Paul Feig Ain’t Afraid of No All-Male Ghostbusters, Urges Hollywood to Start Hiring Funny Ladies

During an interview for the Melissa McCarthy and Rose Byrne comedy Spy, director Paul Feig took the time to talk to MTV about Sony’s suspiciously-timed Dudebusters movie, saying

It’s a big property, and I staked out my claim with this one that I’m going to do. They’re all Ghostbusters and it’s great, but all I care about are my four ladies.

The director also hinted that his lady-led Ghostbusters will be largely independent from the original films:

You don’t want to pretend the other one didn’t exist, because I think that’s a little too in your face, but you also don’t want to be so slavish to the other one. I think we found a really good balance. Katie Dippold, who is writing the script with me, is just so good, and so good at kind of going, ‘these are the things I love.’ Well okay, let’s do the nods towards that. I think everybody will be very happy.

Rest easy, gatekeeping fanboys. Your childhood is safe.

When asked whether or not Rose Byrne would be appearing in Ghostbusters, Feig lamented Hollywood’s bias against women and asked other directors to invest in funny ladies:

The problem is, I’ve got so many amazing women that I know, and I can’t write movies that have enough parts for everybody. There’s so many women I haven’t worked with yet who I’m desperate to work with. I need to keep doing more movies, and more people have to hire these people, and don’t leave it to me, because I can only do so many movies. So Hollywood, start hiring these funny women and giving them movies, please.

In a separate Spy interview with MTV, Feig went on to say that Hollywood’s gender divide should have been abolished long ago:

In general, Hollywood’s having a very hard time catching up with the modern world. I think it’s a crime that there’s not more women behind the camera directing. At my company we’re just starting to produce movies and we’re really trying to change that on our own… it just takes a long time for old prejudices to work their way through the system. There haven’t been enough opportunities for women directors, and so then they say, ’well there’s not enough.’ Well yeah, there’s not enough because you’ve got to start somewhere.

It’s heartening to see a male director acknowledging systemic bias and using his privilege to secure jobs for female creators, but one awesome ally does not an industry make. Feig is working with Amy Schumer, the Broad City gals, and a ton of funny female Ghostbusters, and it would be great if more women were given the opportunity to share that directing/producing load.

Melissa McCarthy, who has been outspoken recently about Hollywood’s double standards and gender-based discrimination, called for more female directors in her interview with MTV:

I would love to be directed by more women. I think there’s so many points of view, that you want to make sure your stories are being told from men and women… you get all of the different backgrounds. You don’t want every story being told from the same point of view. So just for better storytelling, I’m like, ’yes, please, bring some more ladies on.’

Listen to McCarthy, Hollywood. She knows best.

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