05/09/2018
Overcoming stereotypes
by Paola Calamita
Actresses Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Bel Powley and Alison Sudol took to the stage for the third and last talk in this year's Miu Miu Women's Tales series. They mostly looked at the role of women in cinema today, and the changes that are slowly taking place.
Bel Powley, best known for her starring role in The Diary of a Teenage Girl, thinks the film industry still has a long way to go. Why? Despite receiving many offers to act in films written by women, the characters in those scripts are mostly two-dimensional. "It's as if women are relegated to mental categories that are stereotyped. There's the sexy woman, the weeping woman, the schemer."
Alison Sudol (Transparent and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them) replied by saying that it's complicated to be a woman in a position of power; we have to get used to accepting this role, and so, first of all, we need to flip the mindset we've become accustomed to out of laziness.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw, known for her roles in Belle and Beyond the Lights, has noticed that that actresses now share a sense of cohesion and unity that was missing before, and that many of her female colleagues are taking the big step behind the camera, perhaps because they have more faith in their own abilities and career opportunities.
Lastly, all three actresses agreed on the importance of working with directors who can help them better understand and portray the characters they play. "The key word is collaboration," Gugu Mbatha-Raw declared. "Asserting yourself without bruising the director's ego. Working together to get better and better. It's a question of building your own career. You don't need to ask permission all the time, considering that sometimes being polite hinders us from finding our own way."
