Hollywood director Paul Feig determined to cast women in male-dominated movies
Hollywood director Paul Feig reveals his bold plan to keep the industry on its toes. Known for blockbuster comedies Bridesmaids, Spy, and The Heat, Feig is in Sydney to promote his latest film Last Christmas.
Confidential
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Director Paul Feig is determined to champion women in male dominated Hollywood.
Known for blockbuster comedies Bridesmaids, Spy, and The Heat, Feig has long cast women in lead roles, so much so that he has been warned against it.
“People will tell me to be careful or I will be known as that woman’s director,” Feig told Confidential.
“And I am like, ‘what the f*** does that mean?’ Do you say that to Martin Scorsese because you don’t want him to be pigeon holed into working with too many guys. It just shows how endemic the problem is.”
Feig is in Australia to promote his new movie, Last Christmas, which opens on Thursday and stars Emelia Clarke, Michelle Yeoh and Emma Thompson.
His other movie credits include Ghostbusters, A Simple Favor and Unaccompanied Minors.
“I grew up watching Katharine Hepburn and Rosalind Russell, those characters were equal to men in the movies,” Feig, who is also an actor, said.
“Then I would put that up against comedies and the big tentpole movies of the 80s, 90s and 2000s and these roles were really great for the men but they were terrible for the women. They are just eye candy and this isn’t reflective of any of the women I know in my life or what they want or do. Women are having to be inspired by male characters and that is not right. There are so many reasons it is so overdue. I love to create good female three dimensional roles, putting them into genres that they have been excluded from or not been treated fairly in … that is extra fun because then we can really reinvent the genre.”
