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If It Isn't A Success, That Still Wouldn't Be Grounds For Divorce.
-Geena Davis
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If It Isn't A

Geena Davis
...
If It Isn't A Success, That Still Wouldn't Be Grounds For Divorce.

Understanding the Quote: "if it isn't a success, that still wouldn't be grounds for divorce...."

This quote by Geena Davis reflects deeply on the theme of divorce. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Divorce, Stills, Ifs, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Geena Davis interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Geena Davis

Geena Davis is celebrated for insightful thoughts on divorce and stills. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Divorce
Stills
Ifs
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Instead Of Trying To Manufacture Feelings, Use The Way You Already Feel. Or At Least Add That In.
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I Don't Really Bust Anybody Publicly. It's Much More Efficient If I Can Impact The Creators. So That's What We Do. It's Had A Great Impact.
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I Immediately Noticed There Were Far More Male Characters Than Female Characters In The Programs, Even Now, In The 21st Century.
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So Many Other Countries Have Had Female Leaders, In Fact The U.s. Ranks 61st In Female Representation In Government And I Think It Is Startling And Sign Of A Change That Needs To Be Made.
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People Think Of Me In The Same Breath As Robert Redford And Robert De Niro.
Thinking
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I Played This Character Twice In Live Action, And Now I've Become An Animated Character. It Was Actually Fun To See Myself Drawn - I've Never Been A Drawn Character Before.
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I Do Have A Very Chill - I Can Watch All My Movies. A Lot Of People Don't Like To Watch Their Work. I Watch Everything. All The Time.
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I Just Started Asking My Friends If They Had Noticed. None Of Them - Feminists, Mothers, Daughters - Noticed Until I Pointed It Out. Then I Decided To Bring It Up Within The Industry. I Knew A Lot Of People, So I'd Say, "have You Ever Noticed How Few Female Characters There Are In Kids Movies?" When I Met A Director, A Producer, Whatever. And They Said, "oh, But That's Not True Anymore."
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On Film, You Can't Do It Over Again. And You Do Have To Stop Shooting At A Certain Point.
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I Do Like The Process Of Producing. Later In My Career, Like When I Had The Tv Show, I Was A Producer And I've Been On A Few Things.
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I Got Cast Playing The Best Baseball Player Anybody's Ever Seen. I Don't Know How To Play Any Sport, Including Baseball, But I Trained Really Hard. They Had These Great Coaches, And They Started Saying, "wow, You Have Some Like Really Untapped Athletic Ability."
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It's Okay If It Takes Two Or Three Years For Something Really Good To Come Along, But I Don't Want To Wait Ten Years For Something Great To Come Along.
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I Have An Elbow That Bends The Wrong Way, And I'd Do Things Like Stand In An Elevator And The Doors Would Close, And I'd Pretend That My Arm Had Got Caught In It, And Then I'd Scream, 'ow, Ow, Put It Back!'
Doors
Elbows
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Because I Had Some Roles That Resonated With Women, I Immediately Noticed That There Were Far More Male Characters Than Female Characters In What We're Showing Little Kids In The 21st Century, Which Was Stunning To Me. But I Couldn't Find Anybody Else Who Noticed.
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When It Came Time For College, I Told My Parents I Was Going To Major In Acting. And They Were So Removed From Anything To Do With Show Business - My Dad Built Our House And My Mom Grew Our Food.
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The Only Time I Got The Absolute Most Insanely Nervous In My Life Was At The Olympic Trials, Because Archery Is A Horrible Spectator Sport. Nobody Goes And Watches An Archery Tournament. Because The Targets Are Three-quarters Of A Football Field Away. Who Can Tell Who's Winning? You Can't Even See Your Own Target From Where You Are.
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I'm Such A Wuss. But I Know That The Exorcist [1973] Is One Of The Best And Most Famous Of [horor Movies].
Exorcist
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I Watch Very Little Television, Actually. There's So Many Shows I Want To Watch And Then I Know I'll Get Hooked And I Have To Binge-watch The Entire Thing.
Watches
Television
Want
They Called And Said, "i Know We're Not Supposed To Even Tell You, But You've Been Offered To Play The President." And I Said, "ok. Say Yes." And They Were Like, "do You Want To Read It Maybe?" And I Was Like, "no, I Just Want To Be The President."
