Episode 1 Transcript:
Mary: Hey, I’m Mary Winter.
Kelsey: I’m Kelsey Merriam.
Alexxiss: I’m Alexxiss Jackson.
Jenn: I’m Jenn Lee.
Emily: And I’m Emily Payton.
Mary: And we are Rack Focused the podcast about women in production. Today’s episode is Boss Babes and we are talking about female run production companies.
Emily: Woop woop, woop woop.
Mary: Yeah.
Kelsey: Anybody have any favorites?
Alexxiss: I think we should talk about the OG who is Oprah. The woman crush.
Kelsey: The woman crush.
Alexxiss: Okay.
Kelsey: ’cause she had her own like way.
Alexxiss: She has own. She has own. She’s been killing it for years. Oprah is one of those people that I never really realized I was such a big fan of and if I feel … I feel like if she were to come across my path I would just start crying.
Kelsey: I would just be so-
Alexxiss: I feel like a lot of people have that reaction.
Mary: Yeah I just, she’s just, I feel like she’s my mother and I don’t know way and she’s just always been there for me without me even knowing. You know?
Kelsey: She get you a car?
Alexxiss: I wish that would be incredible but that moment that’s so good. Actually did you see, so lately Oprah has been in the limelight for Wrinkle in Time of course but also Trump called her out for her speech at the Golden Globes. He was like, he said something along the lines of you’ll be exposed if you run too. Basically just said she was going to make fun of me.
Kelsey: He called her insecure.
Alexxiss: Insecure yes, Oprah’s the least insecure person ever on this planet. But she went on to I believe it was Jimmy Kimmel or Fallon or one of those and they asked her did you not think about tweeting him back and she was like no, not going to waste my time with him that’s ridiculous.
Kelsey: She’s not insecure enough to have to tweet.
Alexxiss: Exactly, exactly. One of my favorite leading ladies in Hollywood is Drew Barrymore because she’s been doing this for a while, I love Whip it, if you guys haven’t seen Whip It, Whip It is fantastic.
Mary: Flower productions.
Alexxiss: Flower productions Yeah.
Mary: That’s another thing too, I’ve noticed a lot of these female run production companies they do have feminine quote unquote names like Flower Productions there’s Blossom Productions with Nicole Kidman’s and I kind of like that, at first I was like why are we doing this like flower power thing, continuing that stereotype that girls are frilly I guess.
Jenn: Yeah but she’s into it.
Alexxiss: But yeah exactly, and that’s why I think it’s okay to do that and to show if that’s what makes you feel more like a woman, if you like flowers and you like the girly things I think you should be able to do that and rock that.
Kelsey: Absolutely.
Alexxiss: I really like that now about a lot of these female led production companies.
Mary: And she’s kept that as a brand across her branding. For everything, her book was named the same kind of thing [Wildflower] her, I think she’s got a skincare line or a makeup line that’s the same type of thing. [Flower] Which is helpful.
Alexxiss: And it’s very obvious. It’s very obvious that that is probably a woman run fashion company and I think that’s intentional.
Mary: She did Charlie’s Angels too and Never Been Kissed. I didn’t [crosstalk 00:03:11]. Which was a great movie.
Jenn: Elizabeth Banks has Brownstone Productions and they did Pitch Perfect and all that stuff. She’s hysterical in everything. Which is wonderful there is a bunch I’m going to list off it is my no means all of them but when I was looking into this I found out a lot of actresses actually have their hands in a lot of these production companies. They don’t all own them but most of them have high ranking positions in these production companies. I think that’s kind of cool. Oprah has Harpo productions, Alicia Vikander, I think that’s how you say her name, is Vicarious Productions, Denver and Delilah is Charlize Theron’s, they did Atomic Blonde.
Mary: Which was awesome because Atomic Blonde was a Bond, a James Bond for women it was awesome.
Jenn: Drew Barrymore has Flower, Elizabeth Banks does Brownstone, Unbelievable Entertainment is Eva Longoria or UnbelEVAble I guess, ’cause the capital EVA like her name. Which is adorable. Jennifer Love Hewitt did Fedora Films. I did not know this they did the Client List and they did Ghost Whisperer. So, both of those that were, she starred in both of those shows and those were her production company which is pretty cool. Kerry Washington for Simpson Street did A perfect Mother and a couple other stuff. Lisa Kudrow who I didn’t know was behind the scenes all that much, Is or Isn’t Entertainment that’s Lisa Kudrow’s.
