[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-post-title” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_font=”Black Han Sans|700||on|||||” header_text_align=”center” header_font_size=”46px” header_letter_spacing=”4px” custom_margin=”25px||5px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||true|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”Black Han Sans|||on|||||” text_text_color=”#000000″ header_4_font=”|||on|||||” header_4_text_align=”center” text_orientation=”center” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
Words by Nikki Peach [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2024\/11\/imago775118462-scaled.jpg” alt=”Jennifer Aniston” title_text=”Los Angeles Premiere Of Paramount+ s Original Series Lioness Season 2 HOLLYWOOD, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – OCTOBER” force_fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” min_height=”107px” custom_padding=”||0px|||” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n It\u2019s been a prolific year for Nicole Kidman. In January, she played an American living in Hong Kong in the Amazon Prime series Expats<\/i>. In June, she starred opposite Zac Efron in the Netflix film, A Family Affair.<\/I> In September, she led the platform\u2019s hit crime drama, The Perfect Couple<\/i>. And in October, the trailer dropped for her hotly anticipated (emphasis on hotly) erotic thriller Babygirl<\/i>, which debuts on Christmas Day in the US and on 10 January 2025 in the UK.<\/p>\n All but one of those projects were directed by women. Kidman, then, is making conscious choices about who she chooses to work with and why \u2013 and people are starting to pay attention. It\u2019s why her recent aside about Martin Scorsese in an interview withVanity Fair<\/i>\u00a0has received so much traction. \u2018I\u2019ve always said I want to work with Scorsese,\u2019 she told the outlet, \u2018if he does a film with women.’<\/p>\n Consistently ranked among the world\u2019s highest paid actresses with a career spanning 40 years, it\u2019s fair to say Kidman has not just earned the right to be picky over her projects, but perhaps even bears a responsibility to improve representation in the industry, one pointed comment at a time.<\/p>\n Scorsese\u2019s past works include The Godfather, The Irishman, Goodfellas, The World of Wall Street<\/I> and Killers of the Flower Moon.<\/I> As many of their titles suggest, these are stories that foreground the inner workings and experiences of their male protagonists \u2013 most of which do not past the Bechdel test.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_font=”Libre Bodoni|||on|||||” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#333333″ header_2_font_size=”40px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n In fact, according to film buff and data analyst Norbert Elekes on X, only 29% of Scorsese\u2019s films pass the test, in which a film must feature at least two female characters who have a conversation about something other than a man.<\/p>\n It sounds trite, but you\u2019d be staggered to find how many films fail to meet this seemingly basic criteria.\u00a0The Lord of the Rings, Casablanca, Shrek<\/I> and Disney\u2019s\u00a0Ratatouille<\/i>offer a varied illustration of the film industry\u2019s deep-rooted problem with female representation.<\/p>\n Kidman is right to point out that Scorsese very rarely puts women front and centre in his projects. As one of Hollywood\u2019s most sought after and critically acclaimed directors, with an Oscar, four BAFTAs, three Emmys, three Golden Globes and a Grammy under his belt, of course any actor would want to work with him.<\/p>\n Meryl Streep, widely considered to be the greatest actress of all time, shared a similar gripe in 2011 in an interview with\u00a0The Talks<\/i>. \u2018I would like Martin Scorsese to be interested in a female character once in a while, but I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ll live that long.\u2019 Nearly 14 years later, the pair are yet to have worked together.<\/p>\n It’s not looking good for Scorsese \u2013 at least not from a female point of view. In a comment made in an interview with Entertainment Weekly<\/i> in the \u201890s, the director potentially showed his workings when he said that \u2018women seem to be adjuncts\u2019 in most of the films he works on.<\/p>\n \u2018In general, I have to be true to the society in which a story operates,\u2019 he continued. \u2018I don\u2019t think it\u2019s right to overbalance it just for the sake of trying to be politically correct.\u2019 Does he know women make up half of the global population?!<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_font=”Libre Bodoni|||on|||||” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#333333″ header_2_font_size=”40px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n Of course, several women have been able to shine in Scorsese films including Lily Gladstone who was nominated for an Oscar for her performance in Killers of the Flower Moon<\/i>. Cathy Moriarty, Winona Ryder, Jodie Foster and Sharon Stone all also earned nominations for their roles in Scorsese films. However, only three of his films \u2013The Age of Innocence, Alice Doesn\u2019t Live Here Anymore<\/I> and Boxcar Bertha<\/I> \u2013 feature female leads.<\/p>\n Kidman did not expand on her comment, nor did she need to, and it\u2019s unlikely that she intended for it to go viral, but it\u2019s an observation that clearly resonates with people. <\/p>\n During the interview, the Babygirl<\/I> actress went to on to list other directors she\u2019d love to work with including Kathryn Bigelow, Spike Jonze, Paul Thomas Anderson and Michael Haneke. In fact, when Kidman accepted the prestigious AFI Lifetime Achievement Award in April, she dedicated her 15-minute speech to her collaborators.<\/p>\n She called director Jane Campion a \u2018friend for life\u2019 and singled out Phillip Noyce, Gus Van Sant, Stephen Daldry, Lars von Trier, Alejandro Amenabar, Jonathan Glazer, Noah Baumbuch, Mimi Leder, John Cameron Mitchell, Rob Marshall, Lee Daniels, Jonathan Levine, Philip Kaufman, Park Chan-wook, Yorgos Lanthimos, Werner Herzog, Garth Davis, Susanne Bier, Sofia Coppola, Karyn Kusama, Ryan Murphy and Aaron Sorkin. It\u2019s clear that Kidman acts with intention and champions her collaborators wherever possible, knowing how important it is for any actor to be surrounded by a talented and supportive team.<\/p>\n If life imitates art, then what message does it send to women if they are rarely included in the films of one of Hollywood\u2019s most famous working directors? Not only is it disappointing, but it\u2019s hard to understand what Scorsese means by women being \u2018adjuncts\u2019 in any story or that he could ever be at risk of \u2018overbalancing\u2019 by including them. If he had more women on his call sheets, perhaps he\u2019d be able to recognise that too. <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ divider_position=”center” divider_weight=”2px” module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”0px||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-texts” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|||on|||||” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n IMAGE: IMAGO<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Hollywood star has called out Scorsese for rarely working with female leads <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":4900,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"kschwarz","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4899"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5030,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4899\/revisions\/5030"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/strong><\/p>\nOnly 29% of Scorsese’s films pass the Bechdel test\u00a0<\/h2>\n
‘I would like Martin Scorsese to be interested in a female character once in a while, but I don’t know if I’ll live that long’<\/h2>\n