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The Second I Finish Shooting Something, I Know I Could Have Done It Better If We Started Right Then.
Done
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The Film Festival Is In A Town In Arkansas, A Quintessentially American Town With A Little Town Square. It's To Champion Women And Diversity In All Media, So Tv, Movies, Eventually, Digital, Whatever You Get Into. That's The Goal. We're Using The Same Philosophy As My Institute, Which Is To Make It Research-based And Really Try To Work Directly With Filmmakers And Content Creators And Move The Needle. It's The Only Film Festival In The World Where The Prizes Are Guaranteed Distribution.
Philosophy
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I Drive [susan Sarandon] Nuts. I'm Always Talking About Her Being My Hero. I'm Sure She's Probably Sick Of It.
Hero
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Look At The Number Of Cop Shows And Lawyer Shows And Forensics Shows... I Think There Could Be Room For Two Quite Different Examinations Of The Same Political Office.
Thinking
Two
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I Haven't Ever Gone To Any Mensa Meetings.
Gone
Meetings
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I Think If You're Doing A Play, You're Rehearsing Enough That You Get To A Point Where It's Freeing Again. But In A Movie, If You Rehearse Too Much, Now You've Just Shown Everybody What You're Going To Do. And Any Element Of Surprise Or Impulsiveness Is Taken Away.
Taken
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I Wish I Knew Who Said It, But My Favorite Quote Is, "if A Person Can Do It, I Can Do It."
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My Favorite
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This Dapper Little Mouse That Wore Such Cute Clothes And Said Such Interesting Things, Yeah. I Thought It Was A Great Idea To Have A Mouse Like That In Your Family, So Now I Get To See What It Was Like.
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I Don't Know How In The Twenty-first Century We Can Possibly Justify Not Showing Girls Things That They Can Aspire To, And At The Same Time, How Can We Possibly Be Showing Boys This Narrow Vision Of What Women Are And What They Can Be.
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The Creators Of Kids' Media Had No Idea They Were Leaving Out That Many Female Characters. They Were In Utter Shock That The Worlds They Were Creating Were So Bereft Of Female Presences.
Character
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My Thing In High School Was Being The Tallest Kid In Class. Always. I Was Always The Tallest Kid In Class.
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I Love Theater. Just, It Never Spoke To Me.
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I Had A Deliberate Plan To Get Into Movies By Becoming A Model, So I Went To New York And Got A Job Pretending To Be A Mannequin In Store Windows.
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Any Movie You See, If Tom Cruise Is In An Action Movie Or Whatever It Is, The Avengers, There's Going To Be A Kick-ass Female Character. Usually One. And There's A Term For This, But I Don't Know What It Is. But Someone's Coined A Term Where There's One Female Character Who's Incredibly Tough And Strong And Just As Good As The Guys At Whatever It Is They’re Doing, And Usually Wearing Black, Skin-tight Clothes, And [she] Has No Personality Whatsoever, And Is Not Funny.
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I Meet Susan [saradon], And She Was Amazing. We Sit Down To Go Through The Script [thelma & Louise]. I Swear, I Think It Was Page One - She Says, "so My First Line, I Don't Think We Need That Line. Or We Could Put It On Page Two. Cut This ..." And I Was Just Like ... My Jaw Was To The Ground.
Cutting
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It's A Horrible And Wonderful Battle With Yourself, To Stay Calm, Stay In The Moment. My Coach Said, "stay Here, Not At The Target. Don't Be Down There." It's Why They Call It The Zen Art.
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When My Friends And I Would Act Out Movies As Kids, We'd Play The Guys' Roles, Since They Had The Most Interesting Things To Do. Decades Later, I Can Hardly Believe My Sons And Daughter Are Seeing Many Of The Same Limited Choices In Current Films.
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If You Risk Nothing, Then You Risk Everything.
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The More Hours Of Television A Girl Watches, The Fewer Options She Thinks She Has In Life.
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All Of Hollywood Is Run On One Assumption: That Women Will Watch Stories About Men, But Men Won't Watch Stories About Women. It Is A Horrible Indictment Of Our Society Of We Assume That One Half Of Our Population Is Just Not Interested In The Other Half.
