Lena Dunham has thrown down the gauntlet!
The Girls creator gave the keynote address at SXSW on Monday, and it was a battle cry for women in Hollywood and the diversity of roles that just aren’t there!
In the speech, she lamented the fact that while men like her co-star Adam Driver is moving on to success in different types of movie roles, her Girls girls are stuck getting pigeonholed! She said:
“It’s a rough scene. It’s hard to always offer comforting words on that topic. I think about this in relation to the cast on my show, which consists of three very talented women and also some very talented guys. Our male lead, Adam Driver, has had a bang-up year in movies which could not be more deserved because he’s a ferocious genius with an incredible work ethic, and I’ve learned so much from him. But the girls are still waiting patiently for parts that are going to honor their intelligence and their ability.
The world is ready to see Adam as a million different men — playing good guys and bad guys and sweet guys and scary guys. The world is ready to see Adam do all that. It’s not ready to see Allison Williams, Zosia Mamet or Jemima Kirke stretch their legs in the same variety of diverse roles. Allison is relegated to All-American sweetheart. Zosia is asked to play more flighty nood-nicks. Even though both are capable of so much, they’re not asked to do it. And this is not a knock on Adam’s talent, which is utterly boundless and he’s exactly the actor who should be doing all this. It’s a knock on a world where women are typecast and men can play villains, Lotharios and nerds in one calendar year and something has to change and I’m trying.”
Gurl is absolutely right! It’s time for women to play morally ambiguous anti-heroes and badass action stars and psychotic villains!
We can’t wait to see what type of meaty role like that Lena is ready to write!
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