Mary: Love me some Pheobe.
Jenn: Maisie Williams has Daisy Chain Productions.
Emily: Yeah I saw that one.
Jenn: I did not see that coming ’cause she’s so young. Daisy Chain [crosstalk 00:04:57]
Mary: And they’re specifically working with younger actors, which is great, because that is obviously needed. And that’s a whole thing that we should be like focusing more on actually representing you know younger people. And not maybe have them as adults like we did in the 90’s.
Alexxiss: Exactly.
Mary: Buffy the Vampire Slayer is like 30.
Alexxiss: It worked for Drew Barrymore though.
Mary: Yeah it did.
Alexxiss: But she did have some rough times growing up in Hollywood.
Mary: Oh, absolutely.
Jenn: Who else, Margot Robbie did Lucky Chapp entertainment they did I, Tonya, yeah.
Mary: They did I Tonya.
Jenn: Natalie Portman who I didn’t know did this Handsome Charlie, they did Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
Mary: I love Natalie Portman so much.
Alexxiss: I like Natalie Portman she’s adorable.
Mary: She’s adorable I guess.
Kelsey: She’s just the coolest girl. She’s like the girl I want to grow up to be. She’s just like the coolest girl.
Alexxiss: I agree. She was in Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium.
Jenn: I love that movie.
Mary: Oh my God.
Jenn: So much, I really love Natalie Portman in that movie ’cause I looked up to her I was like this is so me. Because having somebody who’s been writing for years and who, everybody is looking for this person who is going to have this symphony or whatever and then she can’t and she’s having a hard time living up to what people expected her to be when she was younger. Totally up my ally loved that. Who else do we have? I know we have so many people, Queen Latifa, Flavor Unit entertainment.
Mary: She did Scream and Beautyshop.
Jenn: Yeah, which is great because they’re getting way more stuff out. They’ve been active since 95. That’s a lot longer than I expected it to be I didn’t realize she had been doing that for that long. Reese Witherspoon has Type A Productions. Which is really cool they did Gone Girl and Big Little Liars.
Mary: I loved Gone Girls so much.
Jenn: Rose Byrne has the Dollhouse. Salma Hayek who I also didn’t know was doing stuff had Ventanna Rosa Productions. They did Ugly Betty which I also loved.
Mary: No I didn’t know that.
Jenn: ‘Cause it’s a girl from Queens. Which I am also from Queens so. Of course I love that. And that’s been around since 99 which hadn’t heard of it. I think a lot of these, we just don’t talk about it which is, I think that’s fine.
Mary: Well I think in the history to production companies themselves there’s a few leading ones but a lot of these young ones, not young ones but just smaller ones you don’t really, there’s not a lot of representation for them in general anyway so you throw in the component of being a woman and not having all the freedom until recently maybe. A little bit more now but people didn’t know about these.
Jenn: Right, exactly. There’s also Sandra Bullock had one, which I didn’t know, Fortis Films, they did Practical Magic and Miss Congeniality and Hope Floats.
Mary: I loved Practical Magic and I realized after I looked this up, Oh that’s why they got the sister thing right. They got two different generations of sisters right. Oh that’s just refreshing.
Jenn: When I first watched it I was younger and I didn’t realize that, that’s a thing that I had been missing I guess.
Mary: Yeah, and it totally worked.
Jenn: I was like yes this is why I loved that movie so much. Because they got it right ’cause a lot of females were involved. Which is cool.
Jenn: Viola Davis has Juvie Productions. Ava Duvernay has Array. Halle Berry has 606 I did not realize.
Mary: I didn’t knot that was her.
Jenn: That’s her. She did Extant, which my husband was like making fun of me for watching. I thought it was the coolest thing and he was just like this is not that great. But I love not that great stuff anyway.
Mary: Boss Baby.
Jenn: I mean it’s Halle Berry, it was like it’s sci fi and it’s Halle Berry, of course I was going to love that. There’s no way I wasn’t going to love that. She’s a scientist who, she’s an astronaut. I mean that was such a cool concept and I don’t think as much stuff as it should have. I think people would have loved Extant if they gave it a chance. [crosstalk 00:09:09] Boss Baby, I actually haven’t seen it I probably would be into it. I love bad movies and bad stuff. I love smut novels. I love that they’re so bad and I think they’re great. They’re so entertaining.