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Ridiculously - Fortunately - My First Job Was With Dustin Hoffman. I Had A Little Part In This Movie Called Tootsie. And He Taught Me How To Watch Dailies. That It Was Very Important.
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What Are We Doing That For In The 21st Century? Why On Earth Would We Teach Kids That Girls Are Less Important Than Boys? It Just Made No Sense To Me.
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For A Long Time, Way Back In The ’30s And ’40s, There Were Fabulous Female Roles. Bette Davis And All Those People Had Incredible, Great Roles. After World War Ii, Something Happened Where It Was Not Only "get Out Of The Factories," But "get Out Of The Movies." That's When Women's Roles Started To Really [change].
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I Just Passed On Some A Script That I Was Sent, Because I Said, "i Haven't Yet Played The Person Staying Home, The One That Says, 'good Luck, Honey,' Or Whatever." And So That's What I Look For. Therefore, By Virtue Of That Exclusion, I'm Always Trying To Find Roles That Are Challenging.
Home
Good Luck
Always Trying
I Had Very, Very Bad Self-esteem - That I Was A Fake, Everybody Was Going To Find Out, That I Didn't Deserve To Have Success, Just About My Looks And Really, Really Bad Self-esteem.
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Fake
Looks
The Most Important Thing Is To Change What Children See From The Beginning. To Not Create A Problem We Have To Fix Later.
Children
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If It Isn't A Success, That Still Wouldn't Be Grounds For Divorce.
Divorce
Stills
Ifs
Once I Fix What Kids Watch, I'll Be Moving On To Everything Else.
Moving
Kids
Watches
The Most Common Occupation For Women In G Rated Films Is Royalty - Which Is A Great Gig, If You Can Get It.
Family
Work
Reality
I Was 16 Or Something. [my Aunt] Broadened My Understanding Of What Women Could Be Like And Do And That There's A Big World Out There. So She Had A Huge Impact On Me.
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Impact
Understanding
I Wanted To Take Up A Sport The Real Way And See If I Actually Had Athletic Ability. And Then I Happened To See It Was During The Atlanta Olympics. And There Was A Lot Of Coverage Of Archery Because The U.s. Men's Team Won All The Medals. And I Thought, "wow, That's Beautiful. And It's So Dramatic, A Beautiful Sport. And I Wonder If I Would Be Good At It?"
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[my Aunt] Took Me To My First Play, Too, Which Was Dinner Theater. I Don't Know If They Have That In England, But You Eat A Dinner While You Watch A Play. And She Ordered A Glass Of Wine. I Was Like, "oh My God. This Is, Like, The Most Sophisticated Thing I Have Ever Done."
Wine
Aunt
Glasses
I'm Not Somebody Who Takes Stuff Home With Them, That If I Shoot A Scene And I'm Personally Impacted For Days Or Something. I Mean It Certainly Is Affecting And Everything, But It Doesn't Penetrate To Some Deeper Layer. I'm In It When I'm In It.
Home
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I Almost Never Get Nervous. I Have Ice Water In My Veins.
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I Told My Parents When I Was Three That I Wanted To Be In Movies. I Don't Know What I Saw At Three Years Old That Would Make Me Decide That's A Job And I Want To Have That Job. But I Was Very Confident, Very Sure That's What I Wanted To Do. I Didn't Do Anything About It. I Didn't Prove It To Myself Or Anything. I Just Knew.
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Obviously, Movies Don't Almost Ever Shoot In Sequence.
Sequence
My Daughter Was A Toddler. I Had No Idea There Was Anything Wrong With Kids' Media.i Started Watching Little Preschool Shows With Her Or G-rated Videos Or Whatever; I Couldn't Believe What I Was Seeing, That There Seemed To Be Far More Male Characters Than Female Characters In What We Make For Little Kids. It Was Just A Shock.
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Kids
When I Was A Model, Actually, For A Little While, My Friend That I Worked With A Lot, She Had Horrible Self-esteem Too. We Decided That The Exact Moment When We Actually Thought We Were Attractive, We Wouldn't Be Anymore. We Would Just, Like, Miss It.
