Audiences want to watch heroine-oriented films, and even writers are writing scripts for women. I am very happy to see this change.
'Hot Pursuit,' 'Pitch Perfect 2,' 'Trainwreck,' and 'Spy' were all being done in the last year. All four of those movies I just mentioned are not rom-coms: they're all about women doing different things.
I hear all the time that boys don't like stories about girls. Which never made much sense to me. Wasn't 'Terminator' about a girl? And 'Alien'? Hell, I grew up on 'The Wizard of Oz.' People enjoy stories about anything if they're good stories.
Very good female characters, that's all we want. It's happening, slow and steady, which I love. Hopefully, it gets a little quicker. Fast and steady, how about that? Either way, we want more good females.
Whatever your opinion on it, 'Sex And The City' was undeniably a show that told stories where the main focus was on women and not on men.
I love strong women in films that are allowed to play women and not male fantasies.
I'm so open to different things. The only thing I'd say is I've set the bar pretty high in terms of good female roles with 'Diary,' and I want to continue in that vein.
I'm making a movie about Wonder Woman, who I love, who to me is one of the great superheroes, so I just treated her like a universal character, and that's what I think is the next step when I think you can do that more and more and when studios have the confidence to do that more and more.
It's been increasingly hard to make small stories about female friendship, and, definitely, those stories don't have any shot of getting a theatrical release.
Time's up on cheesy, lesser, boring roles for females in the stories that we try to tell.
It is frustrating that people have a hard time telling other female stories besides, 'Is she going to get the guy?'
I think that the audience wants to see women being put into real situations where they can relate to them, rather than seeing some glamorous woman in a 'Bond' film.
When I was auditioning for drama school and looking for a monologue, it was all, 'I'm whinging about my period or my baby that has died or my boyfriend...' Why can't you have a normal girl, talking about ideas?
I used to worry about the lack of roles for women over 40. But suddenly, everyone has realised it's interesting to have a drama with a woman at the centre of it.
What I really want to do is create great roles for women. And I'm not talking Nicholas Sparks romance. I think women's roles have gotten ghettoized in these sort of places... I'm thinking women in action, comic books, or like the Tony Soprano of women. We need some complex roles.
I really want to do roles that have some substance, and I hope writers give us that importance. I can't alone stand up and demand roles like that. It's a collective thing. Writers have to believe in heroines and understand that there's more to a woman than just her curves. It's not that they can't do it. They just choose not to.
I think as women we've always been very used to growing up reading and identifying with male protagonists, especially in fantasy. There's a saying in publishing that girls will read about boys, but boys will only read about boys, and it's important to give women strong heroines.
I'm so sick of hearing how there's no strong roles for women. I don't care about strong roles. I just want to see women who are characters! A nun, a serial killer, a housewife, as long as there's some depth there.
As cheesy as it might sound, I've got to give credit to movies like 'The Hunger Games' and 'Divergent' because they are stories written about young heroines. It's not just about super guys any more.
I'm not interested in anything but emotionally driven stories; that's why almost all of my work is exclusively anchored by women.
Women want to watch the dark stuff.
You have actresses like Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts, who have roles specially written for them.
For me, the triad of 'Harry Potter,' the 'Hunger Games' and 'Twilight' feature strong women, and as a declared feminist, it's a wonderful thing. These women have really opened up this particular world of storytelling, which I'm very grateful for.
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.
A childhood favourite that has stayed with me over the years is Kate Winslet. She's an amazing British actress who always delivers no matter what role she's in. Another actress I've found incredibly inspiring is Olivia Colman.