Mary: I know I love that you love those. [crosstalk 00:09:27]
Jenn: Poor quality shark attack films. The less money they had in production the better. OH my gosh I love it.
Mary: All those like three headed shark attack. The shark Octopus, that’s sharktopus.
Jenn: Sharknado.
Mary: Thank you.
Jenn: I just binge them all they all blur together.
Emily: I got to work with the guys who did SharkNado when I was SCTC-
Jenn: Did you tell them they’re brilliant?
Emily: They’re awesome. Absolutely cool dudes. They did all of our fake makeup for like … they were making guys look like weird. It was a really interesting experience. Sharknado celebrity endorsement was Tara Reid.
Jenn: She hadn’t done anything in a while. I mean it was basically like 90210 and sharks. Flying sharks.
Mary: Which of course I loved. Exactly its great it’s wonderful. So Charlize Theron’s company also did Mind Hunter.
Jenn: Yes.
Alexxiss: That’s right.
Mary: Which is very interesting, ’cause it’s not really, there is a female lead but she’s not the lead of the show. But her character is, she’s a young college student who’s very driven, and had an idea of who she is and owns her sexuality and that’s awesome. Then chooses, spoiler alert I don’t know if anyone cares, she chooses-
Alexxiss: It’s a great show I probably want to watch it.
Mary: It’s great, it’s fantastic it’s one of the best shows on Netflix. You’ll hate it.
Alexxiss: I won’t hate it I just …
Mary: Watch Boss baby again. But she decided she wants to live her own life instead of chasing after this guy, the whole point of the show is her love interest who the show is really catered around. I know I’m making it seem like she’s the center of the show but I just thought her portrayal was interesting. But it’s very compelling and it’s the main people in it are me and it’s awesome that she was able to get into that roll too and tell that story instead of doing things like … it’s great if you’re a female production company of a female base production company and you do all these movies and shows about women but it’s almost like you have to be a female production company to get Whip It out. Which you did but it shouldn’t be that way, it should be like you won’t have a story you want to tell let’s talk about it let’s actually, let’s actually do that then.
Mary: I think something that’s really big in all of these production companies is that they do typically have female roles that are well thought out they’re not just that, that dumb secretary or …
Kelsey: Megan Fox in Transformers.
Alexxiss: Oh God. More likely to have female writers and things like that. I have some statistics that show how often when a film has one female director or for example when you have a female run production company there are a lot more likely to hire female editors, female writers, female composers, and things like that. Also, the lead that makes for more well rounded characters and more well rounded coverage of these people. So actually those statistics are on films with at least one female director they have 68, women make up 68 percent of writers and on films where there are exclusively male directors they make 8 percent of writers. So that’s a pretty significant difference.
Mary: Yeah, yeah, that’s so crazy.
Jenn: Mindy Kaling was the only writer on, female writer on The Office for a minute I believe.
Mary: Yeah I think Mindy Kaling is wonderful. Like all her stuff has been really great.
Jenn: And a lot of her stuff is has been female driven and actually even if it’s not female driven she writes women who are real. Like she writes actual ladies and stuff. Which is kind of nice. There’s also a couple other production companies that I know of, Jessica Chastain, Freckle Films.
Mary: Freckle Films.
Alexxiss: Freckle Films ahhh. That’s adorable.
Jenn: There are two films in the works for them. Zoe Saldana also has Sinistar. She runs it with I think her sister if I’m not mistaken. But I might be wrong but yeah. There are a couple of production companies that were only female like Rose Byrne, the Dollhouse, is exclusively female. Which I think a lot of people on the internet have a problem with. Which I find interesting.
Alexxiss: When you think about the amount of productions and films that are completely comprised of men but nobody thinks that that’s a problem.
Jenn: Nobody ever has an issue with it. Are they exclusively female by choice or exclusively female ’cause that’s just how it went.
Alexxiss: No I think it’s by choice.
Jenn: They will not hire men.