Self Esteem
Missing
Littles
I Used To Be Very Unathletic. I Was Always So Gangly And Self-conscious About My Height. I Had Convinced Myself I Was Uncoordinated. And As A Result, I Didn't Want To Try Stuff.
Self
Trying
Want
I Had Told My Agents That I Never Wanted To Do An Hour-long Tv Show. I Said, "i'm Not That Stupid." Because It's The Worst Lifestyle In Hollywood.
Stupid
Tv Shows
Long
We Need More Female Directors, We Also Need Men To Step Up And Identify With Female Characters And Stories About Women. We Don't Want To Create A Ghetto Where Women Have To Do Movies About Women. To Assume Stories About Women Need To Be Told By A Woman Isn't Necessarily True, Just As Stories About Men Don't Need A Male Director.
Character
Ghetto
Men
Are You Stupid Or Did You Just Take Lessons?
Stupid
Lessons
Insult
The Ratio Of Male To Female Characters In Movies Has Been Exactly The Same Since 1946. So If You've Ever Had People Say, You Know, "it's Better Now, It's All Changed, It's All Different," It's Not, It Hasn't. Not Yet.
Character
People
Males
I Have A Web Site That Parents And Girls Can Use To Learn About Title Ix And Take Action If They Find Their School Is Not In Compliance. Thirty Years After Title Ix Passed, 80 Percent Of Schools Are Not In Compliance.
Girl
School
Years
I Had A Pretty Poor Self-image For A Long Time. I Broke Into Acting As A Model In New York. I Was Never Anything Like A "supermodel," But I Made A Living At It For A Couple Years. The Thing Was, I Was Convinced That I Was Tricking Everyone Into Thinking I Was Attractive.
New York
Couple
Thinking
I Was Lucky Enough To Be In Some Movies Where I Had Powerful Characters Or I Got To Be The President On Tv For A Little While. Very Short Administration.
Powerful
Character
President
In Advertisements For Your Favorite Products, Are Women Denigrated Or Objectified In Some Way? All Of That Is Important. I Would Rewrite My Kids' Books, I Would Write It In The Books For The Babysitter!
Book
Writing
Important
When I Started Out, Maybe Because I Did Thelma & Louise Early On - But People Were Always Asking, "are Things Better For Women Now?" I Would Say, "yeah, I Think So. It Seems Like It." Then A Few Years In, I Started Saying, "i Think So. I'm Getting A Lot Of Good Parts, But I Don't Know." Then Eventually, I Was Like, "google It. I Don't Know, But It Doesn't Seem Great."
Thinking
Years
People
One Thing Is A Fairly Simple And Straightforward Thing. I Don't Long To Direct. I Really Want To Get Some Good Parts.
Simple
Long
Want
I Was Tall From Minute One. Always The Tallest Kid By A Large Margin. And My Fantasy Was To Take Up Less Space In The World.
Kids
Space
World
I Was So Tall In High School That I Was Convinced That I Was Uncoordinated And Not Athletic. I Was Terrified To Play Any Sport At All, No Matter How Hard They Tried To Convince Me To Be On The Girls' Basketball Team As The Tallest Kid In Class.
Basketball
Sports
Team
I Just Love All The Details About Movies, And It's Fun To Be Involved In Everything. I Just Love It. It's Just A Little Added Fun Thing To Be Consulted About Stuff.
Fun
Details
Littles
After A Couple Of Rehearsals And A Couple Of Takes, Sydney Pollack Says, "come Here. Why Are You Not Nervous?" And I [say], "do You Think It Would Be Better If I Was Nervous?" And He Says, "no, It's Just I Can't Understand It - How You Would Be First Time On A Set, You're Acting, When He Flubs His Line You Make Up A New Line. It's Very Interesting." It's Not That I Think I'm Great; That's What I Knew I Wanted To Do.
Couple
Thinking
Interesting
A Woman As The Leader Of The Free World Is An Impossibility. Muslim Countries Won't Talk To You.
Leadership
Country
World
I Don't Think Male Characters Are As One-dimensional As Female Characters.
Character
Thinking
Males
The Whole Point Of Why I'm Doing This Is To Show All Kids, Boys And Girls, That Women Take Up Half The Space And Do Half Of The Interesting Things In The World And Have Half Of The Dreams And Ambitions. Our Slogan Is, "if They See It, They Can Be It."
