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PEOPLE & ARTS Friday 1 September 2017
Did ‘Thelma & Louise’ move the needle for female-led films?

By JOCELYN NOVECK
AP National Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — When
Geena Davis and Susan
Sarandon clasped hands,
stepped on the gas and
flew over the canyon ridge
in that memorable ending
to “Thelma & Louise,” many
in Hollywood believed they
were launching more than
that turquoise Thunderbird.
It was 1991, and the ex-
pectation — or at least
the hope — was that they
were also launching a new
era for women in movies,
an era in which it would
be easier to get films made
with meaty female lead
roles, and in which female
filmmakers would find it
easier to get work.
It didn’t happen, says Thel-
ma herself.
“It hasn’t changed at all,”
says Davis, who in the in-
tervening quarter-century
has become an activist for
diversity in Hollywood, fo-
cusing especially on gen-
der bias. “We never seem
to get any momentum go- This combination photo shows screenwriter Callie Khoury posing with her Oscar for best original screenplay for “Thelma and Louise”
ing.” at the 64th Annual Academy Awards in Los Angeles on March 31, 1992, left, and Khoury at the Disney/ABC Winter 2014 TCA Press
In fact, she says, things Tour on Friday, Jan. 17, 2014 in Pasadena, Calif; and In this Aug. 18, 2017 photo, actress Geena Davis, right, poses for a photo in
actually haven’t gotten New York.
better since the 1940s. Associated Press
“Our research shows the Her tale of that fateful jour- outrageous? — the film still cent weeks. Most research with her three kids, “They’ll
ratio of male to female ney from Arkansas to the resonates, and remarkably has been about films for turn to me before I even say
characters in film has not Grand Canyon by Thelma, so, says author Becky Aik- adults, but the Geena Da- anything and say, ‘Yeah, I
changed since 1946,” Da- a timid housewife with a man, whose “Off The Cliff,” vis Institute has lately been noticed that.’”
vis said in an interview, chauvinist husband, and released this summer, takes looking at family-oriented In another recent study,
referring to studies by the Louise, a hard-bitten wait- a deep dive into the unlike- films. the Viterbi School’s SAIL
nonprofit research group ress with a painful secret, ly story of a film that defied In a yet-unreleased report, Lab (Signal Analysis and In-
she launched, the Geena was Khouri’s debut screen- the odds merely by getting the institute analyzed, using terpretation) analyzed lan-
Davis Institute on Gender play. And she won the Os- made. But it was clearly an technology developed in guage of 7,000 characters
in Media. car — the first solo screen- anomaly, not a launching partnership with the Univer- and 53,000 character inter-
So what about “Wonder writing Oscar awarded to a point, the author says. sity of Southern California’s actions in 1,000 film scripts.
Woman,” the mega-hit woman for an original work “I wanted to see how this Viterbi School of Engineer- It found that women had
that has shattered glass in 60 years. one made it through the ing, the 50 top-grossing about 15,000 interactions,
ceilings, turned Gal Gadot But a turning point for wormhole, in part because 2016 family films. It found, or “dialogues,” while men
into a superstar and earned women? “Yeah, that didn’t it hasn’t happened before among other things, that had over 37,000. Women
the top global haul for a happen,” says Khouri, with or since,” Aikman says. “A male characters outnum- portrayed just over 2,000
live-action film directed by bitter humor. “I’m still wait- lot of people thought at bered females by 2 to 1, characters, while men por-
a woman? Davis remains ing.” The rise of “Wonder the time, ‘Wow, this movie and male characters had trayed almost 4,900.
skeptical. “Look, there was Woman,” she says, feels is so successful, we’ve got twice the screen time and Yet another study, from
‘Hunger Games,’ there like a “tiny little crack” in to have more movies like speaking time. USC’s Annenberg School
was ‘Frozen,’ even ‘Star the ceiling. But, she adds: this!’ And then no one did “If you want to change the for Communication and
Wars’ with a female lead... “You know, it’s been a little it, which is wildly frustrat- world, you can change it Journalism, found that be-
and now ‘Wonder Wom- daunting to see how slowly ing, and just shows how en- overnight in the mind of a hind the camera, women
an.’ You figure, ‘We’re things actually do change. trenched the point of view child,” says Madeline Di directors are still a rarity:
done!’” she says. “But we I can tell you that I, for one, of Hollywood is ... that even Nonno, the institute’s CEO, In the top 100 films of 2016
have to wait for the data. am so sick of the conver- a very successful movie who shared the data with there were only five female
It’s been a quarter-century sation. Why haven’t things didn’t seem to get people the AP. “Geena pioneered directors out of 120, includ-
since ‘Thelma & Louise’ changed for women? I in positions of power to say this field of research be- ing co-directors.
and nothing’s changed. I mean, don’t ask US!” we should do more like it.” cause she was watch- In a statistic that remains
know it WILL change, but Twenty-six years after “Thel- The uphill struggle for ing programming with her ever striking, only one
to say this is the exact mo- ma & Louise” landed on women in Hollywood — young daughter, and was woman has won the Oscar
ment — well, you’ll have to the cover of Time because onscreen and behind the concerned about what for directing in the awards’
prove it to me.” of the gender conversation camera — has been the she saw.” Davis says with a 89-year history: Kath-
Also in the skeptical camp: it launched — was it femi- subject of numerous stud- laugh that now, when she ryn Bigelow for “The Hurt
screenwriter Callie Khouri. nist or fascist, inspiring or ies, including several in re- watches movies and TV Locker.”q