Kelsey: Well no so the thing is, is that with any industry you’ve got the situation where people will bring up people who remind themselves of like a younger version of their self. So like a lot of the times with these female led production companies yes, they hire more women because they are led by women. That is so important because, with a lot of companies if they’re led by men and they’re led by like a hundred percent men. It’s really hard for women to get in and then not only get in but them getting those quality roles where you have a mentor kind of situation going on. Unless you really get along well with the guy who is above you, it’s really hard to get that mentor relationship out of somebody that you don’t know very well.
Jenn: Especially because that mentor relationship, when you’re looking at it naturally, ’cause you don’t want somebody to come up to you and be like will you be my mentor? And then like have them follow you around all day. That’s not how that works, usually a mentorship happens because they’re just in the same area and you know one person is at a higher point in their career than the other and they can help them out.
Kelsey: It’s, they naturally gel.
Alexxiss: Exactly.
Jenn: That’s how it goes exactly.
Mary: And a lot of it hanging out with them like going to lunches or doing whatever, and that’s a lot, that’s still frowned upon for men and women to go and do that stuff.
Kelsey: Exactly
Jenn: People will still look at that and go oh well, are they banging I don’t know. Like no, why is that the thing you know?
Mary: Well and even to go further into that point a lot of times there are girls who think that’s the way to get into the industry and if you don’t think that’s the way to get into the industry there are men who just see that that’s probably what you’re trying to do when it’s not.
Alexxiss: Or that’s what they’re trying to do, you know what I mean, you have sometimes like men in a higher position and then they’re like oh that girl’s hot I’m going to pretend I want to be her mentor but really I’m going to try to get her drunk and get her back to my hotel room.
Kelsey: Oh those guys. Yeah that’s not wonderful.
Alexxiss: Like Louis CK, sorry I have a cold.
Kelsey: Can we-
Mary: We’ll get you some lozenges.
Kelsey: Can we talk really quick about Lean Machine and Rachel Dunst stuff so Lean Machine is like the main production company but Rachel Dunst stuff is Rachel Blooms production company that she just sort of started.
Alexxiss: She’s hysterical.
Kelsey: Crazy ex girlfriend, I love Rachel Bloom she is so funny, and so Crazy Ex Girlfriend is such a well rounded show because there are so many women on the production. So many women writers and everybody is like really
Jenn: Is it about a female lead who’s real?
Kelsey: It is.
Jenn: Like she’s very she has a song about heavy boobs. Because that’s a thing women think of.
Kelsey: Oh my God.
Jenn: All the music is so on point and great.
Kelsey: Yes, I just wanted to give some love to Crazy Ex Girlfriend because it is one of my favorites.
Alexxiss: Rachel Bloom is great and very, very funny.
Mary: Females that are funny are a thing. They exist.
Alexxiss: You have a who ha ha. Elizabeth banks does Who Ha Ha. And I believe that’s web for now. But that’s just a highlight of female comedians which is wonderful. They have things like Abuella, I almost said Abuella on Netflix is not that it’s a Abuella Alexa so it’s, if Amazon Alexa was an Abuella so it’s things like there’s a girl who asks how do you make rice, she’s like how do you not know how to make rice? That’s something an abuella would say. Okay that works.
Mary: That’s great.
Kelsey: But yeah, I think it’s very interesting that people hate on these companies so much. But I think it kind of just shows where we’re at. I think most production companies that are run by people who aren’t crazy really aren’t worried. Because they want good content they don’t really … I think it’s important to see that. Most actual production companies do want, I think Wonder Woman proved that pretty well. Women want to go see these. We want to be represented and seen and we want to see storylines about us and I think that’s kind of important.
Alexxiss: According to the motion picture the MPAA I can’t remember the letters right now but the point is that according to them women make up 52 percent of movie going audiences but very often make up a very low percentage of the people making the films and so seeing things like women who you can relate to more or feel empowered or inspired by when they see themselves doing something like kicking ass like wonder woman instead of being the girl that’s just kind of there as a prop for a male dominated story line. At the end of the day production companies want to make money and that stuff makes money.
Kelsey: That’s true.
Mary: You know who goes to movies multiple times? Ladies do. Guys do too, but I mean do you want me to go multiple times to a movie? Show me somebody who I find interesting. Who I can relate to.
Kelsey: Or show me someone yeah that I can relate to, I don’t think it’s always about Wonder Woman’s awesome and kick ass, that’s awesome but it’s about relating to these women that are normal women. You talk about heavy boobs and stuff that women go through and have to deal with.
