Freakonomics Radio
Does Hollywood Still Have a Princess Problem?
For decades, there’s been a huge gender disparity both on-screen and behind the scenes. But it seems like cold, hard data — with an assist from the actor Geena Davis — may finally be moving the needle.
In 1991, the actress Geena Davis starred in a movie that made her superfamous: Thelma and Louise. She played a timid housewife who goes road-tripping with her not-at-all timid friend, played by Susan Sarandon. As Hollywood films go, it was a huge outlier: two female leads, a female screenwriter, and the kind of raucous, thorny story that is usually reserved for men. Also, a wild gut-punch of an ending.
Making Thelma and Louise changed Geena Davis from the very beginning. She and Sarandon were asked to attend a meeting with Ridley Scott, the film’s director, to give feedback on the screenplay. Davis, who by that point had already won an Oscar for best supporting actress, had a few minor suggestions. She planned to offer those suggestions, she says, in “the most girly possible way,” by making jokes and perhaps even convincing Scott the ideas were his. But at the meeting, Sarandon took a different route: She sat down and immediately suggested cutting a line…
