While accepting this year’s Golden Globe for supporting actress, “If Beale Street Could Talk” star Regina King made a public pledge: within two years, women will make up 50 percent of the crew for projects she produces. Now she’s encouraging others to follow suit and take a stand for women. In an essay for USA Today, the Oscar nominee emphasizes that others don’t need to make their pledge on “a big stage.” “Use the microphone and the platform you have, of any size, in any industry, to bring more attention to female-centric accomplishments,” she writes.
King debunks the enduring myth that there isn’t a market for women in film: “Women continue to make up the majority of moviegoers: According to the Motion Picture Association of America’s recent findings, women made up 52 percent of all 2016 moviegoers — an increase from 2015’s 51 percent. That’s right, women (51 percent of the population) continue to outnumber men at movie theaters, which makes the gender disparity onscreen and behind the scenes even more frustrating,” she points out.
As for barriers facing her own pledge, the “Seven Seconds” and “American Crime” Emmy winner realizes that the process will be “difficult,” “especially when women are constantly hearing that they aren’t being hired for male-dominated positions because of lack of experience. We will have to push through the objections of studio executives who might turn down a woman by constantly reminding them that every person who has had success and every person who has a lengthy résumé had to have their first shot,” she says. “We have to give more first shots.”
The multi-hyphenate offers advice to both men and women. “I’m proud to know many men who have already stepped up with help, encouragement, and commitments to build diverse crews, but it is going to take many more understanding that it is not OK for them to stand back when they need to be lifting someone up,” she notes. “And women already in the industry cannot think of new colleagues as competition; women need to work together to give a hand up to the next women behind them.”
The industry hasn’t changed as much as King would like — but she’s changed. “When I first started shooting ‘227’ as a young girl in 1984, all of our directors were male. I never considered the possibility of a woman being a director, much less that I would one day work behind the camera myself. It wasn’t until I was in my teens and Ellen Chaset Falcon directed an episode of ‘227’ that I had even heard of a female director,” she recalls. “Then I learned trailblazers like Debbie Allen directed ‘A Different World,’ and the scope of what was possible for women expanded for me. I’m not the only young girl who has felt that way, and Hollywood is not the only industry where women are underrepresented. We can be so conditioned to see things only a certain way that you begin to think that’s how it is supposed to be. Even today, we still need to shine a light on women who are accomplishing things in male-dominated situations.”
King has over a dozen directing credits to her name, including episodes of “Insecure,” “This Is Us,” and “Scandal.” But she realizes not all women directors are getting these kinds of opportunities. “There is so much work to do,” she acknowledges. ” A new report from San Diego State University’s Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film found that women accounted for just 20 percent of all directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors, and cinematographers in the 250 top-grossing films. Only 1 percent of films employed 10 or more women in these top roles, while 74 percent employed 10 or more men.”
“These statistics sit with me; they sit on my spirit,” King says. “They should sit with all of us.”
Head over to USA Today to read King’s full piece and read her advice about how everyone from film execs to film fans can make Hollywood more equitable.
King can be seen in “If Beale Street Could Talk,” in theaters now. She plays the mother of a young woman fighting to get her fiancé freed from prison after he’s arrested for a crime he didn’t commit. King is up for an Oscar for her role.