Alexxiss: Representation matters an especially when you have younger girls who are seeing women in movies not be props. Or not just be, oh I’m cute, and that’s what matters, seeing more for example with A Wrinkle in Time, seeing a girl that’s about their age that’s really into science and can compute like physics related stuff at the drop of a dime. Things like that will potentially make girls, like especially young girls, Oh well maybe I could do this or maybe this is the image that I want to create of myself.
Jenn: Well yeah, and you can be a super nerd and like science and you can be not a super nerd and still like science that’s totally fine, and that’s not really something I feel we grew up with at least. That was one of those either you like science and you love science and all you do is science or you don’t and you probably wear make up. But there are so many people who are now we’re seeing who are successful scientists who wear makeup and look cute and do stuff. You can be both it’s not an if/or kind of situation I fell like that was yeah.
Emily: I love that that you can wear your heels and your lab coat. But don’t wear your heels in the lab because that’s dangerous.
Jenn: Or on set.
Emily: Or on set.
Mary: So our next segment is things we hate. Which we brought up the GhostBusters remake, gender bending remakes is apparently something we hate. Or at least some of us do.
Kelsey: Yeah I don’t agree but that’s-
Jenn: I really liked GhostBusters.
Alexxiss: I thought it was funny as hell.
Jenn: But I also looked at it as not … I was able to take it away from its original films and be like this is a separate thing this is a different thing. This is completely different and separate.
Emily: It got so much hate.
Jenn: I think if you take it as a separate thing it’s like so cool. So cool.
Emily: Yeah but it’s not a separate thing. It’s the GhostBusters remake. And I get what you’re saying and I think that’s accurate had it not been tied to Ghostbusters maybe it wouldn’t have felt … I chuckled I thought it was funny I definitely laughed but in my eyes they were like we need to remake GhostBusters. Oh we should do an all female cast and everyone will love it it’s all girls and it felt like checkboxes instead of them trying to just do a female cast.
Jenn: I feel like a lot of these things, they are doing a lot of gender bending it’s kind of a thing right now. It’s like all these gender bending remakes and it’s kind of like just make a new movie. But because they can’t write women that are good they just figure they can just take male roles and gender bend them and make them good.
Emily: All these women production companies-
Jenn: It’s less of a Oh no don’t make a movie with all women it’s more just make more movies. I’m tired of remakes in the first place it’s just, I don’t want to see a remake with all women this time, let’s just make a new movie with women, don’t remake an old one.
Emily: I think that there is a good thing about these remakes is that it does flip the script so when you see something like a secretary who can’t do anything and all guys get pissed off about it they’re like Oh my God, that secretary was so dumb why would they have this character there. I’m like that’s what I’ve been saying for years about all the female secretaries.
Jenn: I love that part of the movie. I felt like it was such a great representation of like all of the things we’ve been dealing with.
Emily: Oh are you frustrated by that? Yeah that’s frustrating to see the only man in a movie who’s the dumbest man on earth. Yeah that’s … I totally get you I feel you. I get it it sucks.
Jenn: Oh but at least you’re pretty.
Emily: Exactly.
Mary: Oh my God.
Kelsey: Like it had it’s problems and I saw it along time ago in the theaters and I haven’t rewatched it since, so it’s not one of my favorite movies and I’m not claiming die hard fandom over it, I’m just saying-
Jenn: It’s the best movie ever.
Kelsey: I feel like it got a lot of hate and I feel like the hate was all unnecessary.
Alexxiss: It’s like Nickelback.
Kelsey: To me it didn’t feel like a remake and I thought the girls were funny and believable and relatable like I loved Kate McKinnon’s…
Mary: Oh she’s adorable.
Kelsey: She’s so funny and she was so cool and-
Alexxiss: She’s fabulous with her comedy and I respect that.
Kelsey: I love her to death.
Jenn: And I loved what happened with those characters and those people after the movie. Because I think it was really cool seeing little girls dressing up as GhostBusters. Where like when Ghostbusters came out when I was a kid it would not have been a thing that I could do.
Kelsey: You couldn’t genderbend a character.
