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WELCOME TO THE BOYS' CLUB!

By on August 18, 2015
WELCOMETOTHEBOYS&#;CLUB!

By Lisa N Edwards

Hollywood is a ‘Boy’s Club’, but really, what big business isn’t? Females have been fighting for their position in the world since before the Suffragettes, a woman’s movement in the late 19th Century, early 20th century, winning their right to have a voice, and vote.

The recent figures released by Centre for the Study of Women in Television and Film, confirm that Hollywood still is a “Boys Club!” The gender gap continues. In fact, females comprised a mere 12% of protagonists featured in the top 100 grossing films of 2014. This represents a decline of 3 percentage points from 2013, and a decline of 4 percentage points from 2002. Last year, females accounted for 29% of major characters, and just 30% of all speaking characters. These figures represent no change from 2013, but slight increases from 2002.

In 2015, this is just not good enough! If a woman wants equal pay as a writer, director, or actress, she’ll have to look outside of Hollywood. Why on earth would Bruce Jenner want to be a woman? Movies—and Hollywood in general—tends to be a reflection of society, and society needs to change.

I have always heard these words when speaking about the gender gap within the industry I work in and love. “It’s not because you’re a female. If you were good enough, we would hire you.”  What does that mean? And does that mean if I were good enough and did in fact get hired, would I be entitled to the same remuneration as my male counterpart?

The recent Sony hack opened the world’s eyes to the inequality of pay. Sony Pictures Co-Chairman Amy Pascal has been quoted as saying at a Woman in the World event, “I run a business. People want to work for less money; I’ll pay them less money. I don’t call them up and go, can I give you some more?”

Personally, I don’t know anyone male or female that would ‘knowingly’ work for less. Hollywood is an industry built on favours and people helping others climb the ladder, I have personally worked on low budget films in various roles and not been paid; only to later find out my male counterparts have been. It left me feeling, used and undervalued.

From personal experience, working behind the scenes in Australia as a Talent/Acting Agent, most of the contacts I had within the industry were females. In Australia, casting is a predominantly female job, although I’m not sure why. My competitors were female and 95% of the casting directors I dealt with were also female. However, the demographic starts to change when you look at the decision-makers in the industry.  Noticing the gender gap didn’t really come into my focus, until I hit Hollywood. The directors and producers are prominently male. Is that because they are inherently better at what they do? I don’t believe this to be true. Is it a primal urge for men to compete, to succeed, and to provide?

An alpha male is often celebrated and revered by his peers; where as an alpha female is often hated and torn down. Does a driven woman threaten the establishment? The Boy’s Club? Often having to work ten times harder to achieve the same goal, these women are fierce competitors, a new player in the game that doesn’t play by the old rules. This can rock the establishment. ‘Why change? If it’s not broken, why fix it?’ This leaves little opportunity for reform.

I co-wrote a feature film screenplay that has won 4 awards, yet I am struggling to get it produced. The screenplay, Limbo, features 4 strong lead female characters, unheard of in Hollywood, yet female centric films are amongst some of the highest grossing of all time. Take Gravity, for example—a film carried by Sandra Bullock.  Or Gone Girl, written by Gillian Flynn and spectacularly acted by Rosamond Pike.  Both films were under the direction of males (who were amazing, and I don’t want to take that away from either), but were female directors considered? Or would a female director stray too far from Hollywood’s money-making-model for success?

After winning our first award, my co-writer and I attended a script summit. We garnered immense amounts of interest, but the common consensus from the predominantly male group was that the subject matter was highly ‘female-sensitive’ and that investing in females is a risk. The script is lying dormant, with the film yet to be made.

In 2014, women comprised 17% of all directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors, and cinematographers working on the top 250 (USA domestic) grossing films. This is the same percentage of women working in these roles in 1998. These figures are worse in Australia. These figures reveal that the gap is not closing; it is stagnant and has been this way for approximately 20 years. A whole generation!

As the next generation of women, we need to start realizing our worth and position in this industry. Whether we’re runners, directors, or executive producers. We must believe in our worth, ability and insight to be equal (if not better) than our male counterparts. It starts with a few women speaking up and slowly grows to… dare I say a roar!

 

22Lisa N. Edwards is a graduate of NIDA (National Institute of Dramatic Art) in Sydney, Australia, after which she was trained at The Film Space. She and her youngest daughter, Darcie, were featured in a series of Coles TV Commercials—‘Feed your Family for $10 with Curtis Stone’ and Coles Home Brand. Her latest credits include soon-to-be-released Aussie comedy ‘Now Add Honey’ and two Award-Winning Hollywood Short films, ‘Riviera’ and ‘The Road Less Traveled.’ A large portion of Edward’s working life was spent as a Talent Agent with VisionsMCP in Melbourne, of which she was the owner and Company Director for 13 years.

For more information, please visit http://www.lisanedwards.com, http://www.cantfightfate.com or on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or YouTube.

Can’t Fight Fate will be available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and http://www.lisanedwards.com/.

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