Jodie Foster Thinks Hollywood Is Afraid Of Women, Taking Risks On Anything Other Than Superhero Flicks

Jodie Foster has been in and around Hollywood long enough that she doesn’t have a problem being rather blunt in her assessment of the culture there. The Money Monster director has been making the rounds promoting her new film and has answered some questions during the press tour that have taken a deeper dive than a simple behind-the-scenes look at her new flick. Jodie Foster recently talked about the role of women in the industry while also commenting about how Hollywood’s fixation with big-budget blockbusters could end up causing irreparable damage.

Foster most recently talked to Variety during the Cannes film festival and first touched on the movie industry’s fixation on big-budget tent-poles. Foster believes this obsession is holding Hollywood back, especially when it comes to making movies by and for women. Foster said she has seen a trend where stories such as romantic comedies and mid-budget dramas are finding a home on television more often than they used to be. Instead, the movie business is dedicating all of its time on making as many superhero films as possible.

Jodie Foster slams male filmmakers for relying on rape as a motivational device for females https://t.co/u90euaYmOi pic.twitter.com/RHxKqKe70V

— People (@people) May 12, 2016

Special effects-driven flicks are the name of the game (as witnessed by this summer’s slate), and Jodie Foster believes the way the production companies are laying out cash in this regard is “kind of like a casino bet.” Jodie Foster added she believes it’s a dangerous bet. The famed director and actor went on to explain the massive costs of these blockbusters mean the studios are less inclined to take other kinds of risks, especially on new directorial voices. In that regard, Foster believes the industry is in the most risk-averse period she can remember in its history.

While the Oscar winner struck a negative tone on the business in general, Yahoo News reports she did admit there were some very positive changes since she first got started as an actor. When she was starring in films like Taxi Driver, Foster points out the only women on set were either serving food, picking out wardrobes, or applying makeup. While she has managed to make a name for herself as a director, Jodie Foster believes growing up in Hollywood gave her an opportunity other women in the industry cannot take advantage.

This fear of female directors appears to come from a complete and total lack of understanding women in general, according to Foster. This is underlined with the trope that for the main character who is a woman to get past her problems, she must rely on an inner strength that is gained from overcoming the trauma of rape. The same trope, Jodie Foster said, arises when this fictional woman is suffering from an assortment of emotional demons or having problems with her boss.

“It was ridiculous, it was every single movie I saw. If you really got to what was the overriding motivation that that woman that you found out at the end, it was always rape because for some reason men saw that as this incredibly dramatic thing. ‘Well that’s easy! I can just pluck that one out of the sky and apply it to her,'” Foster said during interviews at Cannes, according to People Magazine.

Jodie Foster believes Hollywood’s lack of understanding, as well as the lack of interest in compelling characters, has kept “rape as a motivator” alive too long. Foster also points to a lack of interest in creating a “complex merging” with female characters. Jodie Foster says male writers and directors are unable to put themselves in the shoes of a female lead character and think “she was competitive with her mother” and that’s why she is the way she is. Until this changes, Jodie Foster doesn’t see large positive changes coming in Hollywood in regards to the population of female directors.

[Photo by Tristan Fewings/Getty Images]