Jenn: I’m sure my mom would have bought me a GhostBuster outfit if I really wanted one but I would never have had the guts to be like I want to be a GhostBuster for Halloween. I was just like be a princess because I don’t want to be made fun of at school. You know like … but now these girls are like actually wearing it, they’re seeing somebody there and I think that is important. Especially when you’re looking at stuff that’s A. comedy and B. a little more sci fi ish. I think that’s kind of important because those are two things that a lot of people think women can’t do.
Kelsey: That’s what I like about what Star Wars is doing. It’s all female leads right now. The story, a lot of the main characters that you’re seeing in BattleFront 2 it’s a female lead. Of color and then you have Rae. You have Jyn Erso. She was-
Jenn: She had no character. I’m a rebel but I’m going to do everything right. Okay. So you have the Star Wars is taken Disney or Disney has taken Star Wars and has tried to cater more to that. And to try to get these little girls more into this, you know I always was but you know. I’m a nerd.
Mary: I think they are seeing their market because there are a lot of women who were into Star Wars.
Emily: I mean there is so many women into sci fi and they really do need to start catering to that market and-
Mary: And not as the hot alien that shows up and has sex with the lead. Not that Rae at all. So some of the other gender bending remakes that they’re coming out with. Oceans 8 which-
Kelsey: I’m kind of okay with that one because [crosstalk 00:25:57].
Jenn: I’m excited about that one. They’re going to do that right. They’re going to write those women correctly.
Mary: Because I also think that she’s not, it’s not really a remake I think they said something about in the family so she’s like his sister or something so it’s not really a –
Jenn: There are a lot of those happening.
Mary: So it’s like, I’m kind of okay with that.
Emily: I mean the Ocean’s movies there are just so many of them and they’re all like so good.
Mary: They’re all great.
Emily: [crosstalk 00:26:18] Yeah. I mean they’re all just really cool.
Mary: Everyone loves a heist. If it was Ocean’s 11 remake then it’d be different but because it’s an add on I’m cool with it. I’m okay.
Alexxiss: It’s cool.
Mary: And they did have females that were heisting in Ocean’s 11 franchise like Matt Damon’s character’s mom.
Kelsey: Yeah there was women doing that.
Mary: Not a lot of them but they were there. That’s helpful I think that’s important. So for our last segment we’re going to talk about recommendations. And this week’s recommendation is Black Panther. Thoughts? It’s amazing.
Alexxiss: I went to go see it again last night.
Mary: Yeah?
Alexxiss: Yeah, I probably go at least one more time in theaters.
Mary: All those ladies that is different is so wonderful. So many different characters that you can like. If you’re not the smart girl that’s okay you can be the other girl. You can be the bad ass girl.
Jenn: [crosstalk 00:27:13]
Mary: Yeah exactly.
Alexxiss: You have women that are warriors, you have women that are scientists, you have all these different roles that women are playing and it’s kind of like you were saying being able to-
Mary: It’s like women can do all of those things and have different personalities.
Alexxiss: And they’re not just like the hot alien that shows up … I mean there’s not an alien film but because it’s Marvel it’s still has a bit of a fantasy-
Mary: They’re not mutants.
Alexxiss: They’re not there … just the hot one that pops up in and has sex with somebody.
Mary: I’ve really enjoyed Black Panther-
Alexxiss: They’re really doing things.
Mary: For that very reason there were so many varied female characters. They weren’t just all warriors or all one thing or all the other. They were All different because they’re people at the end of the day.
Kelsey: Right and you have things like-
Mary: Your female character is a character. It’s the same as any other character-
Alexxiss: She’s a person.
Mary: She’s a person.
Kelsey: You have characters like the women in Black Panther and some of these stronger female leads that are giving us.
Mary: There’s a trend right now going around of several T shirts and hats and all of this stuff and I hate it. It’s my least favorite thing I’ve ever seen in the entire world. It’s a trend where it’s like a T shirt and written across my tits are girls can do anything. The fuck I know I can do anything I don’t need a T shirt to tell me that I can do anything. I need to see these positive role models that are starting to be out there that prove that they can do it maybe I can do it. Of course I can. Because I’m a person.
Kelsey: And that doesn’t mean taking away all the sexy roles, because I think that some women want to be sexy roles.
Mary: Sexy comic go for it. And that’s fine and I’ll support that. If you want your tits out let them out but don’t let them out because someone told you to.
Jenn: Someone told you to.
