gowns and deception – both Drizella and Queen Mary Stuart are strong, complicated women who stand up for themselves. But playing characters that inhibit those qualities wasn’t necessarily. an active decision on Adelaide’s part. “Yes, [it was conscious] n the sense that most actresses want to play strong female characters, and no in the sense that you only have so much control over the jobs that you do,” she says, “You’ve got to be offered the job in the first place before you can decide to take it.” She notes that unless you’re at the fame caliber of someone like Jennifer Lawrence of Emma Stone who have their pick at scripts, you’re likely only getting one job offer out of 100 attempts. “You take what comes up unless you have any strong objections to the character or the storyline,” Adelaide says, “I think I’ve been quite, I suppose, lucky, in that I’ve had the opportunity to play strong women in the last six years, and I think part of it also comes down to your style as an actress and where your strengths are, and I’m pretty blunt – as a brick to the forehead, as my mum would say.” When the topic of conversation switches to the recent wave of powerful men in Hollywood being accused of sexual assault and harassment, Adelaide doesn’t hold back. “I’m ecstatic that it’s all coming out, and I think I speak for the majority of women when I say there have been times when I haven’t felt safe both in a public sphere or private sphere or a professional sphere, and I’m just really happy,” she says. She admits she hasn’t personally seen a lot with her own two eyes (and that 46
is a testament to the work environments of her projects), but like everyone, has a lot of friends who have experienced sexually harassment both personally and professionally. She’s been intensely aware of the culture that Hollywood had been breeding for decades since she moved to Los Angeles nearly a decade ago. “It’s unacceptable, in any and all of its forms, that kind of abuse of power. And it’s been going on in every profession under the sun. I think it’s probably more prevalent and rampant in the entertainment industry because you have a lot of good looking, charismatic people, there’s a lot of money involved, there’s a lot of risk involved, and it’s a very difficult industry to get a toe-hole in and to work in,” Adelaide says. She credits the superficial nature of the entertainment industry as a big factor in the environment that exists within it. “Now that women can have it all, we’re not only expected to have it all, but to be it all,” Adelaide remarks, “It’s reductive for a woman’s personhood to expect them to be everything instead of just being human, and I think that fosters a lot of insecurity.” Like most women, Adelaide is fully aware that this kind of behavior has been going on for years, and feels frustrated that it took a massive media exposé for people to take it seriously. She’s extremely happy that the conversation is finally happening, but believes it shouldn’t have taken this long. “A lot of people know or knew about more than they’re saying they did,” Adelaide states, “I’m going to get in trouble for having this conversation but it
doesn’t matter. I was warned about having lunch with Harvey Weinstein when I moved to L.A. A lot of people have known about a lot of this business for a very, very long time and have said nothing. And now that there’s this big media shit storm, people are being held accountable for their actions and it’s a crying shame that no one was held accountable beforehand.” She finds it appalling that it took the world finding out about their secrets for the entertainment industry to make any sort of changes and choose to support women and believe women – and to support men who have come forward as victims of abuse as well. “It’s very frustrating. I’m glad that it’s happening, I just wish we could have had this conversation 50 years ago. But it was a different world then, and it makes me very excited for the future of the industry that it can become a safe space for everybody.” As for Adelaide’s future in the industry, she plans to stay in front of the camera for the foreseeable future, but isn’t opposed to stepping behind the scenes as well. She has goals of directing later in life, and recently produced a film called Acquainted with some friends that she hopes will do the festival circuit this year. Looking at the year ahead, Adelaide will finish filming Once Upon a Time this month and get back to Los Angeles just in time for another pilot season. “I’m excited to jump into auditioning next year and see what pops up,” she says, “We all have good years and bad years, and I feel like maybe the universe is holding a project for me and it just isn’t the right time yet.” NKD