It’s the Tuesday after the Oscars, and director Martha Coolidge and I are discussing the status of women directors in the film industry. Though it’s not unusual to read articles about the lack of interesting roles for actresses as they get older, little mention is made about female directors. Do they face a similar situation?
“Yes,” says Coolidge simply, adding, “but you’re not going to hear women directors talking about it, ‘cause the last thing they want to talk about is whether they’re old.” She points out that last year was better than most for women directors, due to the success of Sofia Coppola’s “Lost in Translation,” Patty Jenkins’ “Monster,” and Catherine Hardwick’s “Thirteen” (and Coolidge herself, in Seattle promoting her latest film, “The Prince & Me”), then offers up a bit of insight into the inner workings of the entertainment industry.
“Directing has always been a young man’s occupation,” she says. “Though there was a time when experience was more respected, it was always more a young man’s occupation than an old man’s. And there is a tremendous problem with ageism across the board. We have great, experienced, wonderful crews in this country who are simply not working, having been displaced by young people who are not as experienced but are just willing to do more for less, and consequently don’t give producers as much of a hard time.”
But wouldn’t that perhaps benefit young women also willing to work for less? Not necessarily, says Coolidge. “It’s been much harder the last few years for a woman to get work, period,” she says. “Any woman. The statistics are appalling. And the reason is because it’s been so difficult for male directors to get work. The industry’s been shrinking, the economy was shrinking, and so much production was going overseas, what you’re seeing is fewer directors being hired. And that includes the ‘A’ directors. So as everything bumps down; you see the ‘A’ movie directors doing television, bumping out television directors and then bumping out a whole bunch of feature directors. And so your fringe and “questionable” people—and when I say questionable, I mean ethnic directors, women directors, people that it’s harder for them to get jobs anyway—these are all the people you see, in the end, falling by the wayside.”
So says the first woman president of the Directors Guild of America. As for Coolidge’s own work, films like “Valley Girl,” “Rambling Rose” and “Introducing Dorothy Dandridge” may vary in their subject matter, but they’re all character-driven pieces that display great warmth and empathy for those characters (yes, even “Valley Girl”). The same could easily be said of “The Prince & Me,” which, while probably on the light side for most Tablet readers, is thankfully not another dumb teen sex comedy with a neatly wrapped-up ending.
“I just fell in love with the project and what it could be,” says Coolidge of the film. “It was the first script that struck me the way ‘Valley Girl’ struck me; a fun movie that had room for depth, that could deal with some real issues and yet provide a really great time at the movies. That’s what I like, human stories.”
This story casts Julia Stiles (a favorite of mine since her awesome turn in “The Business of Strangers”—rent it!) as Paige Morgan, an ambitious college student whose studious exterior is finally shattered by the arrival of “foreign exchange student” Eddie (Luke Mably), who seemingly views classes as the least essential way to spend one’s time at a university. Little does Paige know that Eddie’s really Edvard—Prince Edvard, that is, from quaint little Denmark, who’s come to the States in order to mingle with “ordinary people” at ground level. And by the time his secret’s let out, the two are, you’ve guessed it, in love. So what’s a girl to do? Follow her dream to become a doctor? Or “marry up” spectacularly and become a princess?
The film’s biggest strength is its sweet depiction of first love. “To me, first love is not about gratuitous sex,” says Coolidge. “In fact, first love is exactly the opposite of gratuitous sex, because there is a restraint in love. There’s something about wanting and not getting. It’s the longing that makes love, and first love, hot. It’s waiting for the first touch, the first kiss, the first time the flirting turns to some recognition that it’s answered. These are the things that put the tingle up and down your spine. That’s what I think is the most fun in this movie.”
Agreed. But there’s still time in our interview to cover some other ground, such as the fact that they not only have “seat sitters” at the Oscars to fill those empty seats when someone gets up, but they also move you around to suit the camera’s needs. “When Diane Ladd and Laura Dern were nominated (for Best Supporting Actress and Best Actress, respectively, in “Rambling Rose”), I didn’t have a seat in the front,” Coolidge says. “But for the announcement of their divisions, they wanted me up front with them, so I switched seats with their dates. That was nice, but then I had to switch back again! Twice.” Only in Hollywood.
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