1/14/2019
The Pool - News & Views - Last Night, Frances McDormand Lit The Way For Real Change In Hollywood
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Last night, Frances McDormand lit the way for real change in Hollywood 4
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On a night when there was evident friction between symbolic gestures and legitimate action, the Three Billboards star demonstrated why the latter is essential, says Rachael Sigee By Rachael Sigee
Yesterday, not that many people knew what an “inclusion rider” was. Last week, Frances McDormand didn’t even know what it was. Yet those are the two words she chose to end her spectacular Oscar-winning speech last night. And, while her decision to implore all the female nominees in the room to stand up at once was both a poignant moment celebrating women and a stark visual reminder of how few of them were actually being honoured, it was her order to producers to invest in women’s projects and those final two words, which baffled many watching, that moved her speech from supporting a worthy cause to trying to enact real change. Because asking for an inclusion rider means actors requesting a clause in their contracts to ensure that projects they work on meet certain levels of https://www.the-pool.com/news-views/latest-news/2018/10/Rachael-Sigee-on-2018-Oscars-Frances-McDormand
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The Pool - News & Views - Last Night, Frances McDormand Lit The Way For Real Change In Hollywood
diversity for cast and crew. So, in advocating for this, McDormand progressed the conversation about equality of representation from pin badges and platitudes to actually altering the miserable statistics on diversity on film sets. Inclusion riders could legitimately be used to demand equal pay and inclusive, intersectional hiring. They are a way in which powerful people – perhaps powerful, white, male actors – could actually be allies to women, people of colour and other underrepresented and underpaid groups, actually helping to fix the problem. As McDormand added in her backstage press conference: “The whole idea of women trending? No. No trending. African-Americans trending? No. No trending. It changes now.” Because for all the good intentions of this Oscars ceremony – the internetpleasing female presenting duos, and the spotlight being given to Ashley Judd, Annabella Sciorra and Salma Hayek – it starts to look superficial when the script remains largely the same. On a night when there was evident friction between symbolic gestures and legitimate action, McDormand demonstrated why the former has a place – but the latter is essential. At the end of a politically charged awards season, consisting of Time’s Up lapel pins and dress-code protests – which many questioned in terms of their value and whether this kind of activism is merely performative – the 2018 Oscars perfectly highlighted the dichotomy between empty gestures and tangible action.
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It is flimsy and tenuous for the Academy to laud its own enlightened outlook on diversity when only one non-acting category had 50:50 gender representation
The Academy wanted us to know that they get it. That they are the kind of industry body that rewards Jordan Peele for writing Get Out, encourages their (male) host to address the Weinstein scandal and invites activists on https://www.the-pool.com/news-views/latest-news/2018/10/Rachael-Sigee-on-2018-Oscars-Frances-McDormand
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The Pool - News & Views - Last Night, Frances McDormand Lit The Way For Real Change In Hollywood
stage. They even created a celebratory diversity montage to show how woke they are. But, however much they purport to demonstrate progress, it is entirely undermined by the decision to hand awards to alleged rapist
Kobe Bryant and alleged domestic-abuser Gary Oldman. It is flimsy and tenuous for the Academy to laud its own enlightened outlook on diversity when only one non-acting category had 50:50 gender representation (costume design). And it is weak to imply evolution while trying to convince us that the most inspiring performance by an actor was one portraying Winston Churchill, in a year when Daniel Kaluuya and Timothée Chalamet were nominated. Having Greta Gerwig there as only the fifth woman ever nominated for direction, Rachel Morrison the first for cinematography and Dee Rees the first black woman nominated for adapted screenplay is merely a light smattering of progress. The Academy tried to create iconic moments, from replacing Casey Affleck as a presenter with Jennifer Lawrence and Jodie Foster to staging a performance of nominated song Stand Up For Something with 10 prominent activists – including Janet Mock and #MeToo founder Tarana Burke – on stage. But the true moments of radicalism came again from women taking risks and going off-script. Both Sandra Bullock and Emma Stone followed Natalie Portman’s lead when presenting categories, respectively announcing “here are the four men and one trailblazing woman” in the cinematography category and “these four men and Greta Gerwig” in the directing category. Watching Greta Gerwig and Laura Dern walk out on stage, hand in hand, present an award and Dern turn to Gerwig to say “Congratulations, buddy” into the microphone was infinitely more heartwarming than a glossy, pre-packaged montage. While men gave romantic speeches on the magic of cinema and the nostalgia of their childhoods, it was the women who used their time on stage to highlight issues – like Coco’s Kristen Anderson-Lopez, who won, with her husband, Best Original Song and talked about the category nearing gender parity. Or McDormand choosing, in her press conference, to discuss the $21m Time’s Up legal defense fund and the Anita Hill antisexual-harassment commission. https://www.the-pool.com/news-views/latest-news/2018/10/Rachael-Sigee-on-2018-Oscars-Frances-McDormand
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The Pool - News & Views - Last Night, Frances McDormand Lit The Way For Real Change In Hollywood
The mere illusion of representation isn’t enough any more, especially when we have the receipts in front of us in the form of Kobe Bryant being cheered for his win in the #MeToo era. It is the equivalent of the famous actor standing on the red carpet, proudly wearing that Time’s Up lapel pin, but refusing to open his wallet – or his mouth – to effect change.
@littlewondering
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OR SIGN UP WITH FACEBOOK Frances McDormand and Gary Oldman (Photos: Rex Features)
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