BEHOLD YOUR FINAL FOUR: |
"Karyn Kusama did such a killer job directing that movie, and I think it was so unconventional, and so specifically about the girls in a way that excluded a lot of people – and in a way that I love, because I’m all about specific art. I would rather make something that ten people adore than make something that 100 million people like enough to buy a ticket to. So I just think it’s a very specific piece. ...At the time, there was a lot of negativity around the movie, because I was very outspoken at that time, Megan Fox was very outspoken at that time… I love that she was speaking her mind. But she was punished for it. People don’t like women with big mouths, and there were a lot of them on that project. So, you know, let’s chalk it up to misogyny." |
“[Michael] wants to create this insane, infamous mad-man reputation. He wants to be like Hitler on his sets, and he is. So he’s a nightmare to work for but when you get him away from set, and he’s not in director mode, I kind of really enjoy his personality because he’s so awkward, so hopelessly awkward. He has no social skills at all. It’s endearing to watch him. He’s so vulnerable and fragile in real life and then on set, he’s a tyrant.”
"When facing the press, Megan is the queen of talking trailer trash and posing like a porn star. And yes we’ve had the unbearable time of watching her try to act on set, and yes, it’s very cringe-able. So maybe, being a porn star in the future might be a good career option. But make-up beware, she has a paragraph tattooed to her backside (probably due her rotten childhood) — easily another 45 minutes in the chair!" - Loyal Transformers Crew
In the other 6 ridiculous paragraphs, she is also referred to as "Ms. Sourpants," "unfriendly bitch," "dumb-as-rocks," and told that she should "smile more." AND ALL OF THIS BECAUSE SHE SAID HER DIRECTOR WAS "SOMETIMES A LITTLE AWKWARD." Sure, she was 23 and a little snarky and maybe calling him "Hitler" was a bit much. But Jesus Christ, did she really deserve all that? This from the same man who cast her as an extra in Bad Boys II when she was a minor, of which Fox has said: “They said, you know, Michael, she’s 15 so you can’t sit her at the bar…so his solution to that problem was to then have me dancing underneath a waterfall getting soaking wet. At 15, I was in 10th grade. So that’s sort of a microcosm of how Bay’s mind works.” |
“The movie was really the movie I wanted to make and the movie that Diablo Cody wrote. In regards to its marketing, it was an epic misstep and they sold it to boys instead of to the girls who it was written for, and by, and about." - Karyn Kusama
"As an artist, and for me personally, my biggest fear is categorization. I hate the idea that I would become someone who says that "this is what I do and now that's what I am." What I really feel like is an explorer. I want to continue exploring my brain cave and see what's there, you know? And I don't want to just stay in one cave."
"Your artistic journey always coincides with life, and, if you're lucky, your life remains more full than those characters onscreen."
“I’m glad we did By the Sea because we did explore something together. Whatever it was, maybe it didn’t solve certain things, but we did communicate something that needed to be communicated to each other.”
“My girl got sick. She was constantly nervous because of problems at work, personal life, her failures and children. She lost 30 pounds and weight about 90 pounds. She got very skinny and was constantly crying. She was not a happy woman. She had suffered from continuing headaches, heart pain and jammed nerves in her back and ribs. She did not sleep well, falling asleep only in the mornings and got very quickly tired during the day. Our relationship was on the verge of a break up. Her beauty was leaving her somewhere, she had bags under eyes, she was poking her head, and stopped taking care of herself. She refused to shoot the films and rejected any role. I lost hope and thought that we’ll get separated soon… But then I decided to act. After all I’ve got the most beautiful woman on earth. She is the idol of more than half of men and women on earth, and I was the one allowed to fall asleep next to her and to hug her. I began to shower her with flowers, kisses and compliments. I surprised and pleased her every minute. I gave her lots of gifts and lived just for her. I spoke in public only about her. I incorporated all themes in her direction. I praised her in front of her own and our mutual friends. You won’t believe it, but she blossomed. She became better. She gained weight, was no longer nervous, and loved me more than ever. I had no clue that she can love that much. And then I realized one thing: the woman is the reflection of her man. If you love her to the point of madness, she will become it."
“I would love to see more women directors because they represent half of the population - and gave birth to the whole world. Without them writing and being directors, the rest of us are not going to know the whole story.”
"I really wanted to show these women as imperfect human beings, and that they can still be aspirational. They can still be these superheroes, but it doesn’t mean that they have to be perfect. I think that we’re burdened as women with perfection all the time."