Girl
Dream
Ambition
I Think I Always Had Joie De Vivre. But I Had Pretty Bad Self-esteem Growing Up And Much Of My Adult Life.
Growing Up
Self Esteem
Thinking
Somebody Warned Me Early On To Be Very Careful About Brushing Up Against The Chocolate.
Chocolate
Careful
Brushing
When I Got Pregnant, I Told [susan Sarandon ]. She Said, "all Right. I'm Gonna Tell You The Thing To Do When You're Giving Birth: Push Like You're Trying To Win A Prize, Like You Want To Be The Best Patient He's Ever Had. He's Going To Give You A Prize For Winning That." So I Did. [the Doctor] Said, "you Are Probably The Best Pusher I've Had As A Patient."
Winning
Doctors
Giving
If We Show Fictional Characters Doing Cool Stuff, Then Girls Will Want To Be It In Real Life.
Girl
Real
Character
It's Partly Because Our Culture So Hyper-sexualizes Females That If You Don't Measure Up To Whatever We're Forced To Think Is The Standard, Then You Feel Inadequate.
Thinking
Female
Culture
I Would Say How Important It Is That We Stop Teaching Kids, From The Beginning, That Boys Are More Important Than Girls. It's The 21st Century, You Know, Let's Go Here. We Have To Show Kids That Boys And Girls Share The Sandbox Equally And Do Equally Interesting Things. We're Teaching Kids Something That We Have To Try To Get Rid Of Later On. Why Not Just Stop Filling Them With Unconscious Gender Bias?
Girl
Teaching
Kids
I Once Read A Quote That I Think Was Michelle Pfeiffer In An Article, Who Said That She Thought People Went Into Acting Because Maybe If You Could Convince Millions Of People To Like You, You Will Finally Like Yourself, Approve Of Yourself. I Don't Know If That May Have Been A Part Of It.
Thinking
People
Acting
I Realized That In All The Sectors Of Society Where There's A Huge Gender Disparity, The One Place That Can Be Fixed Overnight Is Onscreen. You Think About Getting Half Of Congress, Or The Presidency ... It's Going To Take A While No Matter How Hard We Work On It. But Half Of The Board Members And Half Of The Ceos Can Be Women In The Next Movie Somebody Makes; It Can Be Absolutely Half.
Thinking
Boards
Half
The Main Thing About Archery Is A Battle With Yourself. You Can Ruin It All. Once You Have Learned The Technique, The Point Is To Recreate The Perfect Technique Over And Over And Over.
Archery
Perfect
Battle
My Parents Are Both From Vermont, Very Old-fashioned New England. We Heated Our House With Wood My Father Chopped. My Mom Grew All Of Our Food. We Were Very Underexposed To Everything.
Mom
Father
House
Archery Is Something That I Took Up Later And Didn't Know I Had A Natural Aptitude For.
Archery
Aptitude
Natural
We Have It In Our Heads That Women Only Need To Take Up A Certain Amount Of Space And Then We've Done Right By Them. It's The Same In Every Profession. We Get A Handful Of Women Professors, A Few Female Board Members - That Looks Normal.
Space
Female
Boards
My Point Was The World Is Missing Female Characters. A Lot Of Times There Is One Female Character, Maybe Even A Cool One, Maybe Even An Important One. But Where Are All The Rest?
Character
Missing
Important
I Just Read That 81 Percent Of Americans Are Ready To Vote For A Woman. So It Sounds Like America Is Ready.
America
Sound
Vote
An Eye-opening Moment In My Life, A Very Defining Moment, Was The First Time I Met Susan Sarandon [before Shooting Thelma & Louise]. We Were Going To Meet, Just Ridley [scott] And Susan And I, To Go Through The Script And See If We Had Any Thoughts Or Ideas. I Was Reading The Script, And In The Most Girly Way Possible, Meaning That If It Was A Line That Could Change Or Something Different I'd Like To See, I Would Think About Each One And Say, "well, This One Can Wait Till The Set Because I Don't Want To Bring Up Too Many Things."
