Why in the World Would Jane Campion Think It Was Appropriate To Compare Herself to Venus & Serena Williams?

Jane Campion had a hell of a weekend. First, Campion won the Directors Guild of America Awards’ top prize for direction of a feature film, continuing her domination of the current awards season and making her the frontrunner for Best Director at the Oscars.

In addition to picking up the DGA award, Campion made headlines that night for comments she made during a red carpet interview. When asked about the undeniably sexist, homophobic remarks actor Sam Elliott recently made about Campion’s beautiful Western drama, The Power of the Dog, Campion called Elliott out for being “a little bit of a B-I-T-C-H.” By Saturday morning, the clip had gone viral, and we were all cheering.

Then, in a stunning turn of events, Campion managed to blow through all of that celebratory praise in about 24 hours.

On Sunday night, Campion also won the Critics Choice Award for best director. Her acceptance speech went off the rails when she attempted a very bad joke at the expense of Venus and Serena Williams, who were in attendance as executive producers on King Richard, the biopic about their childhood and their father, played by Will Smith.

During her speech, Campion acknowledged her fellow directing nominees, or, as she pointedly called them, “the guys.” It felt like a more lighthearted version of Natalie Portman’s iconic “And here are the all-male nominees” line when presenting the Golden Globes’ Best Director award a few years back.

Campion really should have stopped there. Instead, she turned her attention back to the Williams sisters, whom she had already acknowledged earlier in the speech, saying it was “an honor” to be in the room with them. “Venus and Serena, you’re such marvels,” Campion now said, “However, you do not play against the guys, like I have to.”

What a very weird thing to say! It was clear she was trying to make a joke, but it was not a good one, not even close. It’s also just factually inaccurate, as the tennis stars have repeatedly played in mixed doubles tournaments alongside men. But even if they hadn’t, so what? What in the world does that have to do with the world of film? Yes, it was a joke, but it was a joke at the expense of these women, and the punchline is that Campion has achieved something they could not.

Campion has now issued an apology for her “thoughtless comment.”

“I made a thoughtless comment equating what I do in the film world with all that Serena Williams and Venus Williams have achieved. I did not intend to devalue these two legendary Black women and world-class athletes,” she said, per Variety.

She continued: “The fact is the Williams sisters have, actually, squared off against men on the court (and off), and they have both raised the bar and opened doors for what is possible for women in this world. The last thing I would ever want to do is minimize remarkable women. I love Serena and Venus. Their accomplishments are titanic and inspiring. Serena and Venus, I apologize and completely celebrate you.”

(image: Jerod Harris/Getty Images for Netflix)

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Vivian Kane

Vivian Kane (she/her) is the Senior News Editor at The Mary Sue, where she's been writing about politics and entertainment (and all the ways in which the two overlap) since the dark days of late 2016. Born in San Francisco and radicalized in Los Angeles, she now lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where she gets to put her MFA to use covering the local theatre scene. She is the co-owner of The Pitch, Kansas City’s alt news and culture magazine, alongside her husband, Brock Wilbur, with whom she also shares many cats.

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