‘Jurassic World’ Director Colin Trevorrow Addresses His Comments On Gender Imbalance In Hollywood

Colin Trevorrow is one of the more high profile directors in Hollywood at the moment. He and many other fresh faced filmmakers from the independent scene are being tapped by studios to helm big name franchises like Star Wars and Jurassic World, something that was highlighted in a recent LA Times profile that included Trevorrow, James Gunn, Josh Trank, Jon Watts, and others.

Something else highlighted by the piece is the fact that all of this directors are men and the studios don’t seem keen on adding a wealth of female talent to larger productions (yet). In the profile, Trevorrow was tapped to provide his thoughts on the state of female directors in Hollywood:

Many have criticized the studios for what they regard as a double standard when it comes to hiring up-and-coming directors, arguing that female filmmakers with similar resumes haven’t been offered the same opportunities as men. But Trevorrow, for one, believes that’s not entirely the case.

“Obviously it’s very lopsided, and hopefully it’s going to change as time goes on,” the director said. “But it hurts my feelings when I’m used as an example of white, male privilege. I know many of the female filmmakers who are being referred to in these articles. These women are being offered these kinds of movies, but they’re choosing not to make them.

“I think it makes them seem like victims to suggest that they’re not getting the opportunities and not artists who know very clearly what kind of stories they want to tell and what films they want to make. To me, that’s the reality.”

Given his opinion and hurt feelings from the subject, the Jurassic World director was asked to expand on his thoughts on Twitter when one user asked if a female would’ve gotten the chance to direct the Jurassic Park sequel

https://twitter.com/AutisticWeirdo/status/634707515297636352

This prompted a lengthy response from Trevorrow that expands on his thoughts from the LA Times article:

Not everyone was comfortable with Trevorrow’s stance, including director Tanya Wexler and actress Jaime King:

Plenty of other random users joined in and Trevorrow went on a slight defensive, clearing the air and noting that there is an imbalance:

And like most debates should go, it ended with a friendly coffee date and understanding that nothing changes instantly.

If you peek at the Twitter timeline for Trevorrow’s original post, you’ll see plenty of people doing exactly what it pointed out that he hated to the LA Times: saying he’s part of the problem. It’s fairly clear that he’s aware of the imbalance, but he’s hardly the person to fault. It’s an across the board issue and there’s not one singular person to point a finger of blame at.

If you look at history and how long it takes for change to happen, nothing is overnight. Just in the past fifteen years, Hollywood has seen plenty of change away from their normal mode of operations regarding race, gender, and sexuality. The fact that the conversation is happening is likely more important than anything else because otherwise it’d just be swept under a rug. Trevorrow sorta has to take some hits, though. He’s too high profile now thanks to Jurassic Park and Star Wars to just hide back in the director’s chair.

(Via LA Times / IndieWire / Colin Trevorrow)