Iconic director Steven Spielberg said his most important approach to making movies is to hire women.
Spielberg discussed the importance of women in the entertainment industry during the recent nominee breakfast for the Producers Guild of America Awards. As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, the director stated, “The smartest thing I do is hire women. I always will.” Throughout his speech, Spielberg repeatedly sang the praises of his longtime producing partner, Kristie Macosko Krieger, who started out as his assistant. The pair are up for the Producers Guild of America’s Darryl F. Zanuck Award.
Spielberg’s comment comes at a time when the cultural discourse is firmly focused on questions of representation and gender bias within the entertainment industry. A recent study by Dr. Martha Lauzen, the executive director of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University, found that 85% of films released last year featured more men than women. Moreover, the study also showed a 3% decrease in the amount of major female characters between 2020 and 2021.
“Despite the major disruptions in the film business over the last couple of years, on-screen gender ratios have remained relatively stable,” Lauzen explained. “Last year audiences saw almost two male characters for every female character, and although women protagonists led some of the most high-profile films including Spencer, Being the Ricardos and The Eyes of Tammy Faye, women comprised slightly less than one-third of sole protagonists last year.”
While Lauzen’s study presents a rather bleak depiction of female representation in the industry, there have been recent examples of celebrating women’s voices in entertainment media. For example, Hulu’s Letterkenny dropped a full special for International Women’s Day, which depicts several characters competing in an anti-beauty pageant, and Star Trek: Discovery producer Aron Eli Coleite will team up with Women of Color Unite to create a brand new graphic novel, Animus.
Spielberg and Krieger’s latest film was the 2021 adaptation of West Side Story, which Spielberg stated was the last musical he would ever direct. “The worst day of the West Side Story shoot was the last day, because I knew I wouldn’t direct another musical,” he said. His next directorial project will be The Fabelmans, a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age drama loosely inspired by his own childhood. Much of Spielberg’s upcoming projects see him in an executive producer role, including Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, The Color Purple and Indiana Jones 5, among many others.
West Side Story, which stars Rachel Zegler as Maria Vasquez, is now available to stream on HBO Max.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
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