Actress Geena Davis Speaks Out Against Sexism In Hollywood In Latest Interview

One would think that as an actor, winning a prestigious honor such as, say, an Academy Award would be something that would catapult them to an upper echelon in Hollywood. But this was not the case for actress, Geena Davis who spoke out recently about the downside to winning an Oscar as a woman.

Davis, who won Best Supporting Actor gold back in 1988 for the film The Accidental Tourist, sat down for an interview recently with Allison Kugel from the Allison Interviews podcast and was not shy about the hypocrisy of gender in Hollywood.

I had two directors, after I won the Oscar, who I had a rocky start with because they assumed that I was going to think I was 'all that,' and they wanted to make sure that I didn't feel like I was 'all that.' Without having met me or having spent any time with me or anything, they just assumed I was going to be like, 'Well, now no one is going to tell me what to do!'

This was not the case for Davis, who was rather blase' about the experience of winning.

I thought, 'Well, I got that out of the way. I never have to wonder if I'm going to get one of these things.'

She also added, about the directors:

They wanted to make sure I knew my place and maybe... it probably wouldn't happen to a man.

This kind of sexist treatment was one of the reasons she decided to start the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media in 2004, an organization dedicated to researching gender representation in media and advocates for equal representation of women.

In an interview with People, Davis talked about why foundations like hers are so important today,

The goal is to have the fictitious worlds that are created reflect the real world, which is half female and incredibly diverse. It's not some weird, outrageous concept to make it so that kids can see people like them on the screen.

Hollywood needs more forward thinkers, those who have been there, who have seen this kind of sexism up-close, to speak out for the future generations of actors who could be affected by such behaviour. Thank you, Geena Davis for setting such an important example.