Reese Witherspoon slams Hollywood for sexism

Actor-producer Reese Witherspoon slammed sexism prevalent in Hollywood, saying big studios are uninterested in making films with 'female-driven material'.


The 41-year-old actor said she had a tough time finding a distributor for her film 'Gone Girl' initially, but things smoothened after the book became a bestseller. "I've also had studio heads say to me, 'We don't want to make biopics about women,' or more simply, 'We're not interested in female-driven material'."

"My first go-round as a producer with 'Gone Girl'? Every studio passed but one. When the book hit number one on the best seller lists, it was a different story," Witherspoon said. The 'Big Little Lies' actor recalled a conversation she had with Mindy Kaling on racism in the industry.

"Another thing I think about a lot is how it feels to be a minority woman in America, so rarely seeing yourself onscreen, and it's unconscionable. When I asked Mindy Kaling, 'Don't you ever get exhausted by always having to create your own roles?' she said, 'Reese, I've never had anything that I didn't create for myself.'"

"I thought, Wow, I feel like a jerk for asking that; I used to have parts that just showed up for me. I can't imagine how hard it is to write your own parts and simultaneously have to change people's perceptions of what a woman of colour is in today's society," she said.

Actors such as Jeesica Chastain, Scarlett Johansson, Mila Kunis and Emma Watson, among others have recently spoken up about facing sexism in Hollywood.



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