It’s Beyond Infuriating That Men Keep Rejecting Evan Rachel Wood’s Movie Pitch

Westworld actress Evan Rachel Wood is no stranger to calling out bullshit when it comes to gender biases in Hollywood. She recently went on Twitter to explain that she’s been pitching a movie idea for the past two years, only to be told “there is no money.” Additionally, she was asked, “Well, you’re a 30-year-old mom. What gets you out of the house to see a movie?” As she wrote as her response on Twitter: “AS IF ALL WOMEN ARE JUST AT HOME FEEDING BABIES AND HAVE NO LIVES.”

For an actress with as long a history in cinema as Wood, not to mention being part of HBO’s second-biggest show, it seems ridiculous that she should have a hard time getting an all-female project like this made.

Of course, all is revealed when you look at the responses to Wood’s revelation about her problems getting the project off the ground. Some are valid, with people asking if one of the 4 female characters are WOC or LGBT (Wood answers yes to both), but the rest are like WHY DON’T YOU JUST SELL EVERYTHING YOU OWN TO FUND THIS PROJECT THEN?!

As if that is a rational decision for a woman with a young child—or any professional, really—to give up everything for one project. It’s a very romantic ideology, but the fact is that it shouldn’t be the only path to success for a woman trying to get a movie made—especially an established star with almost 20 years of acting experience under her belt.

And then, the living embodiment of fungus, Michael Rapaport, decided to leave his two cents about how Wood had never directed a major film before.

Steven S. DeKnight had his feature film debut this year with Pacific Rim Uprising, given $150–$175 million to direct a sequel to a cult classic film that barely did well itself. Meanwhile, Ava DuVernay became the first African-America woman to direct a movie with a budget of over $100 million with A Wrinkle in Time. Let’s not pretend like everything is equal here.

Thankfully, there are those who understand the struggle is real and support Wood.

What sucks is not that Evan Rachel Wood doesn’t have the “confidence” or “independence” to bankrupt herself into order to make a movie; it’s that, still, with all the strides Hollywood pretends it’s making, women have a hard time getting opportunities that are routinely handed to men. Evan Rachel Wood will never be a first-time director if she never gets to direct anything.

(via Twitter, image: HBO)

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Princess Weekes

Princess (she/her-bisexual) is a Brooklyn born Megan Fox truther, who loves Sailor Moon, mythology, and diversity within sci-fi/fantasy. Still lives in Brooklyn with her over 500 Pokémon that she has Eevee trained into a mighty army. Team Zutara forever.

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