Let me start off by saying something I think I've said for nearly a decade now; I am a fan of Elizabeth Banks. I think she's an incredibly gifted actress and comedian, a cunning producer and is growing to be a confident director. I'm eager to hear more about her envisioned Charlie's Angels reboot and any other passion projects that she has envisioned.
Earlier this week, she received an award for being a prominent female figure in Hollywood and rightfully so in my opinion. In her acceptance speech, she made an impassioned plea to support more women directors and female-centered films. Then she decided to throw one of the most celebrated directors under the bus to make her point by proclaiming that Steven Spielberg had never made a film with prominent female leads. And almost as soon as the words left her mouth, the backlash came quick and hard (and in my honest opinion, rightfully so, but we'll get into that in just a moment). The problem with her argument was Spielberg has made several films with strong female leads, the one most noted by her critics being The Color Purple, which was nominated for many Academy Awards in 1985, including one (and rightfully so) for Whoopi Goldberg for her lead character. I won't get into the fact the other prominent supporting character was none other than Oprah Winfrey in what is my favorite character in the film who deserved to win all the awards. But even most of Banks' critics didn't bring up The Sugarland Express, which had a strong co-lead performance by Goldie Hahn, or even last year's The BFG, whose main protagonist is a little girl, which counters Banks' retraction when she addressed the criticism by saying he hasn't made any recently. And I would argue that both of his Jurassic Park films had strong co-leads in impressive ensemble casts.
Yet Banks' comment does leave me to think about a filmmaker's role in their choice of projects. Now it should be said that in the case of most film directors, they really don't have much choice in their projects, if they intend to stay employed at least. Those filmmakers who do have such leeway usually do because their work has garnered enough of a fanbase that they can reliably get people to come see their films. Spielberg as a director (not even touching upon his VAST producer credits) has the distinction of being a filmmaker who has been able to rally possibly one of the most diverse fanbases of all time given that he has done practically every genre of film ever created (including animation). The reason for this fanbase is because he chooses projects that he's passionate about and that passion is clear for all to see on the screen. Now let's for the sake of argument say that Spielberg is forced to make more films that are female-centered, feminist-approved, what happens if those films don't show the same amount of passion or that the fans don't come out to support and it flops (as was the case for The BFG)? Should Spielberg be punished for not doing enough? Where does this end? And bear in mind that VERY FEW directors have the level of autonomy that he does so this isn't something that can be replicated to other filmmakers.
Should there be more diverse voices and faces in Hollywood? I firmly agree there should as long as there is an audience that wants and is willing to pay money for such things. As a filmgoer with 2 of my 10 most anticipated films of the summer being directed by women (for those who want to know, Sophia Coppola's version of The Beguiled and Kathryn Bigelow's Detroit), I understand Banks' overall message and agree to an extent. No one has a right to a fanbase but they do have a right to create that fanbase and to make a career cultivating that fanbase. And if a specific woman has a unique vision and can assure that this vision can turn a profit, give her the opportunity to show what she's got. Banks seemed to forget the Spielberg didn't start off with this position he currently holds, and that he too had to struggle to eventually get to the place he has now. And I'm going off the assumption she forgot because otherwise she'd have to be dishonest and I want to think more highly of her.
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