#Actress
‘Inside Amy Schumer’: Freeing the Pussy on Comedy Central
Comedy Central’s Inside Amy Schumer is one of the most incisive and brutally honest feminist commentaries in mainstream media today. The skit “Compliments” (about the inability of women,...
Trailer Watch: ‘Girls’ Season 4: “Taking the Next Step in a Series of Random Steps”
The Season 3 finale of Girls marked the biggest shakeup in the show’s history: Hannah (Lena Dunham) is off to the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Adam (Adam Driver) is about to make his Broadway debut,...
Betsy Beers’ Keynote: “I Hope Girls Can Count on Our Shows to Remind Them It’s Okay to Be Strong and Complicated”
Shonda Rhimes’ producing partner Betsy Beers delivered a moving and revealing keynote address at the Marie Claire New Guard luncheon last Thursday. Beers, along with actress Rashida Jones,...
Trailer Watch: Jennifer Lawrence is a Possible Murderer in Susanne Bier’s ‘Serena’
Timber heir George Pemberton (Bradley Cooper) wanted “a wife and a partner” when he married Serena Shaw (Jennifer Lawrence). But his elegant, ambitious, scheming bride isn’t just a modern...
Trailer Watch: Katniss Joins the Revolution in Final Spot for ‘Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1’
Elizabeth Banks to Produce and Direct Comedic Take on ‘The X-Files’ for ABC
After helming Pitch Perfect 2 as her directorial debut, Elizabeth Banks will go behind the camera once more, this time for the small screen. Banks will executive produce and direct the ABC comedy...
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler Developing New Shows
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler’s takeover of TV — or at least my TV — continues. Fey and Poehler each announced new projects for the small screen yesterday. Fey will collaborate with...
Meryl Streep Books New Role in Opera Biopic ‘Florence’
Meryl Streep has signed on to her first biopic project since her Oscar-nominated turn as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. Variety reports that Streep is set to star in Florence as a “New York...
Julianne Moore to Be Honored at the Museum of Moving Image
The Oscars have demonstrated a stinginess toward Julianne Moore over the years, but other institutions have been lining up to shower the actress with trophies and accolades. After winning the Best...
Watch: Jennifer Lawrence Takes Center Stage Again in New ‘Hunger Games’ Teaser
Little of the marketing thus far for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1, which opens in just five weeks, has focused on the franchise’s heroine, Katniss Everdeen. That’s partly because...
Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls at the Party Goes Legendary
Susanne Bier on ‘A Second Chance,’ ‘Serena,’ and Her Upcoming Mary, Queen of Scots Biopic
Susanne Bier is one of the most respected and well-known women directors in the world. One of three female filmmakers to win the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, the prolific Danish helmer’s...
Watch: Viola Davis on Her Anti-Hunger Campaign: “I Didn’t Know Where My Next Meal Was Coming From”
As an honoree at Variety’s 2014 Power of Women event, a celebration of female philanthropy within the film industry, Viola Davis delivered a personal speech last Friday about her difficult...
Power Showrunners — The Women
The Hollywood Reporter has published its list of the “50 Power Showrunners of 2014.” The list features 14 women who serve as the showrunners for 16 series. You’ll definitely recognize some of...
The Big O: Who’s More Overdue for a Win — Amy Adams or Julianne Moore?
Think back to last year’s Best Actress category and what a titanic lineup it was. Sandra Bullock for Gravity, Judi Dench for Philomena, Meryl Streep for August: Osage County, and Cate Blanchett,...
Jessica Chastain Deconstructs Strong Female Characters as “A Disservice to Women”
Jessica Chastain has called out for more female protagonists once more as part of her press tours for The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her/Him (October 10), Interstellar (November 7), and A Most...
Watch: New Trailer for Kristen Stewart’s Guantanamo Drama ‘Camp X-Ray’
Ruba Nadda’s ‘October Gale’ and Liv Ullmann’s ‘Miss Julie’ Find Distribution
Three weeks after their debuts at the Toronto International Film Festival, two women-centric, women-directed films have found distribution. Writer-director Ruba Nadda’s October Gale has been...
