made the decision to work against bias after she did “Thelma & Louise” in 1991. “I was profoundly impacted by the reaction of people seeing the movie,” she says. “It made me realize, in a profound way, how few opportunities we give women to come out of a movie theater feeling inspired and empowered by this female character. And it’s the best part of a movie, really, identifying with a character and living vicariously through them.
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