- "How Birds of Prey Director Cathy Yan Saved Harley Quinn From Joker and the Male Gaze" by Melissa Leon
K.K. Barrett (Production Designer) | Erin Benach (Costume Designer) | Christina Hodson (Writer) |
"I didn’t really feel like I grew up seeing two dark-skinned people fall in love on screen. I had never really seen that connection between two people who looked like our Queen and Slim, like Jodie and Daniel. I really wanted to be part of redefining what black beauty – well, beauty – means. I also think about when I went to film school and they said: “Hey, casting a black woman as your lead won’t be profitable.”
- Interview with Melina Matsoukas by Simran Hans, The Guardian
"I have a strange combination of fearlessness and massive insecurity."
"That was part of the beauty of making this movie. I was excited to look at these women close up — from the neck up — and in ways that maybe we aren’t used to looking at them."
"I've never had a plan. I've always done things from instinct."
"Gerwig is one of the most original actors of her time; now she’s directing movies that evoke her own experience, but she doesn’t have actors similar to herself to portray characters who are like herself. Ronan displays, in both movies, conspicuous skill and admirable precision—but not the spontaneity, the creative imagination, the impulsivity that Gerwig herself displays onscreen. Ronan becomes a vessel for characters endowed with Gerwig’s creative fire, but not for the fire itself. (It’s unclear whether this is due to the nature of her own art or to its interface with Gerwig’s direction.) As a result, Ronan is not a powerful presence as Jo March: the character, famous for her anger, for her “temper,” comes off as unduly moderate, both inwardly and outwardly—not in conflict with herself, not repressing that rage, but merely claiming one that’s hardly in danger of bursting forth."
- The Compromises of Greta Gerwig's "Little Women" by Richard Brody, The NY Times
"I am more than half-persuaded that I am a man's soul put by some freak of nature into a woman's body... Because I have fallen in love with so many pretty girls and never once the least bit with any man.” |
"It's really hard to get stories made that are about women. Not just women being obsessed with men, or supporting men. And it's really hard to get men to be a part of films that are about women in a leading role. I'm really interested in how we can adjust that."
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"The star ratings are relative, not absolute. If a director is clearly trying to make a particular kind of movie, and his [OR HER!] audiences are looking for a particular kind of movie, part of my job is judging how close he came to achieving his purpose."
"When her arthritis got so bad that she needed a cane, Autumn de Wilde didn’t just pick one up at the pharmacy. She went to a 19th century Victorian umbrella shop in London and told the shopkeeper: “I need your weirdest cane.”
“Check this out,” she said, unscrewing the top of the French walking stick, supposedly modeled after one once owned by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Inside was a thin vial containing Japanese whiskey, bookended by a couple of shot glasses. “These need a little wash, because we’ve partaken recently. It actually only holds a shot, which is so disappointing. I thought it was so much more when I bought it.”
The idea of following standard protocol is anathema to De Wilde. Every day, she dresses in a uniform — some version of a suit with a broad-brimmed felt hat. (She says her style is a mix of Paddington Bear and Oscar Wilde.)"
- Amy Kaufman, The LA Times
“One of the things I was most struck by that seemed very intimately her is her female gaze on men and romance. When you look back through at the men she has photographed, she’s not afraid to take in what’s beautiful about a man’s body — this is how he’s childlike but also tough.... I just think it’s interesting in this moment, when you wonder what have we been missing — it’s a different way to see men. Of course we’ve missed women’s voices and stories, but men have missed out on a certain kind of tenderness that someone like Autumn can give. It’s interesting to think there may be some healing in that.” - Miranda July
"I just wanted to do something about the teenage experience; it's such a wonderful and horrible time of life."
“De Wilde, however, views “Emma” as an offering of levity during a period of political unrest that makes us feel “like we’re all being bullied.” And she takes issue with those who view films with ornate scenery — like those of Wes Anderson, one of her creative inspirations — as pure fluff.
"I mean, have people seen ‘Moonlight’? There’s so much color in that movie, and it’s genius. It’s a strange idea that movies about pain and struggle should have color removed from them,” she said. “I don’t know why it’s been assigned to extravagance. I don’t walk into a pastry shop in Paris and go, ‘Why are all these colors here?’ I go, ‘That’s delicious, and I want to eat it.’ How it looks is part of the story.”
- Amy Kaufman, The LA Times
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Sarah Ruth(less) Joanou is a Chicago based writer, artist, production designer, actor, & cat mom.