A Woman You Should Know: Margaret Nagle — Developer of the Red Band Society and the Writer of The Good Lie
Margaret Nagle was one of the first women in met in Hollywood who told me really what it was like to be a working woman in Hollywood. She told me about unbelievable (which I totally believed)...
Watch: First Look at ‘Inside Out,’ Pixar’s First Girl-Centric Movie After ‘Brave’
It took Pixar nearly two decades to make a movie with a female protagonist, but fortunately the studio seems to have gotten the memo that girls and women watch adorable animated adventures too....
Helen Mirren to Reprise Her Role as Elizabeth II on Broadway
Helen Mirren will soon reprise the role that made her an Oscar winner, that of Queen Elizabeth II, on Broadway. Here’s the twist: Mirren won’t be starring in a stage adaptation of The Queen,...
New ‘Twilight’ Shorts Directed by Women to Appear on Facebook
Great news for Twilight fans — and even better news for aspiring women filmmakers: Lionsgate, the studio behind the film series, and Stephenie Meyer, who, of course, wrote the Twilight novels,...
October 2014 Film Preview
October may be the time of ghosts and ghouls, not that you’d know it from the many diverse film offerings made by and starring women this month. But we definitely start with one ghoul: the one in...
Julianne Moore’s ‘Still Alice’ to Receive Oscar-Qualifying Run (Plus Bonus Clip)
With four nominations and no wins yet, Julianne Moore might finally deserve her due at the next Academy Awards ceremony. The vehicle that’ll get here? Not the Hollywood-skewering showbiz satire...
The Big O: Lead or Supporting Actress? Depends on Which Category is Likeliest to Hit Gold
As of today, Patricia Arquette stands as the favorite to win a supporting-actress Oscar for her 12-years-in-the-making portrait of devoted motherhood in Boyhood. That is, if you believe the expert...
Alessandra Stanley or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Marginalize Black Women
I thought about whether or not I wanted to dignify the verbal sludge that is Alessandra Stanley’s article about How To Get Away With Murder (and Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal) showrunner Shonda...
Katniss Everdeen Tries to Save the World in Mockingjay Part 1 Trailer
There’s no denying that I am excited for the Mockingjay film. After this past summer where we saw so few females onscreen, and so few in strong roles, I am psyched for the next installment of the...
Trailer Watch: Julianne Moore and Mia Wasikowska Grasp at the Hollywood Dream in ‘Maps to the Stars’
One of the buzziest films to come out of Cannes, Maps to the Stars, has released a trailer. David Cronenberg’s showbiz satire stars Julianne Moore (who won the best actress award at Cannes) as...
Trailer Watch: Dakota Fanning is a Rebellious Victorian Teen Bride in ‘Effie Gray’
The annulment of the marriage between prominent art critic John Ruskin and his much younger wife Effie Gray was a scandal in Victorian England, not least because Gray contended that their five-year...
The Big O: Post-Toronto, the Oscar Picture Clears — and It Isn’t a Pretty One for Actresses
We were so spoiled. Last year, there was a rich variety of performances to celebrate in the lead-actress Oscar category. The choices were so abundant, in fact, that admirable efforts like Emma...
Trailer Watch: Jennifer Lawrence is No Ordinary Wife in Susanne Bier’s ‘Serena’
Jennifer Lawrence gets a different type of role in the long awaited Serena, directed by the Oscar-winning Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier. The depression era film follows the strong-willed wife...
Viola Davis is Still Waiting to Be Seen
Despite doing work that’s won her two Tony Awards, two Academy Award nominations, two Screen Actor Guild Awards, a Golden Globe nod, and a spot on Time’s 100 Most Influential People list,...
The Renaissance Of Reese Witherspoon
From my latest Forbes post on the imminent “Reese-surgence” via Oscar hopefuls like Gone Girl, The Good Lie, and Wild: Witherspoon could be looking at multiple Oscar nominations, both as an...
Reese Witherspoon, Viola Davis, and Jane Fonda Among Variety’s Power of Women Honorees
A quintet of Hollywood power players and luminaries will be recognized for their philanthropic efforts on October 10. Variety’s 6th annual Power of Women luncheon will name Reese Witherspoon,...
