the watch of time

Minefields – the obstacle course:

(a) “There is a compartmentalized rejection, and it has to do with gender, and it has to do with age, and it has to do with ethnicity.  It’s very subtle, and it’s very unintended. Well-meaning people have a bias that they often aren’t aware of, because they won’t permit themselves to be aware of the bias. No one’s ever gonna fess up to it, and I wouldn’t expect them to.”

(b) “According to our film culture, you’d think everybody’s wife was between twenty-two and thirty-five, and they were all incredibly beautiful, and they never struggle with any of the things that people struggle with.  And then they disappeared for some reason – they were sent off to some kind of boot camp – and they became perfect grandmothers.  This is garbage…  all those touched-up pictures are touched-up pictures…  women need to know that.  Real people need to be in movies, and when they show up, people respond.  They respond in droves.  But for some reason, the fantasy makers don’t want much of that to happen.”

(c) “They say ageism exits in Hollywood, but I haven’t experienced it, because I’m eternally youthful.  If you’re excited about what you’re doing, if you have fresh ideas, I personally don’t think age matters.  If the script’s good, who cares who wrote it?  When you go in for assignments, that’s a different story… But for spec scripts, the material speaks for itself.”

Excerpted quotes from (a) Linda Voorhees & (b) Naomi Foner & (c) Larry Cohen                                                    Tales from the Script (2010)