Girly
Reading
Eye
This Is Really Funny, But We Did A Study Of The Occupations Of Female Characters On Tv, And There Are So Many Female Forensic Scientists On Tv Because Of All The Csi Shows And Bones And Whatever. I Don't Have To Lobby Anybody To Add More Female Forensic Scientists As Role Models. There's Plenty.in Real Life, The People Going Into That Field Now Are Something Like Two-thirds Women.
Real
Character
Csi
I'm The Mother Of Two Daughters, One Of Whom Is Going To Get Possessed. It's Really Spooky And Great. I'm Shooting It Right Now. That's Why I'm In Chicago. I Wanted To Tell You About The Other Direction That This Trying-to-get-more-female-characters Thing Has Taken, Which Is That I Launched My Own Film Festival Last Year.
Daughter
Mother
Taken
My Scripts Are Always Filled With Notes. I Like To Just Analyze Everything From The Point Of View Of The Whole Picture, Of The Movie, My Whole Picture.
Views
Scripts
Notes
I'm Very Competitive, I Think.
Thinking
I Watched A Lot Of Series. I Didn't Watch A Lot Of Movies On Tv. But I Watched Gilligan's Island And Star Trek And All That Stuff.
Stars
Islands
Watches
We Are In Effect Enculturating Kids From The Very Beginning To See Women And Girls As Not Taking Up Half Of The Space.
Girl
Kids
Space
Kids Need To See Entertainment Where Females Are Valued As Much As Males.
Kids
Males
Female
Having A Very Complicated Life, Or A Lot Of Problems, Or A Lot Of Flaws, Is Always Great To Play.
Play
Problem
Flaws
There Were So Many Women Who Had Worked Throughout The War In Every Possible Job. They Were Told, "now Leave, So The Men Can Come In" And There Was This Whole Feminizing Of Women: You Have To Be Very, Very Retiring And Submissive And Whatever.
Jobs
War
Men
I Was Really Lucky That I Had An Aunt Who Was Very Inspiring To Me. She Was Different Than Anybody In My Family On Either Side.
Aunt
Different
Lucky
We All Know The Huge Problem There Is With Entertainment In General Leaving Out Women. Especially As Actors, We Know There Are Fewer Great Parts For Women.
Leaving
Actors
Entertainment
I'm So Not A Party Person. I'm So Not Social And Don't Go To Parties.
Party
Social
Persons
I Always Want A Challenge. My Whole Career Has Been Based On Trying To Avoid Female Characters That Don't Get To Do Anything. And It's Really Hard To Avoid Those.
Character
Careers
Challenges
The Only Movies I Saw Till I Was 17 Were Made By Disney. My Parents Had This Thing. Disney Was Like, You Know, "ford Is A Good Car. Disney Makes Good Movies That Are Good For Kids And Safe."
Kids
Car
Parent
I Had This Aunt Who Had A Career And Traveled. She'd Say Things Like, "when You Go To College, I Think We Should Go Scuba Diving In The Summer. The Scuba Diving In Portugal Is Fabulous." And I'd Be Like, "portugal! Holy Cats!".
Summer
Cat
Aunt
Something's Like Crossed Over In Me And I Can't Go Back. I Couldn't Live.
Thelma And Louise
I Can
I Remember Very Distinctly Being So Tall I Didn't Fit Sleeves, So I Ended Up Modeling Lingerie And Bathing Suits, Sleeveless Stuff, Basically. I Didn't Have A Good Body, But I Believed I Knew How To Stand Or Pose To Mask It.
Body
Stuff
Lingerie
It's Really Important For Boys To See That Girls Take Up Half Of The Planet - Which We Do.
Girl
Boys
Important
The Thing I Noticed, Have Learned The Most About Directors, Is: When They're Very Confident In Themselves, They're Open To Creativity From Other People. If They're Scared Or Nervous, Then They Shut Off And Nobody's Ideas [count].
Creativity
Ideas
People
I Would Say Any Film Can Be Called Feminist That Has Female Characters Who Have Agency In Their Life, That Are In Charge Of Their Fate Or Do Important Things Or Take Up Half The Space. I Would Consider A Film Feminist, I Don't Care What It's About, But If The Cast Was Gender Balanced, Where It Would Be Just As Likely That The Boss Or The Best Friend Or Whoever Was Female. It's Really As Simple As Showing Women Being In Charge Of Their Destiny And Giving Female Characters A Voice.
