The Hollywood Reporter spoke with several prominent women in television, including Halle Berry, Patricia Arquette, Lucy Liu and Anna Faris. All of these ladies talk about the sexism they’ve overcome to stick around past a cursory visit in show business. Several producers and writers also pop in to discuss how hard they’ve had to push their own ideas before seeing them come to life on the small screen.
Anna’s currently stuck in a Chuck Lorre sitcom, but it pays the bills. She’s not complaining about her work at all, but she does admit that husband Chris Pratt enjoys a very different Hollywood experience than she does. Chris gets to bro out with his fellow actors while Anna feels like actresses don’t enjoy the same vibe:
“Chris [Pratt] is buddies with all these actors. They’ll do each other favors, they’ll go to each other’s table reads. And the only times I see actress acquaintances of mine is at events. We don’t have a sense of community because we don’t get to work with each other often. So I want to start a monthly brunch at my house. No agenda, just actresses hanging out and getting to know each other. Because we don’t get that. Instead it’s a feeling of being pitted against one another. And if we create a brilliant project, awesome. As women, we definitely have to generate our own work. Part of it is just the sad fact that something like one in every three to four roles is a woman. So men have more opportunity. And you have all these women fighting for the same roles. Financially, studios can be like, ‘Well we’ll just change out this one for that one and pay her less.’ I love that these ideas are gaining momentum.”
Anna pays lip service to Patricia Arquette’s Oscar speech, which was “just jaw dropping.” Anna thinks actresses should hug it out and make money together, but the competition for scarce roles prevents such a bond.
Another reason for this male-female discrepancy? Many women are too swamped to socialize beyond work-related events. While Pratt recently stood onstage and made fun of award speeches, he gave a shoutout to Anna “at home.”
Translation: Pratt needs to step it up. Anna needs her brunch time.
(Via Hollywood Reporter)