Alexxiss: Or because that’s the only thing you’re there for.
Mary: If you’re going to have your tits out I want you to be able to do a math problem or something.
Emily: I want you to do a math problem.
Alexxiss: Oh my God, all sex scenes from now on there’s going to be math involved. Do the math.
Mary: I feel like Black Panther was one of the first … there’s been a lot of Marvel films, I could technically be wrong about this but I guess Peggy from Captain America is that her name Peggy, she’s okay too. But Black Panther had like out of the Marvel films the bad ass women. It wasn’t Aunt May was the hot Aunt May, and all these girls-
Jenn: Yeah the hot Aunt May.
Mary: Like Gwyneth Paltrow still got captured a bunch it’s just, I don’t know, the first of the Marvel films to be like no, you’re equal. You’re not just the assistant.
Jenn: I loved that she kept turning him down. Spoilers. She keeps turning him down. I love that though. Because that’s real. That’s realistic. No I’m not going to settle down with you ’cause I got shit to do. I was like totally get that. I like you automatically.
Mary: That’s the thing, how many women get captured in this film. I don’t want to see it.
Jenn: Oh my God they should make a website the does the dog die.
Mary: Yeah that’s a very important website.
Jenn: Does the dog die, does the girl get captured? Fuck that movie. Not going to watch it.
Kelsey: Or none of them say I don’t know what to do.
Mary: What is that the test … do women in the movie talk to each other about something other than men.
Alexxiss: About men.
Mary: What is that?
Alexxiss: What is it called?
Jenn: Bechdel test.
Mary: Yes, is there more than one woman on screen at one time and are they talking to each other and are they talking about men. Or something related to a men.
Kelsey: They have to be talking about something else.
Mary: It’s insane how many movies actually fail that test. There’s never a girl talking about anything other than Rob said this.
Alexxiss: Or all kinds of statistics show that women talk way less in films than men just across the board. And when they are talking they’re talking about men.
Mary: Or like their period cramps. Can we not get a little more elaborate in the writers room here.
Jenn: To be honest in real like how often do you talk about your period cramps, [crosstalk 00:31:21].
Mary: Sometimes more if everybody in the office isn’t synced up.
Jenn: Great, now everyone knows so much about us yeah.
Mary: Once a month. So a quick Google has shown the Black Panther did pass three out of three for the Bechdel test.
Jenn: Nice.
Mary: So it has at least two named women in it. And second test is they talk to each other and three about something besides a man.
Jenn: Nice.
Emily: Yay. I enjoyed that.
Mary: So Black Panther go watch it. Real good movie.
Emily: So good.
Mary: Absolutely fabulous. And their textiles are so good. Oh my God.
Kelsey: I feel like it was just great that they had so many women. Even behind the scenes. Not just in front of the camera. The credits were really inspiring.
Mary: Watching the credits for somebody coming out is very, very inspiring. Being someone who is behind the camera and helping out with that is very nice. I did the same thing for Wonder Woman I was like Oh my God there’s so many girl names up there.
Alexxiss: And then have Rachel Morrison DP that. Because very often having a woman at the helm of the camera and lighting department on a big action film like that. An expensive high budget action film that’s a really big deal. That’s not a thing that happens very often.
Jenn: What women don’t DP. You know the cameras are too heavy. Can’t have a woman do that.
Alexxiss: Plus their boobs get in the way of the camera equipment.
Kelsey: Oh well.
Mary: Sometimes though. I’m just saying your camera equipment gets in the way of my boobs.
Alexxiss: Exactly. That’s a better way to say that.
Mary: ‘Cause if we had stuff that came across your waist you wouldn’t have it in peoples balls way. And you wouldn’t say Oh their balls get in the way of that so they can’t do it. You would say oh let’s make it different so it can fit. That’s how that would work if it was guys. Your equipment gets in the way of my boobs. Done.
Announcer: Thanks for listening to Rack Focused be sure to subscribe, rate, and review us on iTunes, Stitcher or wherever you listen to podcasts. Rack focused is brought to you by ECG productions. Our intro is the Pink Everland Sky by Ladyland. Special thanks to our producer Joe Dicosola and our editor Kelsey Merriam. Follow us on Instagram at Rack Focused podcast. You can find our show notes at ECGprod.com/blog/rackfocused1.
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