Character
Fate
Simple
My Theory Of Everything Is That We Are Training Kids To Have Gender Bias Against Girls, Therefore When You Are An Adult, You Don't See It. We Think It's Normal.
Girl
Kids
Thinking
When I Started Watching Breaking Bad, I Binge-watched It. I Thought It Was So Good That I Started To Cry. It's The Only Time In My Life I've Been Completely Jealous, The Only Time. I Was Like, [imitates Crying] "i Want To Do What Bryan Cranston Gets To Do. I Want A Part Like That." [both Laugh] Isn't That Pathetic?
Jealous
Laughing
Want
My Knowledge Of Horror Films Is Pathetic Because I Can't Really Watch Them.
Watches
Horror
Film
I Really Only Did Theater In School In College. I Did Summer Stock A Couple Of Times In The Summer, And Plays That The School Put On. But I Knew I Wanted To Be In Movies.
Summer
Couple
School
Archers Are Pretty Focused.
Archer
Focused
Even Though I Was 34 Or 35 Or Something. I Was Like, “people Can Do That? Women Can Actually Just Say What They Think?” It Was An Extraordinary Experience To Do That Movie With Her Because Every Day Was A Lesson In How To Just Be Yourself.
Being Yourself
Thinking
People
I Met The Former President Of Iceland [jóhanna Sigurðardóttir] Once. I Think She Was President For, Like, 16 Years Or Something. She Said She Used To Get Letters From Little Boys Saying, "madam President, Do You Think It Will Ever Be Possible For A Boy To Be President?" Just Like We Assume That Girls Can't Be Politicians, They Were Assuming Boys Can't. That's What They Thought. It's So Crazy.
Girl
Crazy
Thinking
~there Are Moments When I Feel Like I Have A Looong Road Ahead Of Me, With College And Dating And Driving And All Of That. But Then I Realize It Just Means That I Have So Much Time Left To Enjoy My Kids. And It Really Does Go By So Quickly.~
Mean
Kids
Parenting
Behind The Cameras, There's A Different Problem, Which I Think Is Not Unconscious Gender Bias. It's Probably Categorized More As Conscious Gender Bias. Because Everybody's Known The Numbers For Decades. Nobody's Stunned To Hear There Are Very Few Female Directors, Only 4 Or 7 Percent. Everybody Knows, But It Doesn't Change Anything. It Doesn't Make People Say, "wow! We Should Change That." Nothing Happens. It's Utterly Stagnant.
Thinking
People
Female
My Sons Last Summer, They Won A Trophy From Their Surfing Camp And They Came Home And Went Right Over To The Shelf And Put It Up Next To My Oscar. That's Where We Put Our Trophies.
Summer
Home
Son
My Whole Theory About Why I Couldn’t Find Any Creators Who Realized They Were Leaving Out Female Characters Is Because They Were Raised On The Same Ratio. I Just Heard Someone The Other Day Call It Either ‘smurfing’ A Movie, Which Is When There’s One Female Character, Or ‘minioning’ A Movie, Which Is When There’s No Female Characters.
Character
Leaving
Female
The Fictitious Worlds Created For Kids Are Nearly Bereft Of Female Presence. It's Sending A Very Clear Message From The Beginning That Women And Girls Do Not Have Half Of The Adventures, That They're Not As Important. We're Teaching Kids That Girls And Women Don't Take Up Half The Space In The World.
Girl
Teaching
Adventure
That's The Really Frustrating Thing, But Also The Fixable Thing. My Theory Why No One Notices Is That That's The [women's Roles] Ratio Thing They Grew Up With. It's Just Been That Way Forever, So They Don't See It.
Forever
Roles
Ratios
Nobody Ever Said, "well If You Want To Be In Movies, You Should Go To L.a." Everybody Else Was Going To New York. So I Went To New York With Them. And Then I Was Like, "how Am I Supposed To Get A Movie?"
New York
Want
Should
So Many Female Characters Are The Girlfriend Of The Person Having The Adventure. I Want To Play Baseball, I Don't Want To Be The Girlfriend Of The One [who Plays].
Baseball
Girlfriend
Adventure
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