Todd Haynes to Direct Reese Witherspoon as Peggy Lee
The Peggy Lee biopic that Reese Witherspoon has championed since 2010 has finally found a new director in Todd Haynes. After securing the rights to Lee’s story in 2010, Witherspoon had approached...
TIFF 14 First Thoughts — The Appetizer Before the Meal
I’ve been on the ground here in Toronto for three days. This is my fourth year, and it’s the first time that the first couple of days didn’t feel like I was going out of my mind. There are a...
Jessica Chastain Wants More Female Protagonists: “Where is the Scarlett Johansson Superhero Movie?”
After Zero Dark Thirty and The Help, we don’t need any more reasons to love Jessica Chastain, but she’s giving us another one anyway. On a press tour for The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby,...
Male Privilege Watch: Man With No Directing Experience to Direct Film With Robert Redford and Cate Blanchett
Women and Hollywood is on vacation this week. While our lights are out, we’ll be reposting our most popular posts of the summer.I was going to tweet this up, but then I paused, because I think it...
Top Designers Refused to Make Melissa McCarthy’s Oscar Dress
Women and Hollywood is on vacation this week. While our lights are out, we’ll be reposting our most popular posts of the summer. Two Oscar seasons ago, Melissa McCarthy approached a number of top...
Jennifer Lawrence Close to Starring in Adaptation of Jeannette Walls’ The Glass Castle
Lionsgate, the studio behind The Hunger Games, is inching closer to signing Jennifer Lawrence to the big-screen adaptation of Jeannette Walls’ The Glass Castle. Walls’ best-selling 2005 memoir...
Trailer Watch: Kristen Stewart Heads to Guantanamo in Camp X-Ray
Since the end of Twilight, Kristen Stewart has returned to her indie roots for the next chapter of her career. That seems like a good move for her, since her best notices were always in...
Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman Team Up to Tell Big Little Lies
Ever wonder what kind of moms the Heathers might have grown up to be? Australian writer Liane Moriarty’s bestselling, critically acclaimed comic novel Big Little Lies seems to imagine precisely...
Frozen Director Jennifer Lee to Adapt A Wrinkle in Time
Writer-director Jennifer Lee has finally announced her first post-Frozen project: an adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s beloved sci-fi children’s classic A Wrinkle in Time for Disney. At this...
Quote of the Day: Octavia Spencer on How Her Oscar Changed Nothing
What’s the point of winning your industry’s highest honor if it doesn’t open up any more opportunities to succeed? That’s the sad but inevitable response to a new interview with Octavia...
Paul Feig Rumored to Direct Female-Led Ghostbusters Reboot
Bridesmaids and The Heat director Paul Feig is reportedly in talks to helm Ghostbusters 3, currently planned as a female reboot of the franchise, which is much to the chagrin of Mike Fleming at...
Trailer Watch: Katniss Joins the Rebellion in Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1 Teaser
At the end of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) found herself rescued from the fighting arena and transported to the previously unknown District 13 by her mentor Haymitch...
Trailer Watch: Jessica Chastain and Colin Farrell Battle for Sexual Dominance in Liv Ullmann’s Miss Julie
Jessica Chastain and Colin Farrell are perfectly cast as an uptight but secretly passionate noblewoman and an unrepentant horndog in Norwegian director Liv Ullmann’s Miss Julie. The adaptation of...
Quote of the Day: Joe Swanberg on the Movies: “Men Are Out of Ideas”
With Drinking Buddies and Happy Christmas, director Joe Swanberg has made two critical darlings featuring well-rounded female protagonists in arrested development. Asked about the “female...
Jessica Chastain to Be Honored at Deauville Film Fest
Two months before the arrival of her next film, the marriage drama The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, news arrives that Jessica Chastain will be honored at the Deauville American Film Festival...
Quote of the Day: Viola Davis on Her Move to the Small Screen
At this year’s TCA, two-time Oscar nominee Viola Davis confirmed that taking on the lead role in Shonda Rhimes’ How to Get Away With Murder was a response to not being able to find enough...
Trailer Watch: New Spot for Juliette Binoche/Kristen Stewart Drama Clouds of Sils Maria
A new trailer has been released for the director Olivier Assayas’ Palme d’Or contender Clouds of Sils Maria. The showbiz melodrama centers on an aging actress, Maria (Juliette Binoche),...