Not even television's biggest actresses are immune from experiencing sexism in Hollywood. For The Hollywood Reporter's latest roundtable, Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Elisabeth Moss, Jessica Lange and Christy Metz discuss what it's really like being a woman in show business. The results may surprise (and, at times, disappoint) you.
Jessica Lange, on how the premise of Feud is not too far from real life: "I don't think we've ever seen this much misogyny, this much sexism, and I think the fact that we have this story that is set in a particular period, but obviously Hollywood in the 1960s, is just a microcosm of the greater atmosphere that we are all living through now."
Reese Witherspoon, on battling sexism by creating a production company: "I started a production company five years ago because I was looking at maybe the worst script I've ever read in my entire life and it had two parts for women. I called my agents and said, 'This is such a terrible script.' They said, 'Well, seven women want it so … you're the only one who's not vying for the part.' And I thought, "God, if this is what we've come to, I have to get busy." Because you can either complain about a problem or you can be part of the solution.
Nicole Kidman, on the struggle of balancing motherhood and work: "[Being] a woman and having children, there are so many things I would want to do, but so much of my life is, how do I balance that? If I had my fantasy life, there are so many roles and places and things I'd want to do. I'm now at a point where I have to go, "What is that going to cost me? And what is that going to cost the people I love? Do I want to leave now to do this?' Men have that, but they don't have it in the same way that we have it."
Witherspoon, on the double standard between acting moms and acting dads: "I was talking to this very famous actor and I said, 'How did you prepare for this role?' He said, 'Well, I went into the woods for three weeks and I didn't talk to anybody.' And this person has a lot of kids and is married. And he's like, 'You did the same thing for Wild, right?' I was like, 'Uh, no.' If I went away for three weeks and no one could call me, everybody would've had a mental breakdown. I got on a plane and was shooting within 24 hours. I wish I had prep time."
Christy Metz, on being discriminated for her weight: "I've had people give me all kinds of looks on airplanes when they know that I'm going to be coming to sit by them. Even to this day. [...] It's [that kind of] discrimination because it's such a visual issue."
Oprah, on the struggle of portraying stories of sexual assault victims onscreen: "I keep trying to share with the world what it means not just to be sexually violated but what it means to have someone who is a predator in your own space and to be preyed upon. Just as Reese was saying, we're all about sharing the story that is going to raise consciousness on any level."
Read the riveting conversation in full at THR.
